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AMD Radeon HD 7970M Review and Specification
Review

The Radeon HD 7970M from AMD is DirectX 11 graphics card based on the GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture. This is the same architecture that AMD plans to push in as the integrated graphics post Trinity Era. The high performance of this card makes it categorised as high end notebook graphics.

Unfortunately high power consumption makes this graphics suitable only for very large notebooks that are typically desktop replacements. It has TDP rating close to 100 Watts.

The Radeon 7970M has architecture similar to the Pitcairn chips ( used in the Desktop HD7870). This graphics comes with 1280 shader cores and 80 Texture units similar to its desktop counterpart 7870. However it is clocked slightly lower at 850 MHz. ( The 7870 has 1000 MHz).

Radeon 7970M finds competition with Nvidia's GTX675. You may like to use this tool to compare with other notebook GPUs. The GTX 680M should provide comparable performance.

Radeon 7970M uses a newer Enduro technology that allows switching between the Integrated GPU and the discrete GPU. When only integrated GPU is used, the Radeon 7970M can be shut down to preserve power with a technology called ZeroCore.

For the frame rates of the games that can be played - check out the thread at forum

Table : Specifications

Features AMD Radeon HD 7970M
Family Wimbledon XT
Pixel Shaders 1280
Core Speed MHz 850 MHz
Shader Speed MHz 850 MHz
Memory Speed MHz 1200 MHz
Memory Bus Width 256
Direct X 11
3DMark 05 NA
3DMark 06 NA
3D Mark Vantage GPU 21990
3DMark11 P GPU 5450
Cinebench R10 32Bit OpenGL NA
Cinebench R11.5 OpenGL NA


Here are some of the frame rate per second for the games than can be played on with the graphics
. Gaming Performance Data
Risen 2: Dark Waters (2012) Rate
Medium 92 fps
High 72 fps
Anno 2070 (2011) Rate
Medium 106 fps
High 74 fps
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011) Rate
Medium 84 fps
High 72 fps
CoD: Modern Warfare 3 (2011) Rate
Medium 118 fps
High 96 fps
Battlefield 3 (2011) Rate
Medium 52 fps
High 49 fps
Batman: Arkham City (2011) Rate
Medium 116 fps
High 71 fps
Fifa 12 (2011) Rate
Medium 242 fps
High 200 fps
Dirt 3 (2011) Rate
Medium 74 fps
High 62 fps
Crysis 2 (2011) Rate
Medium 103 fps
High 103 fps
StarCraft 2 (2010) Rate
Medium 95 fps
High 93 fps
Metro 2033 (2010) Rate
Medium 110 fps
High 73 fps
The data is based upon theoretical values and may not reflect actual value that you may obtain in gaming. In some cases the data has been extrapolated from graphics components of same series. This should only be used as a guide for further investigation.
Compare Processors, difference and Benchmark
Select the related processors that you wish to compare.
Table : Related Processors comparison Feature Differences
Select Pos Model Codename Pixel Shaders Core Speed Shader Speed Memory Speed Memory Bus Width Direct X 3DMark05 3DMark06 3DM Vantage GPU
1 AMD Radeon HD 7970M Wimbledon XT 1280 850 MHz 850 MHz 1200 MHz 256 11 NA NA 21990
2 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M SLI Fermi 768 620 MHz 1240 MHz 1500 MHz 256 11 31010 23250 24330
3 Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire Blackcomb XTX 2240 715 MHz 715 MHz 900 MHz 256 11 28940 23290 24560
4 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 485M SLI Fermi 768 575 MHz 1150 MHz 1500 MHz 256 11 29690 23415 23092
5 AMD Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire Blackcomb XT 1920 680 MHz 680 MHz 900 MHz 256 11 30780 22760 20547
6 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 470M SLI 576 535 MHz 1070 MHz 1250 MHz 192 11 25241 20608 16234
7 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480M SLI Fermi 704 425 MHz 850 MHz 1200 MHz 256 11 28423 20144 14890
8 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M SLI Fermi 384 775 MHz 1550 MHz 1250 MHz 192 11 NA 21389 15471
9 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M N13E-GS1 384 620 MHz 1240 MHz 1500 MHz 256 11 23752 19862 13866
10 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M 384 620 MHz 1240 MHz 1500 MHz 256 11 27877 20665 13296
11 Radeon HD 6990M Blackcomb XTX 1120 715 MHz 715 MHz 900 MHz 256 11 26943 21305 13341
12 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M SLI GF106 384 675 MHz 1350 MHz 1250 MHz 192 11 25371 18583 13156
13 ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 Crossfire Broadway-XT 1600 700 MHz 700 MHz 1000 MHz 128 11 19079 16596 14096
14 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 485M N12E-GTX 384 575 MHz 1150 MHz 1500 MHz 256 11 24984 19465 12199
15 Radeon HD 6970M Blackcomb XT 960 680 MHz 680 MHz 900 MHz 256 11 21991 17190 11385
16 NVIDIA Quadro 5010M N12E-Q5 384 450 MHz 900 MHz 1300 MHz 256 11 24769 19544 11047
17 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M N13E-GS1-LP 336 598 MHz 1196 MHz 1500 MHz 192 11 27670 19761 13600
18 AMD FirePro M8900 Blackcomb XT 960 680 MHz 680 MHz 900 MHz 256 11 NA 16703 NA
19 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570M 336 575 MHz 1070 MHz 1150 MHz 192 11 24809 17232 9902
20 AMD Radeon HD 6950M Blackcomb Pro 960 580 MHz 580 MHz 900 MHz 256 11 18466 13719 9694
21 NVIDIA Quadro 4000M Fermi 336 475 MHz 950 MHz 1200 MHz 256 11 NA 17727 9184