AMD Radeon HD 7970 vs NVIDIA A2 Comparison

The NVIDIA A2 and AMD Radeon HD 7970 represent two vastly different eras of GPU design, yet benchmark results place them in remarkably close competition. In the sole head-to-head benchmark available, the Geekbench OpenCL test, the NVIDIA A2 scores 34,866 points against the AMD Radeon HD 7970's 34,541 points. This yields a delta of 0.9% in favor of the A2, a margin so thin it falls within typical run-to-run variance. The A2's percentile ranking of 79th among all GPUs slightly edges out the HD 7970's 78th percentile, but the practical performance difference is negligible. The data indicates that a modern low-power compute accelerator and a decade-old enthusiast graphics card deliver nearly identical raw compute throughput in this workload.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The Geekbench OpenCL result is the only direct comparison available, and it shows a virtual tie. The NVIDIA A2 produces 34,866 points, while the AMD Radeon HD 7970 produces 34,541 points. The 0.9% delta means the A2 completes the workload in roughly the same time as the HD 7970, with the difference being imperceptible in real-world terms.

Looking at the broader competitive landscape, both cards sit within a tight cluster of similarly performing hardware. The NVIDIA A2's nearest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 9070, which scores 34,780 points for a 0.2% delta. The Quadro GV100 trails by 0.5% at 34,677 points. The HD 7970, meanwhile, is bracketed by the Radeon PRO W6400 at 34,511 points (0.1% delta) and the Radeon RX 560 XT at 34,427 points (0.3% delta). The data shows that the A2 and HD 7970 are not outliers at either end of their respective performance groups—they are middle-of-the-pack contenders separated by less than one percent from their closest competitors.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA A2 wins the only benchmark recorded, taking the Geekbench OpenCL test by 0.9%. This single victory gives it a 1-0 record in head-to-head wins. However, the margin is so small that it cannot be interpreted as a meaningful performance advantage. The A2's win is statistically fragile; any slight variation in driver state or thermal conditions could flip the result.

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 has zero benchmark wins in this comparison. Yet this does not indicate a clear defeat. The HD 7970's score of 34,541 sits within 0.9% of the A2, which means the two cards are functionally equivalent in this workload. Where the HD 7970 might "win" is in architectural characteristics that do not appear in the OpenCL benchmark. Its texture rate of 118.4 GTexel/s is substantially higher than the A2's 70.80 GTexel/s, driven by 128 texture mapping units versus 40. The HD 7970 also has more shading units (2048 vs 1280) and a wider 384-bit memory bus delivering 264.0 GB/s of bandwidth. These features could favor workloads that are highly texture-bound or require large memory transactions, though no benchmark data confirms this.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear conclusion: these two GPUs are performance equals in the measured workload, and the choice between them must be made on factors other than raw compute speed. The NVIDIA A2 is the only one of the two with RT cores and tensor cores, and it supports Vulkan 1.4 and DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the HD 7970 tops out at Vulkan 1.2.170 and DirectX 12 (11_1). The A2 also offers 16 GB of GDDR6 memory against the HD 7970's 3 GB of GDDR5, a five-fold capacity advantage.

For a user prioritizing modern API support, hardware ray tracing capabilities, and a much larger framebuffer, the NVIDIA A2 is the logical pick. Its 60 W TDP and single-slot design with no power connectors make it a low-power compute accelerator that can fit into dense servers. The AMD Radeon HD 7970, with its 250 W TDP, dual-slot footprint, and requirement for 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin power connectors, demands significantly more from a system's power delivery and cooling. The suggested PSU rating of 600 W for the HD 7970 versus 250 W for the A2 underscores this operational difference.

However, for a workload that is purely compute-bound and does not leverage the A2's newer features, the HD 7970 remains a viable option. The benchmark shows no practical performance gap, and the HD 7970's higher texture rate could theoretically give it an edge in specific tasks. The HD 7970 also has display outputs (1x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, 2x mini-DisplayPort 1.2) while the A2 has none, making the HD 7970 the only choice for a system that needs to drive a monitor.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU performs better in the Geekbench OpenCL benchmark?

A: The NVIDIA A2 scores 34,866 points, which is 0.9% higher than the AMD Radeon HD 7970's 34,541 points, making the A2 the nominal winner.

Q: What is the memory capacity difference between these two cards?

A: The NVIDIA A2 has 16 GB of GDDR6 memory, while the AMD Radeon HD 7970 has 3 GB of GDDR5 memory.

Q: Do both cards support hardware ray tracing?

A: No. The NVIDIA A2 has 10 RT cores, while the AMD Radeon HD 7970 has no RT cores listed.

Q: What is the TDP of each card?

A: The NVIDIA A2 has a TDP of 60 W, whereas the AMD Radeon HD 7970 has a TDP of 250 W.

Q: Which card has a higher texture fill rate?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 7970 has a texture rate of 118.4 GTexel/s, exceeding the NVIDIA A2's 70.80 GTexel/s.

Q: Can either card be used for display output?

A: Only the AMD Radeon HD 7970 has display outputs (1x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, 2x mini-DisplayPort 1.2); the NVIDIA A2 has no outputs.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures and process nodes. The NVIDIA A2 uses the GA107 chip based on the Ampere architecture, fabricated on Samsung's 8 nm process. It integrates 8,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 43.5 million per mm². The AMD Radeon HD 7970 uses the Tahiti chip from the GCN 1.0 architecture, built on TSMC's 28 nm process. This older design packs 4,313 million transistors into a larger 352 mm² die, resulting in a much lower density of 12.3 million per mm².

Clock speeds and memory configurations separate them further. The A2 runs at a base clock of 1440 MHz with a boost of 1770 MHz, while the HD 7970 has no listed base or boost clocks. The A2's memory operates at 1563 MHz (12.5 Gbps effective) across a 128-bit bus, delivering 200.1 GB/s of bandwidth. The HD 7970's memory runs at 1375 MHz (5.5 Gbps effective) on a 384-bit bus, achieving 264.0 GB/s. The HD 7970 thus has 32% more bandwidth, but the A2 has over five times the capacity.

Compute resources differ significantly. The A2 has 1280 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. It also includes 10 RT cores and 40 tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and tensor operations. The HD 7970 has 2048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, but no RT or tensor cores. In raw FP32 throughput, the A2 achieves 4.531 TFLOPS versus the HD 7970's 3.789 TFLOPS. The A2 also lists FP16 performance at 4.531 TFLOPS (1:1), while the HD 7970 has no FP16 data.

API support and physical specifications highlight their different purposes. The A2 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, while the HD 7970 supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The A2 is a single-slot card with no power connectors and a suggested PSU of 250 W, using a PCIe 4.0 x8 interface. The HD 7970 is a dual-slot card measuring 275 mm in length, requiring 1x 6-pin and 1x 8-pin power connectors with a suggested PSU of 600 W, and uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The HD 7970 was released on January 9, 2012, with a launch MSRP of 549 USD; the A2 followed on November 10, 2021, with no launch MSRP listed. Both are end-of-life products in the database.