Graphics card comparison
Radeon RX 460 vs Radeon HD 7970
AMD
Radeon RX 460
2048 Mb GDDR5
Released 29 Jun 2016
DESKTOP
VS
AMD
Radeon HD 7970
3072 Mb GDDR5
Released 22 Dec 2011
DESKTOP
Summary
Synthetic performance index
- Radeon RX 460100%
- Radeon HD 7970133%
Relative performance
Gaming performance index
- Radeon RX 460100%
- Radeon HD 7970123%
Relative performance
Reasons to consider the Radeon RX 460
- 175 watts lower power draw. This might be a strong point if your current power supply is not enough to handle the Radeon HD 7970 .
- This is a much newer product, it might have better long term support.
- Supports Direct3D 12 Async Compute
- Supports FreeSync
- Supports ReLive (allows game streaming/recording with minimum performance penalty)
- Supports TrueAudio
- Based on an outdated architecture (AMD GCN), there may be no performance optimizations for current games and applications
Reasons to consider the Radeon HD 7970
- 23% higher gaming performance.
- Supports Direct3D 12 Async Compute
- Supports ReLive (allows game streaming/recording with minimum performance penalty)
- Supports Mantle
- Based on an outdated architecture (AMD GCN), there may be no performance optimizations for current games and applications
Our verdict
HWSpot recommends the Radeon HD 7970
The Radeon HD 7970 is the better performing card based on the game benchmark suite used (2 combinations of games and resolutions).
Specifications
Core configuration
| Radeon RX 460 | Radeon HD 7970 |
|---|
| GPU Name | Baffin (Baffin PRO) | Tahiti (Tahiti XT) |
| Fab Process | 14 nm | 28 nm |
| Die Size | 123 mm² | 352 mm² |
| Transistors | 3,000 million | 4,313 million |
| Shaders | 896 | 2048 |
| Compute Units | 14 | 32 |
| Core clock | 1090 MHz | 925 MHz |
| ROPs | 16 | 32 |
| TMUs | 56 | 128 |
Memory configuration
| Radeon RX 460 | Radeon HD 7970 |
|---|
| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
| Bus Width | 128 bit | 384 bit |
| Memory Speed | 1750 MHz
7000 MHz effective | 1375 MHz
5500 MHz effective |
| Memory Size | 2048 Mb | 3072 Mb |
Additional details
| Radeon RX 460 | Radeon HD 7970 |
|---|
| TDP | 75 watts | 250 watts |
| Release Date | 29 Jun 2016 | 22 Dec 2011 |
Raw performance comparison
Pixel Rate
- Radeon RX 46019.20 GP/s
- Radeon HD 797029.60 GP/s
GigaPixels - higher is better
Texel Rate
- Radeon RX 46067.20 GT/s
- Radeon HD 7970118.00 GT/s
GigaTexels - higher is better
Memory bandwidth
- Radeon RX 460112.00 GB/s
- Radeon HD 7970264.00 GB/s
GB/s - higher is better
Single precision performance
- Radeon RX 4602150.40 GFLOPs
- Radeon HD 79703789.00 GFLOPs
GFLOPs - higher is better
Synthetic benchmarks
3DMark 11
- Radeon RX 4608080
- Radeon HD 797010760
Points (higher is better)
Game benchmarks
Grand Theft Auto V
DX11, Max Details, 16:1 AF, 2xMSAA
- Radeon RX 46043
- Radeon HD 797054
FPS (higher is better)
Grand Theft Auto V
DX11, Max Details, 16:1 AF, 2xMSAA
- Radeon RX 46032
- Radeon HD 797039
FPS (higher is better)