Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire vs Radeon R9 280

In this comparison between Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire and Radeon R9 280 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 6970M Crossfire will be the best choice, for others Radeon R9 280 will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire 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 6970M Crossfire here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire Radeon R9 280
Power consumption (TDP) 200 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors 1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 2x2 GB 3 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
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  • Radeon R9 280 has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire.
  • Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire is used in Laptops, and Radeon R9 280 - in Desktops.
  • Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire is build with Terascale 2 architecture, and Radeon R9 280 - with GCN 1.0.
  • Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon R9 280 - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon R9 280 is 350 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 21−24 35−40
ultra / 1080p 12−14 21−24
QHD / 1440p 7−8 16−18
4K / 2160p 5−6 10−11
low / 720p 40−45 60−65
medium / 1080p 24−27 40−45
The average gaming FPS of Radeon R9 280 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 68% more, than Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire Radeon R9 280
Architecture Terascale 2 GCN 1.0
Code name Blackcomb XT Tahiti
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 6 January 2011 4 March 2014
Pipelines 1920 1792
Core clock speed 680 MHz
Boost Clock 933 MHz
Transistor count 2x1700 Million 4,313 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 104.5
Floating-point performance 3,344 gflops
Length 275 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 384 Bit
Memory clock speed 900 MHz 1250 MHz
Memory bandwidth 240 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX DirectX 11, Shader 5.0
Shader Model 5.1
OpenGL 4.6
OpenCL 1.2
Vulkan +
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 3.0
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 408 Mh/s
Laptop size large
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
TrueAudio +
Design reference
CrossFire +
DDMA audio +
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 21.5 Mh/s
LiquidVR +
TressFX +
UVD +
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