NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M vs AMD Radeon HD 8970M

Comparative analysis of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M and AMD Radeon HD 8970M 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.

 

Differences

Reasons to consider the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M

  • Videocard is newer: launch date 1 year(s) 4 month(s) later
  • Around 9% higher core clock speed: 924 MHz vs 850 MHz
  • Around 22% higher boost clock speed: 1038 MHz vs 850 MHz
  • Around 15% higher texture fill rate: 83.04 GTexel / s vs 72 GTexel / s
  • Around 15% better floating-point performance: 2,657 gflops vs 2,304 gflops
  • Around 23% lower typical power consumption: 81 Watt vs 100 Watt
  • Around 50% higher maximum memory size: 6 GB vs 4 GB
  • Around 48% better performance in PassMark - G3D Mark: 5723 vs 3876
  • Around 4% better performance in CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Face Detection (mPixels/s): 59.428 vs 57.241
  • 3.4x better performance in GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames): 8546 vs 2521
  • Around 29% better performance in GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames): 3342 vs 2595
  • 3.4x better performance in GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps): 8546 vs 2521
  • Around 29% better performance in GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps): 3342 vs 2595
Specifications (specs)
Launch date 7 October 2014 vs 14 May 2013
Core clock speed 924 MHz vs 850 MHz
Boost clock speed 1038 MHz vs 850 MHz
Texture fill rate 83.04 GTexel / s vs 72 GTexel / s
Floating-point performance 2,657 gflops vs 2,304 gflops
Thermal Design Power (TDP) 81 Watt vs 100 Watt
Maximum memory size 6 GB vs 4 GB
Benchmarks
PassMark - G3D Mark 5723 vs 3876
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Face Detection (mPixels/s) 59.428 vs 57.241
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames) 8546 vs 2521
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames) 3699 vs 3688
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames) 3342 vs 2595
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps) 8546 vs 2521
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps) 3699 vs 3688
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps) 3342 vs 2595

Reasons to consider the AMD Radeon HD 8970M

  • Around 92% higher memory clock speed: 4800 MHz vs 2500 MHz
  • 2.1x better performance in PassMark - G2D Mark: 807 vs 387
  • Around 8% better performance in Geekbench - OpenCL: 20588 vs 19018
  • Around 10% better performance in CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Ocean Surface Simulation (Frames/s): 1223.742 vs 1113.788
  • Around 39% better performance in CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s): 5.78 vs 4.157
  • 2.3x better performance in CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Video Composition (Frames/s): 89.306 vs 39.101
  • 3.3x better performance in CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Bitcoin Mining (mHash/s): 268.643 vs 81.909
Specifications (specs)
Memory clock speed 4800 MHz vs 2500 MHz
Benchmarks
PassMark - G2D Mark 807 vs 387
Geekbench - OpenCL 20588 vs 19018
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Ocean Surface Simulation (Frames/s) 1223.742 vs 1113.788
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s) 5.78 vs 4.157
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Video Composition (Frames/s) 89.306 vs 39.101
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Bitcoin Mining (mHash/s) 268.643 vs 81.909

Compare benchmarks

GPU 1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M
GPU 2: AMD Radeon HD 8970M

PassMark - G3D Mark
GPU 1
GPU 2
5723
3876
PassMark - G2D Mark
GPU 1
GPU 2
387
807
Geekbench - OpenCL
GPU 1
GPU 2
19018
20588
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Face Detection (mPixels/s)
GPU 1
GPU 2
59.428
57.241
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Ocean Surface Simulation (Frames/s)
GPU 1
GPU 2
1113.788
1223.742
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s)
GPU 1
GPU 2
4.157
5.78
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Video Composition (Frames/s)
GPU 1
GPU 2
39.101
89.306
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Bitcoin Mining (mHash/s)
GPU 1
GPU 2
81.909
268.643
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames)
GPU 1
GPU 2
8546
2521
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames)
GPU 1
GPU 2
3699
3688
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames)
GPU 1
GPU 2
3342
2595
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps)
GPU 1
GPU 2
8546
2521
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps)
GPU 1
GPU 2
3699
3688
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps)
GPU 1
GPU 2
3342
2595
Name NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M AMD Radeon HD 8970M
PassMark - G3D Mark 5723 3876
PassMark - G2D Mark 387 807
Geekbench - OpenCL 19018 20588
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Face Detection (mPixels/s) 59.428 57.241
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Ocean Surface Simulation (Frames/s) 1113.788 1223.742
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s) 4.157 5.78
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Video Composition (Frames/s) 39.101 89.306
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Bitcoin Mining (mHash/s) 81.909 268.643
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames) 8546 2521
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames) 3699 3688
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames) 3342 2595
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps) 8546 2521
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps) 3699 3688
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps) 3342 2595
3DMark Fire Strike - Graphics Score 2286 0

Compare specifications (specs)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M AMD Radeon HD 8970M

Essentials

Architecture Maxwell 2.0 GCN 1.0
Code name GM204 Neptune
Launch date 7 October 2014 14 May 2013
Launch price (MSRP) $2,560.89
Place in performance rating 558 555
Price now $1,899
Type Laptop Desktop
Value for money (0-100) 3.99
Design AMD Radeon HD 8000M Series

Technical info

Boost clock speed 1038 MHz 850 MHz
Core clock speed 924 MHz 850 MHz
CUDA cores 1280
Floating-point performance 2,657 gflops 2,304 gflops
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Pipelines 1280 1280
Texture fill rate 83.04 GTexel / s 72 GTexel / s
Thermal Design Power (TDP) 81 Watt 100 Watt
Transistor count 5,200 million 2,800 million
Compute units 20

Video outputs and ports

Display Connectors No outputs No outputs
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support 1
G-SYNC support
HDMI
VGA аnalog display support 1

Compatibility, dimensions and requirements

Bus support PCI Express 3.0
Interface MXM-B (3.0) PCIe 3.0 x16
Laptop size large large
SLI options 1
Supplementary power connectors None

API support

DirectX 12.0 (12_1) 11
OpenCL 1.1
OpenGL 4.5 4.5

Memory

Maximum RAM amount 6 GB 4 GB
Memory bandwidth 120 GB / s 153.6 GB/s
Memory bus width 192 Bit 256 Bit
Memory clock speed 2500 MHz 4800 MHz
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Shared memory 0 0

Technologies

Ansel
BatteryBoost
CUDA
DSR
GameStream
GameWorks
GeForce Experience
GeForce ShadowPlay
GPU Boost
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder
Optimus
SLI
AMD Eyefinity
PowerTune
ZeroCore