Radeon HD 7970M vs Radeon R9 390X

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon HD 7970M and Radeon R9 390X, there are a couple of things to consider. Cards with more VRAM in general perform better and allow you to play on higher graphics settings. Size also makes a difference. A model with a large heatsink can occupy up to three expansion slots on a motherboard. Be sure you have enough room in your PC case. When comparing GPUs with different architectures, more processing cores and even higher TFLOPS will not always translate to better performance. To help you decide which GPU you need, we have measured frame rates in a number of popular games. For more on how the Radeon HD 7970M stacks up against Radeon R9 390X, check out specs charts below.

Radeon HD 7970M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 7970M is only used in laptop graphics. It has lower GPU clock speed compared to the desktop variant, which results in lower power consumption, but also 10-30% lower gaming performance. Check available laptop models with Radeon HD 7970M here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 7970M Radeon R9 390X
Power consumption (TDP) 100 Watt 275 Watt
Interface MXM-B (3.0) PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors None 1 x 6-pin, 1 x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB
Display Connectors No outputs 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
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  • Radeon R9 390X has 175% more power consumption, than Radeon HD 7970M.
  • Radeon HD 7970M is connected by MXM-B (3.0), and Radeon R9 390X uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon HD 7970M is used in Laptops, and Radeon R9 390X - in Desktops.
  • Radeon HD 7970M and Radeon R9 390X are build with GCN architecture.
  • Radeon HD 7970M and Radeon R9 390X are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7970M is 3750 MHz higher, than Radeon R9 390X.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 18−20 50−55
ultra / 1080p 10−12 30−35
QHD / 1440p 5−6 24−27
4K / 2160p 4−5 14−16
low / 720p 35−40 75−80
medium / 1080p 21−24 55−60
The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 390X in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 168% more, than Radeon HD 7970M.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 7970M Radeon R9 390X
Architecture GCN GCN
Code name Wimbledon XT Grenada XT
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 1 May 2012 16 June 2015
Pipelines 1280 2816
Core clock speed 850 MHz
Boost Clock 1050 MHz
Transistor count 2,800 million 6,200 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 68.00 184.8
Floating-point performance 2,176 gflops 5,914 gflops
Length 275 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 512 Bit
Memory clock speed 4800 MHz 1050 MHz
Memory bandwidth 153.6 GB/s 384 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.1 6.3
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 2.0
Vulkan 1.2.131 +
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 3.0
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 254 Mh/s 684 Mh/s
Laptop size large
Eyefinity +
PowerTune +
TrueAudio +
Mantle +
Design reference
Bridgeless CrossFire +
Number of Eyefinity displays 6
DisplayPort support +
CrossFire +
VCE +
DDMA audio +
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 27.5 Mh/s
High bandwidth memory (HBM) -
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