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    GeForce GTX 860M vs Radeon HD 8970M

    If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce GTX 860M and Radeon HD 8970M, 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 GeForce GTX 860M stacks up against Radeon HD 8970M, check out specs charts below.
    GeForce GTX 860M Check Price
    Radeon HD 8970M Check Price

    GeForce GTX 860M and Radeon HD 8970M are Laptop Graphics Cards

    Note: GeForce GTX 860M and Radeon HD 8970M 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 GeForce GTX 860M or Radeon HD 8970M here:

    GeForce GTX 860M Laptops
    Radeon HD 8970M Laptops

    Main Specs

      GeForce GTX 860M Radeon HD 8970M
    Power consumption (TDP) 75 Watt 100 Watt
    Interface MXM-B (3.0) PCIe 3.0 x16
    Supplementary power connectors None
    Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
    Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 4 GB
    Display Connectors No outputs No outputs
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    • Radeon HD 8970M has 33% more power consumption, than GeForce GTX 860M.
    • GeForce GTX 860M is connected by MXM-B (3.0), and Radeon HD 8970M uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
    • GeForce GTX 860M and Radeon HD 8970M have maximum RAM of 4 GB.
    • Both cards are used in Laptops.
    • GeForce GTX 860M is build with Maxwell architecture, and Radeon HD 8970M - with GCN.
    • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 8970M is 53 MHz higher, than GeForce GTX 860M.
    • GeForce GTX 860M and Radeon HD 8970M are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.

    Game benchmarks

    high / 1080p 16−18 20−22
    ultra / 1080p 10−11 12−14
    QHD / 1440p 5−6 6−7
    4K / 2160p 4−5 5−6
    low / 720p 30−35 35−40
    medium / 1080p 21−24 24−27
    The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 8970M in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 20% more, than GeForce GTX 860M.

    Full Specs

      GeForce GTX 860M Radeon HD 8970M
    Architecture Maxwell GCN
    Code name N15P-GX Neptune
    Type Laptop Laptop
    Release date 12 March 2014 15 May 2013
    Pipelines 640 1280
    Core clock speed 797 MHz 850 MHz
    Boost Clock 915 MHz 900 MHz
    Transistor count 1,870 million 2,800 million
    Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
    Texture fill rate 43.40 72.00
    Floating-point performance 1,389 gflops 2,304 gflops
    Memory bus width 128 Bit 256 Bit
    Memory clock speed 4800 MHz
    Memory bandwidth 80.0 GB/s 153.6 GB/s
    Shared memory - -
    DirectX 12 (11_0) 12 (11_1)
    Shader Model 5.1 5.1
    OpenGL 4.5 4.6
    OpenCL 1.1 1.2
    Vulkan 1.1.126 1.2.131
    CUDA +
    CUDA cores 1152 or 640
    Bus support PCI Express 2.0, PCI Express 3.0
    SLI options +
    HDMI +
    Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 163 Mh/s 273 Mh/s
    Laptop size medium sized large
    Standard memory configuration GDDR5
    eDP 1.2 signal support Up to 3840x2160
    LVDS signal support Up to 1920x1200
    DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support Up to 3840x2160
    HDCP content protection +
    7.1 channel HD audio on HDMI +
    TrueHD and DTS-HD audio bitstreaming +
    H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder +
    Optimus +
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