Radeon HD 7970M vs Radeon HD 8870M

Find out if it is worth upgrading your current GPU setup by comparing Radeon HD 7970M and Radeon HD 8870M. 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 HD 8870M. 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 HD 8870M are Laptop Graphics Cards

Note: Radeon HD 7970M and Radeon HD 8870M 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 HD 8870M here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 7970M Radeon HD 8870M
Power consumption (TDP) 100 Watt
Interface MXM-B (3.0) PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors None
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5, DDR3
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors No outputs No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 7970M is connected by MXM-B (3.0), and Radeon HD 8870M uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • Radeon HD 7970M and Radeon HD 8870M have maximum RAM of 2 GB.
  • Both cards are used in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 7970M and Radeon HD 8870M are build with GCN architecture.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 7970M is 125 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 8870M.
  • Radeon HD 7970M and Radeon HD 8870M are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 7970M is 300 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 8870M.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 18−20 7−8
ultra / 1080p 10−12 4−5
QHD / 1440p 5−6 0−1
4K / 2160p 4−5
low / 720p 35−40 18−20
medium / 1080p 21−24 9−10
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7970M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 120% more, than Radeon HD 8870M.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 7970M Radeon HD 8870M
Architecture GCN GCN
Code name Wimbledon XT Venus
Type Laptop Laptop
Release date 1 May 2012 18 December 2012
Pipelines 1280 640
Core clock speed 850 MHz 725 MHz
Boost Clock 775 MHz
Transistor count 2,800 million 1,500 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 68.00 31.00
Floating-point performance 2,176 gflops 992.0 gflops
Memory bus width 256 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 4800 MHz 4500 MHz
Memory bandwidth 153.6 GB/s 72 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 12 (11_1) 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.1 5.1
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan 1.2.131 1.2.131
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 254 Mh/s 107 Mh/s
Laptop size large large
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