Radeon HD 7970M vs Radeon R9 M290X

Find out if it is worth upgrading your current GPU setup by comparing Radeon HD 7970M and Radeon R9 M290X. Here you can take a closer look at graphics cards specs, such as core clock speed, memory type and size, display connectors, etc. The price, overall benchmark and gaming performances are usually defining factors when it comes to choosing between Radeon HD 7970M and Radeon R9 M290X. Make sure that the graphics card has compatible dimensions and will properly fit in your new or current computer case. Also these graphics cards may have different system power recommendations, so take that into consideration and upgrade your PSU if necessary.

Radeon HD 7970M and Radeon R9 M290X are Laptop Graphics Cards

Note: Radeon HD 7970M and Radeon R9 M290X are only used in laptop graphics. They have 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 or Radeon R9 M290X here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 7970M Radeon R9 M290X
Power consumption (TDP) 100 Watt 100 Watt
Interface MXM-B (3.0) PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors None None
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors No outputs No outputs
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  • Both graphics cards have the same power consumption of 100 Watt.
  • Radeon HD 7970M is connected by MXM-B (3.0), and Radeon R9 M290X uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon R9 M290X has 2 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 7970M.
  • Both cards are used in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 7970M and Radeon R9 M290X are build with GCN architecture.
  • Both graphics cards have the same core clock speed.
  • Radeon HD 7970M and Radeon R9 M290X are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7970M is 3600 MHz higher, than Radeon R9 M290X.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 18−20 16−18
ultra / 1080p 10−12 10−11
QHD / 1440p 5−6 4−5
4K / 2160p 4−5 4−5
low / 720p 35−40 30−35
medium / 1080p 21−24 20−22
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7970M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 6% more, than Radeon R9 M290X.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 7970M Radeon R9 M290X
Architecture GCN GCN
Code name Wimbledon XT Neptune
Type Laptop Laptop
Release date 1 May 2012 7 January 2014
Pipelines 1280 1280
Core clock speed 850 MHz 850 MHz
Boost Clock 900 MHz
Transistor count 2,800 million 2,800 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 68.00 72.00
Floating-point performance 2,176 gflops 2,304 gflops
Memory bus width 256 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 4800 MHz 1200 MHz
Memory bandwidth 153.6 GB/s 153.6 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.1 5.1
OpenGL 4.6 4.4
OpenCL 1.2 Not Listed
Vulkan 1.2.131
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 3.0 x16
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 254 Mh/s 300 Mh/s
Laptop size large large
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
PowerTune +
DualGraphics +
ZeroCore +
Switchable graphics +
Mantle +
Compute units 20
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