NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 vs AMD Radeon HD 6950M

Comparative analysis of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 and AMD Radeon HD 6950M videocards for all known characteristics in the following categories: Essentials, Technical info, Video outputs and ports, Compatibility, dimensions and requirements, API support, Memory, Technologies. 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.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680

AMD Radeon HD 6950M

Differences

Reasons to consider the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680

Videocard is newer: launch date 1 year(s) 2 month(s) later
Around 73% higher core clock speed: 1006 MHz vs 580 MHz
4.6x more texture fill rate: 128.8 billion / sec vs 27.84 GTexel / s
Around 60% higher pipelines: 1536 vs 960
2.8x better floating-point performance: 3,090.4 gflops vs 1,113.6 gflops
A newer manufacturing process allows for a more powerful, yet cooler running videocard: 28 nm vs 40 nm
2x more maximum memory size: 2048 MB vs 1 GB
Around 67% higher memory clock speed: 6008 MHz vs 3600 MHz

Launch date	22 March 2012 vs 4 January 2011
Core clock speed	1006 MHz vs 580 MHz
Texture fill rate	128.8 billion / sec vs 27.84 GTexel / s
Pipelines	1536 vs 960
Floating-point performance	3,090.4 gflops vs 1,113.6 gflops
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm vs 40 nm
Maximum memory size	2048 MB vs 1 GB
Memory clock speed	6008 MHz vs 3600 MHz

Reasons to consider the AMD Radeon HD 6950M

3.9x lower typical power consumption: 50 Watt vs 195 Watt

Thermal Design Power (TDP)	50 Watt vs 195 Watt

Compare benchmarks

GPU 1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680
GPU 2: AMD Radeon HD 6950M

Name	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680	AMD Radeon HD 6950M
PassMark - G3D Mark	5590
PassMark - G2D Mark	531
Geekbench - OpenCL	18376
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Face Detection (mPixels/s)	46.086
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Ocean Surface Simulation (Frames/s)	989.685
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s)	4.645
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Video Composition (Frames/s)	36.463
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Bitcoin Mining (mHash/s)	99.577
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames)	7222
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames)	3666
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames)	3306
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps)	7222
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps)	3666
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps)	3306
3DMark Fire Strike - Graphics Score	2004

Compare specifications (specs)

	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680	AMD Radeon HD 6950M
Essentials
Architecture	Kepler	TeraScale 2
Code name	GK104	Blackcomb
Launch date	22 March 2012	4 January 2011
Launch price (MSRP)	$499
Place in performance rating	544	not rated
Price now	$579.99
Type	Desktop	Laptop
Value for money (0-100)	12.83
Technical info
Boost clock speed	1058 MHz
Core clock speed	1006 MHz	580 MHz
CUDA cores	1536
Floating-point performance	3,090.4 gflops	1,113.6 gflops
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	40 nm
Pipelines	1536	960
Texture fill rate	128.8 billion / sec	27.84 GTexel / s
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	195 Watt	50 Watt
Transistor count	3,540 million	1,700 million
Video outputs and ports
Audio input for HDMI	Internal
Display Connectors	2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort, One Dual Link DVI-I, One Dual Link DVI-D, One HDMI...	No outputs
G-SYNC support
HDCP
HDMI
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536
Multi monitor support
Compatibility, dimensions and requirements
Bus support	PCI Express 3.0
Height	4.376" (11.1 cm)
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	MXM-B (3.0)
Length	10.0" (25.4 cm)
SLI options	3-way
Supplementary power connectors	Two 6-pin
Laptop size		large
API support
DirectX	12.0 (11_0)	11.2 (11_0)
OpenGL	4.2	4.4
Memory
Maximum RAM amount	2048 MB	1 GB
Memory bandwidth	192.2 GB / s	115.2 GB / s
Memory bus width	256-bit GDDR5	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	6008 MHz	3600 MHz
Memory type	GDDR5	GDDR5
Shared memory	0	0
Technologies
3D Vision
Adaptive VSync
CUDA
FXAA
GPU Boost
SLI
TXAA