AMD Radeon HD 7970M vs NVIDIA Quadro 500M

Comparative analysis of AMD Radeon HD 7970M and NVIDIA Quadro 500M videocards for all known characteristics in the following categories: Essentials, Technical info, Video outputs and ports, Compatibility, dimensions and requirements, API support, Memory. Benchmark videocards performance analysis: PassMark - G3D Mark, PassMark - G2D Mark, Geekbench - OpenCL, CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Face Detection (mPixels/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Ocean Surface Simulation (Frames/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Video Composition (Frames/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Bitcoin Mining (mHash/s), GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps), GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps), GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps), 3DMark Fire Strike - Graphics Score.

AMD Radeon HD 7970M

NVIDIA Quadro 500M

Differences

Reasons to consider the AMD Radeon HD 7970M

Videocard is newer: launch date 1 year(s) 2 month(s) later
Around 21% higher core clock speed: 850 MHz vs 700 MHz
6.1x more texture fill rate: 68 GTexel / s vs 11.2 GTexel / s
13.3x more pipelines: 1280 vs 96
8.1x better floating-point performance: 2,176 gflops vs 268.8 gflops
A newer manufacturing process allows for a more powerful, yet cooler running videocard: 28 nm vs 40 nm
2x more maximum memory size: 2 GB vs 1 GB
2.7x more memory clock speed: 4800 MHz vs 1800 MHz
6.3x better performance in PassMark - G3D Mark: 3569 vs 571
Around 36% better performance in PassMark - G2D Mark: 496 vs 365
Around 97% better performance in Geekbench - OpenCL: 17210 vs 8743

Specifications (specs)
Launch date	24 April 2012 vs 22 February 2011
Core clock speed	850 MHz vs 700 MHz
Texture fill rate	68 GTexel / s vs 11.2 GTexel / s
Pipelines	1280 vs 96
Floating-point performance	2,176 gflops vs 268.8 gflops
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm vs 40 nm
Maximum memory size	2 GB vs 1 GB
Memory clock speed	4800 MHz vs 1800 MHz
Benchmarks
PassMark - G3D Mark	3569 vs 571
PassMark - G2D Mark	496 vs 365
Geekbench - OpenCL	17210 vs 8743

Reasons to consider the NVIDIA Quadro 500M

2.9x lower typical power consumption: 35 Watt vs 100 Watt

Thermal Design Power (TDP)	35 Watt vs 100 Watt

Compare benchmarks

GPU 1: AMD Radeon HD 7970M
GPU 2: NVIDIA Quadro 500M

PassMark - G3D Mark

GPU 1

GPU 2

3569

571

PassMark - G2D Mark

GPU 1

GPU 2

496

365

Geekbench - OpenCL

GPU 1

GPU 2

17210

8743

Name	AMD Radeon HD 7970M	NVIDIA Quadro 500M
PassMark - G3D Mark	3569	571
PassMark - G2D Mark	496	365
Geekbench - OpenCL	17210	8743
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Face Detection (mPixels/s)	51.181
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Ocean Surface Simulation (Frames/s)	1121.002
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s)	5.355
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Video Composition (Frames/s)	81.527
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Bitcoin Mining (mHash/s)	256.99
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames)	5094
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames)	3692
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames)	3339
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps)	5094
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps)	3692
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps)	3339
3DMark Fire Strike - Graphics Score	0

Compare specifications (specs)

	AMD Radeon HD 7970M	NVIDIA Quadro 500M
Essentials
Architecture	GCN 1.0	Fermi
Code name	Wimbledon	GF108
Launch date	24 April 2012	22 February 2011
Place in performance rating	605	606
Type	Laptop	Workstation
Price now		$275.14
Value for money (0-100)		3.18
Technical info
Core clock speed	850 MHz	700 MHz
Floating-point performance	2,176 gflops	268.8 gflops
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	40 nm
Pipelines	1280	96
Texture fill rate	68 GTexel / s	11.2 GTexel / s
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	100 Watt	35 Watt
Transistor count	2,800 million	585 million
Video outputs and ports
Display Connectors	No outputs	No outputs
Compatibility, dimensions and requirements
Interface	MXM-B (3.0)	MXM-A (3.0)
Laptop size	large
Supplementary power connectors	None
API support
DirectX	12.0 (11_1)	12.0 (11_0)
OpenGL	4.5	4.6
Memory
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	1 GB
Memory bandwidth	153.6 GB / s	28.8 GB / s
Memory bus width	256 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	4800 MHz	1800 MHz
Memory type	GDDR5	DDR3
Shared memory	0