Radeon HD 7970 vs Radeon RX Vega M GL

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon HD 7970 and Radeon RX Vega M GL, 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 Radeon HD 7970 stacks up against Radeon RX Vega M GL, check out specs charts below.

Radeon RX Vega M GL is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon RX Vega M GL 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 RX Vega M GL here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 7970 Radeon RX Vega M GL
Power consumption (TDP) 300 Watt 65 Watt
Interface PCIe 3.0 x16 IGP
Supplementary power connectors 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 HBM2
Maximum RAM amount 3 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 7970 has 361% more power consumption, than Radeon RX Vega M GL.
  • Radeon HD 7970 is connected by PCIe 3.0 x16, and Radeon RX Vega M GL uses IGP interface.
  • Radeon RX Vega M GL has 1 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 7970.
  • Radeon HD 7970 is used in Desktops, and Radeon RX Vega M GL - in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 7970 is build with GCN architecture, and Radeon RX Vega M GL - with GCN 4.0.
  • Radeon HD 7970 is manufactured by 28 nm process technology, and Radeon RX Vega M GL - by 14 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon RX Vega M GL is 25 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 7970.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 35−40 16−18
ultra / 1080p 21−24 10−11
QHD / 1440p 16−18 4−5
4K / 2160p 10−11
low / 720p 60−65 35−40
medium / 1080p 40−45 21−24
The average gaming FPS of Radeon HD 7970 in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 100% more, than Radeon RX Vega M GL.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 7970 Radeon RX Vega M GL
Architecture GCN GCN 4.0
Code name Tahiti XT Polaris 22
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 22 December 2011 1 February 2018
Pipelines 2048 1280
Core clock speed 931 MHz
Boost Clock 925 MHz 1011 MHz
Transistor count 4,313 million 5,000 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 14 nm
Texture fill rate 118.4 80.88
Floating-point performance 3,789 gflops 2,588 gflops
Length 274 mm
Memory bus width 384 Bit 1024 Bit
Memory clock speed 1375 MHz 1400 MHz
Memory bandwidth 264 GB/s 179.2 GB/s
Shared memory - -
DirectX 12 (12_0)
Shader Model 5.1 6.4
OpenGL 4.6 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 2.0
Vulkan 1.2.131
FreeSync +
Bus support PCIe 2.1 x16
HDMI +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 485 Mh/s
Eyefinity +
Design reference
CrossFire +
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 20.71 Mh/s
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