AMD Radeon HD 7970 vs NVIDIA RTX A6000 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded database includes only one shared benchmark between these two cards, and the result is decisive. In Geekbench OpenCL, the NVIDIA RTX A6000 scores 193,937 against the AMD Radeon HD 7970's 34,541. That is a delta of 461.5% in favor of the RTX A6000, meaning the newer workstation card delivers more than five times the raw compute performance in this OpenCL workload. The HD 7970 does not register a win in any head-to-head test.

This gap is not a close contest. The RTX A6000's average benchmark score across all recorded tests is 44,075, while the HD 7970's average is 34,541. Even accounting for the fact that the RTX A6000 has a much larger benchmark suite (nine tests versus one), the single shared metric shows a performance chasm that aligns with the architectural generational leap between the two products. The RTX A6000 sits at the 84th percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the HD 7970 sits at the 79th percentile; both are above average, but the RTX A6000 is clearly the stronger performer.

The nearest rivals in the database further contextualize the RTX A6000's position. It lands within 1.9% of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile (which scores 43,268) and within 0.9% of the GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile (43,667). It trails the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti by 1.6% (44,795) and leads the Quadro M6000 by 1.8% (43,301). These are tight margins, indicating that the RTX A6000 is competitive with modern high-end consumer and mobile parts in aggregate scoring, despite being a workstation-focused product from an earlier generation.

The HD 7970's nearest rivals show a similar cluster. It is 0.1% behind the NVIDIA T1000 8 GB (34,561), 0.4% behind the NVIDIA A2 (34,690), 0.5% ahead of the NVIDIA TITAN V (34,355), and 1.0% ahead of the NVIDIA RTX A1000 (34,207). This places the HD 7970 in a cohort of entry-level and older professional cards, none of which approach the RTX A6000's output. The delta between the two cards in their shared test is so large that no other benchmark comparison is needed to establish the performance hierarchy.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX A6000 wins the only head-to-head benchmark, and it also has a broader and stronger benchmark profile across its own test set. In Passmark G3D, it scores 22,577; in Passmark GPU Compute, it scores 14,110; in Passmark G2D, it scores 913. Its Geekbench Vulkan score is 164,462, and its Geekbench OpenCL score is 193,937. Older DirectX tests show lower numbers: 245 in DirectX 9, 191 in DirectX 11, 155 in DirectX 10, and 87 in DirectX 12. These figures are not directly comparable to the HD 7970 because the HD 7970 only has a Geekbench OpenCL result in the database, but the pattern is clear: the RTX A6000 is strong in compute-heavy and modern API workloads, while its legacy DirectX scores are modest, likely reflecting driver optimization priorities rather than raw capability.

The HD 7970's only recorded benchmark is Geekbench OpenCL at 34,541. That single data point means the database shows no test where the HD 7970 outperforms the RTX A6000. However, the HD 7970's percentile ranking at 79 indicates it is still a functional GPU for its era, and its nearest rival comparisons show it holding its own against low-end modern NVIDIA cards. For users running older DirectX 9 or DirectX 11 workloads, the HD 7970's architectural heritage from the GCN 1.0 era may still be relevant, but the database does not provide direct evidence of such a win. The RTX A6000's higher pixel rate (201.6 GPixel/s versus 29.60 GPixel/s) and texture rate (604.8 GTexel/s versus 118.4 GTexel/s) suggest it would dominate in rasterization-heavy tasks as well, though those are not head-to-head benchmark results.

The RTX A6000's FP32 throughput of 38.71 TFLOPS versus the HD 7970's 3.789 TFLOPS is a 10x gap in theoretical compute, which explains the OpenCL delta. The RTX A6000 also supports FP16 at a 1:1 ratio (38.71 TFLOPS), while the HD 7970 has no recorded FP16 capability. For any workload that leverages half-precision or modern compute APIs, the RTX A6000 is the only viable option between these two.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA RTX A6000 is the superior product in every measurable way recorded in the database. It wins the sole head-to-head benchmark by 461.5%, has a higher average benchmark score (44,075 versus 34,541), and a higher percentile ranking (84 versus 79). The HD 7970 was a strong card in its day, as its 79th percentile shows, but it is now outclassed by a workstation GPU from a decade later.

Who should pick the RTX A6000? Anyone needing professional compute performance, large memory capacity, or modern API support. The card offers 48 GB of GDDR6 memory, 10,752 shading units, 336 TMUs, 112 ROPs, 84 RT cores, and 336 tensor cores. Its 768.0 GB/s memory bandwidth and 8 nm Samsung process node put it in a different class entirely. The RTX A6000's nearest rivals are all modern NVIDIA parts, and it trades blows with them within a 2% margin, which means it remains relevant even against newer hardware.

Who should pick the HD 7970? Only a user constrained to legacy software that predates modern driver support, or someone seeking a retro part for vintage system builds. The HD 7970's 3 GB of GDDR5 memory, 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 32 ROPs were respectable in 2012, and its 264.0 GB/s bandwidth was competitive at launch. But against the RTX A6000, it is not a contest. The database shows one win for the RTX A6000 and zero for the HD 7970. There is no scenario in the recorded data where the older card comes out ahead.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the NVIDIA RTX A6000 than the AMD Radeon HD 7970 in OpenCL?

A: The RTX A6000 scores 193,937 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the HD 7970 scores 34,541, a delta of 461.5% in favor of the RTX A6000.

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The RTX A6000 has an average benchmark score of 44,075 across nine tests, while the HD 7970 has an average of 34,541 from its single recorded test.

Q: How do these cards rank against all GPUs in the database?

A: The RTX A6000 is at the 84th percentile, and the HD 7970 is at the 79th percentile.

Q: What are the closest rivals to the RTX A6000?

A: The nearest rivals are the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile (0.9% behind), the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti (1.6% ahead), the Quadro M6000 (1.8% behind), and the GeForce RTX 5050 Mobile (1.9% behind).

Q: What are the closest rivals to the HD 7970?

A: The nearest rivals are the NVIDIA T1000 8 GB (0.1% ahead), the NVIDIA A2 (0.4% ahead), the NVIDIA TITAN V (0.5% behind), and the NVIDIA RTX A1000 (1.0% behind).

Q: Does the HD 7970 win any benchmark against the RTX A6000?

A: No. The only head-to-head benchmark is Geekbench OpenCL, and the RTX A6000 wins it. The database records zero wins for the HD 7970.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from entirely different architectural eras. The RTX A6000 uses the GA102 chip on NVIDIA's Ampere architecture, built on Samsung's 8 nm process. It packs 28,300 million transistors on a 628 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 45.1 million per square millimeter. The HD 7970 uses the Tahiti chip on AMD's GCN 1.0 architecture, built on TSMC's 28 nm process. It has 4,313 million transistors on a 352 mm² die, a density of 12.3 million per square millimeter. The RTX A6000 has roughly 6.5 times the transistor count and nearly double the die area, with a density advantage of over 3.5 times.

The RTX A6000 includes dedicated RT cores (84) and tensor cores (336), which are absent entirely from the HD 7970. This means hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI/deep-learning workloads are possible on the RTX A6000 but not on the HD 7970. The RTX A6000 also has a 1:1 FP16 ratio, while the HD 7970 has no recorded FP16 capability. The memory subsystems differ fundamentally: the RTX A6000 uses GDDR6 with 48 GB capacity, and the HD 7970 uses GDDR5 with 3 GB. Both share a 384-bit memory bus, but the RTX A6000's bandwidth is 768.0 GB/s versus 264.0 GB/s.

The RTX A6000's shading unit count is 10,752 versus 2,048, its TMU count is 336 versus 128, and its ROP count is 112 versus 32. Pixel rate is 201.6 GPixel/s versus 29.60 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 604.8 GTexel/s versus 118.4 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 38.71 TFLOPS versus 3.789 TFLOPS. The RTX A6000 supports PCIe 4.0 x16, while the HD 7970 uses PCIe 3.0 x16. API support also differs: the RTX A6000 reaches DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4; the HD 7970 caps at DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every specification field. The RTX A6000 has a base clock of 1410 MHz and a boost clock of 1800 MHz, while the HD 7970 has no recorded base or boost clocks. Memory clock is 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) for the RTX A6000 versus 1375 MHz (5.5 Gbps effective) for the HD 7970. Memory size is 48 GB GDDR6 versus 3 GB GDDR5. Bandwidth is 768.0 GB/s versus 264.0 GB/s.

Process node is 8 nm (Samsung) versus 28 nm (TSMC). Transistor count is 28,300 million versus 4,313 million. Die size is 628 mm² versus 352 mm². Transistor density is 45.1M per mm² versus 12.3M per mm². The RTX A6000 has 10,752 shading units, 336 TMUs, 112 ROPs, 84 RT cores, and 336 tensor cores; the HD 7970 has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and no RT or tensor cores.

Power draw is 300 W for the RTX A6000 versus 250 W for the HD 7970. The RTX A6000 uses an 8-pin EPS power connector and suggests a 700 W PSU; the HD 7970 uses 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin connectors and suggests a 600 W PSU. Display outputs are 4x DisplayPort 1.4a on the RTX A6000 versus 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, and 2x mini-DisplayPort 1.2 on the HD 7970. The RTX A6000 is 267 mm long and 112 mm tall; the HD 7970 is 275 mm long, 111 mm tall, and 38 mm wide. Both are dual-slot cards. The RTX A6000's launch MSRP is 4,649 USD, and the HD 7970's is 549 USD.