Radeon HD 5970 vs Radeon R7 Carrizo

In this comparison between Radeon HD 5970 and Radeon R7 Carrizo you will find out which graphics card performs better in today's games. Bear in mind that third-party versions may have more efficient cooling and higher clock speeds. This will increase cards' performance, though not by much. In addition to raw power you should also take into account the dimensions. Thicker models simply will not fit into a small mini-ITX case. The resolution of your monitor also affects the choice, since 4K gameplay requires a more powerful GPU. And don't overspend on the graphics card. Other parts of your build may also need to be upgraded, save some money for the CPU or power supply. For some people Radeon HD 5970 will be the best choice, for others Radeon R7 Carrizo will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Radeon R7 Carrizo is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon R7 Carrizo 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 R7 Carrizo here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 5970 Radeon R7 Carrizo
Power consumption (TDP) 294 Watt 12-35 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x mini-DisplayPort
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  • Radeon HD 5970 has 2350% more power consumption, than Radeon R7 Carrizo.
  • Radeon HD 5970 is used in Desktops, and Radeon R7 Carrizo - in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 5970 is build with TeraScale 2 architecture, and Radeon R7 Carrizo - with GCN 1.2/2.0.
  • Radeon HD 5970 is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon R7 Carrizo - by 28 nm process technology.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 10−12 2−3
ultra / 1080p 6−7 0−1
QHD / 1440p 1−2 0−1
low / 720p 24−27 12−14
medium / 1080p 14−16 5−6
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 5970 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 142% more, than Radeon R7 Carrizo.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 5970 Radeon R7 Carrizo
Architecture TeraScale 2 GCN 1.2/2.0
Code name Hemlock Carrizo
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 18 November 2009 4 June 2015
Pipelines 1600 512
Core clock speed 725 MHz
Boost Clock 800 MHz
Transistor count 2,154 million 2410 Million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 58.00
Floating-point performance 2x 2,320.0 gflops
Length 305 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 64/128 Bit
Memory clock speed 4000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 128.0 GB/s
Shared memory +
DirectX 11.2 (11_0) DirectX 12 (FL 12_0)
Shader Model 5.0
OpenGL 4.4
OpenCL 1.2
Vulkan N/A
Laptop size medium sized
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