GeForce GTX 870M vs Radeon HD 7970

Intro

Compare those specifications to the Radeon HD 7970, which uses a 28 nm design. AMD has set the core frequency at 925 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a frequency of 1375 MHz on this model. It features 2048 SPUs as well as 128 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Benchmarks

These are real-world performance benchmarks that were submitted by Hardware Compare users. The scores seen here are the average of all benchmarks submitted for each respective test and hardware.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

Radeon HD 7970		8225 points
GeForce GTX 870M		4770 points
	Difference: 3455 (72%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 870M		110 Watts
Radeon HD 7970		250 Watts
	Difference: 140 Watts (127%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically, the Radeon HD 7970 should be much faster than the GeForce GTX 870M overall. (explain)

Radeon HD 7970		264000 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 870M		96000 MB/sec
	Difference: 168000 (175%)

Texel Rate

The Radeon HD 7970 is a bit (about 12%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 870M. (explain)

Radeon HD 7970		118400 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 870M		105392 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 13008 (12%)

Pixel Rate

The Radeon HD 7970 is much (approximately 31%) more effective at anti-aliasing than the GeForce GTX 870M, and should be capable of handling higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

Radeon HD 7970		29600 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 870M		22584 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 7016 (31%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data (measured in megabytes per second) that can be moved over the external memory interface in one second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR memory, the result should be multiplied by 2 once again. If DDR5, multiply by 4 instead. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum number of texture map elements (texels) that are processed per second. This is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the card will be at handling texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels processed in one second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the most pixels that the graphics card could possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The figure is calculated by multiplying the amount of colour ROPs by the the core speed of the card. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also called Render Output Units) are responsible for filling the screen with pixels (the image). The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, most notably the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to reach the maximum fill rate.