AMD Radeon HD 7970 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 and the AMD Radeon HD 7970 represent two radically different eras of GPU design, and the benchmark data reflects a generational chasm. In the only directly comparable test, the RTX 4070 delivers a score of 154858 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the HD 7970 manages 34541, making the RTX 4070 a staggering 348.3% faster. This single result sets the tone for the entire comparison, but the underlying architecture and specification differences explain why the gap is so immense.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only head-to-head benchmark available is Geekbench OpenCL, and it is a total rout. The RTX 4070 scores 154858, which is 348.3% higher than the HD 7970’s 34541. To put that in perspective, the RTX 4070 is not just twice as fast; it is nearly four and a half times faster in raw compute throughput. This is not a marginal generational improvement; it is a complete paradigm shift in performance capability.

Looking at the broader benchmark suite for the RTX 4070, its dominance is consistent. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 3854, a result that places it in the 81st percentile of all GPUs. Its Passmark G3D score is 26927, while its Passmark GPU Compute score is 14720. These are not just high numbers; they indicate a card that excels in both rasterized gaming workloads and compute-heavy tasks. The HD 7970, by contrast, has no corresponding scores in these tests, meaning the RTX 4070’s lead in those areas is effectively unquantified but likely even larger than the OpenCL gap suggests.

The RTX 4070’s average benchmark score of 37648 places it just 0.1% ahead of the NVIDIA Tesla P4 and 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56, while being 1.3% behind the RTX 4080 Mobile. This shows it sits in a competitive mid-to-high tier among modern cards. The HD 7970’s average score of 34541 puts it 0.1% behind the NVIDIA T1000 8 GB and 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA TITAN V, which is remarkable for a card of its age but still leaves it in a completely different performance class than the RTX 4070.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gulf between these two cards is enormous. The RTX 4070 is built on NVIDIA’s Ada Lovelace architecture using a 5 nm process at TSMC, packing 35,800 million transistors onto a 294 mm² die. This yields a transistor density of 121.8M / mm². In contrast, the HD 7970 uses AMD’s GCN 1.0 architecture on a 28 nm process, also at TSMC, with just 4,313 million transistors on a larger 352 mm² die, resulting in a density of only 12.3M / mm². The RTX 4070 has over eight times the transistor count on a smaller physical die, which is the primary reason for its massive performance advantage.

The RTX 4070 features 5,888 shading units, 184 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, alongside 46 RT cores and 184 tensor cores. The HD 7970 has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, with no dedicated RT or tensor cores. This means the RTX 4070 has hardware acceleration for ray tracing and AI workloads, features the HD 7970 simply cannot execute. The RTX 4070’s FP32 compute is 29.15 TFLOPS, compared to the HD 7970’s 3.789 TFLOPS, a roughly 7.7x difference in raw floating-point throughput.

Memory technology also diverges sharply. The RTX 4070 uses 12 GB of GDDR6X on a 192-bit bus, delivering 504.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The HD 7970 has 3 GB of GDDR5 on a wider 384-bit bus, but only achieves 264.0 GB/s. Despite the narrower bus, the RTX 4070’s faster GDDR6X memory provides nearly double the bandwidth, which is critical for high-resolution textures and modern game engines.

The Verdict

From a pure performance standpoint, the RTX 4070 is in a different universe than the HD 7970. The OpenCL result alone — a 348.3% lead — tells you everything you need to know. The RTX 4070’s 81st percentile ranking versus the HD 7970’s 79th percentile might look close, but that percentile is based on all GPUs ever tested; the raw scores show a gap of over 3,000 points in average benchmark score. The HD 7970 is an end-of-life product from 2012, while the RTX 4070 is also end-of-life but from 2023, and the decade of architectural progress shows.

If you are building a system today, the RTX 4070 is the only sensible choice for any modern gaming or compute workload. The HD 7970 lacks DirectX 12 Ultimate support, has no ray tracing capability, and its 3 GB of VRAM is insufficient for current games. The data is unambiguous: the RTX 4070 wins the only head-to-head test by a landslide, and its additional benchmark scores all point to a card that handles contemporary tasks with ease. The HD 7970 remains a historical artifact, not a practical purchase.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 | AMD Radeon HD 7970 |

|---|---|---|

| Architecture | Ada Lovelace | GCN 1.0 |

| Process Node | 5 nm | 28 nm |

| Transistors | 35,800 million | 4,313 million |

| Die Size | 294 mm² | 352 mm² |

| Shader Units | 5,888 | 2,048 |

| TMUs | 184 | 128 |

| ROPs | 64 | 32 |

| RT Cores | 46 | None |

| Tensor Cores | 184 | None |

| FP32 Compute | 29.15 TFLOPS | 3.789 TFLOPS |

| Memory Size | 12 GB | 3 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR6X | GDDR5 |

| Memory Bus | 192 bit | 384 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 504.2 GB/s | 264.0 GB/s |

| Base Clock | 1920 MHz | None listed |

| Boost Clock | 2475 MHz | None listed |

| TDP | 200 W | 250 W |

| Power Connectors | 1x 16-pin | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin |

| Suggested PSU | 550 W | 600 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | 1x HDMI 2.1, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, 2x mini-DisplayPort 1.2 |

| DirectX Support | 12 Ultimate (12_2) | 12 (11_1) |

| Vulkan Support | 1.4 | 1.2.170 |

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 scores 154858, which is 348.3% higher than the AMD Radeon HD 7970’s score of 34541.

Q: Does the HD 7970 support ray tracing?

A: No. The HD 7970 has no RT cores, while the RTX 4070 has 46 dedicated RT cores for hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

Q: How much VRAM does each card have?

A: The RTX 4070 has 12 GB of GDDR6X memory, while the HD 7970 has 3 GB of GDDR5 memory.

Q: What is the transistor count difference?

A: The RTX 4070 has 35,800 million transistors, while the HD 7970 has 4,313 million — a difference of over 31,000 million transistors in favor of the RTX 4070.

Q: Which card has higher memory bandwidth?

A: The RTX 4070 delivers 504.2 GB/s, nearly double the HD 7970’s 264.0 GB/s, despite the HD 7970 having a wider 384-bit memory bus.

Q: What is the TDP of each card?

A: The RTX 4070 has a 200 W TDP, while the HD 7970 has a 250 W TDP, meaning the newer card is more power-efficient despite being far faster.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4070 wins every measurable category in the data. It wins in raw compute, memory bandwidth, VRAM capacity, and feature support. It has hardware ray tracing, tensor cores for AI workloads, and supports DirectX 12 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4. Its 5 nm process node and 35,800 million transistors give it a level of performance that the HD 7970 cannot approach. For any modern gaming, content creation, or compute task, the RTX 4070 is the clear victor.

The HD 7970’s only “win” is in the abstract sense of legacy compatibility. It uses PCIe 3.0 x16, which means it can run in older systems without issue, and its 250 W TDP with 6-pin and 8-pin connectors is simpler than the RTX 4070’s 16-pin connector. It also has a wider 384-bit memory bus, which historically helped at high resolutions, but that advantage is nullified by the RTX 4070’s far superior GDDR6X bandwidth. In terms of actual performance, the HD 7970 has no benchmark victory. The data shows a single head-to-head result, and it belongs entirely to the RTX 4070.