GPU Comparison

The benchmark data presents a fascinating clash of GPU generations and design philosophies. The AMD Radeon HD 7970, a 2012 flagship from the Southern Islands era, squares off against the NVIDIA T600 Mobile, a 2021 Turing-based mobile workstation part. While the HD 7970 is a physical giant with a 352 mm² die and a 250 W TDP, the T600 Mobile is a 40 W IGP designed for portability. The single head-to-head benchmark, Geekbench OpenCL, shows the NVIDIA T600 Mobile winning with a score of 35486 against the AMD's 34541, a delta of -2.7% from the AMD's perspective. This narrow margin is surprising, given the vast differences in their power envelopes and physical sizes, and it sets the stage for a deeper investigation into what these numbers actually mean.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison available is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and it paints a picture of near-parity with a slight edge to the newer, more efficient part. The NVIDIA T600 Mobile scores 35486, while the AMD Radeon HD 7970 trails closely with 34541. This represents a 2.7% victory for the T600 Mobile, a margin that is almost within the noise of benchmark variance. The data suggests that in raw compute workloads as measured by OpenCL, the two cards are effectively in the same performance tier, despite their architectural and generational chasm.

This result is even more telling when we look at the context of the HD 7970's own rivals. The AMD card's nearest competitor is the NVIDIA T1000 8 GB, which scores an average of 34561, a delta of -0.1% from the HD 7970. This means the HD 7970 is essentially tied with the T1000. The T600 Mobile, in turn, is 0.9% ahead of the AMD FirePro S9300 X2 and 0.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon RX 590 GME. The entire cluster of scores, from the HD 7970's 34541 to the T600 Mobile's 35486, spans less than 1000 points, indicating that all these GPUs are clustered in a similar performance band.

The implications are significant. The HD 7970, with its massive 384-bit memory bus and 264.0 GB/s of bandwidth, can only muster a 2.7% deficit against a mobile chip with a 128-bit bus and 192.0 GB/s. This suggests that the OpenCL workload is not purely bandwidth-bound, and the T600 Mobile's architectural efficiency, particularly its higher clock speeds, is compensating for its narrower memory interface. The T600 Mobile's boost clock of 1410 MHz is substantially higher than the HD 7970's memory clock of 1375 MHz (though that is a different metric), and its pixel rate of 45.12 GPixel/s is significantly higher than the HD 7970's 29.60 GPixel/s. These factors likely contribute to its competitive compute showing.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gulf between these two GPUs is vast, representing a near-decade of evolution. The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is built on the Graphics Core Next (GCN) 1.0 architecture, using a 28 nm process at TSMC. This is a massive chip, with 4,313 million transistors crammed into a 352 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 12.3 million per square millimeter. Its successor is the Sea Islands family, and it is based on the Tahiti chip. In contrast, the NVIDIA T600 Mobile uses the Turing architecture, built on a much more advanced 12 nm process. It packs 4,700 million transistors into a much smaller 200 mm² die, achieving a far higher density of 23.5 million per square millimeter. This density advantage is a direct result of the newer process node.

The raw compute resources are also starkly different. The HD 7970 is a brute-force design, featuring 2048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. This configuration gives it a texture rate of 118.4 GTexel/s and a FP32 throughput of 3.789 TFLOPS. The T600 Mobile, by contrast, has only 896 shading units and 56 TMUs, resulting in a texture rate of 78.96 GTexel/s and a FP32 rate of 2.527 TFLOPS. However, the T600 Mobile has a secret weapon: its FP16 performance is 5.053 TFLOPS (2:1), which is more than double its FP32 rate. The HD 7970 has no listed FP16 capability, making the Turing card far more versatile for workloads that can leverage reduced precision.

Memory configuration tells another story of divergent priorities. The HD 7970 uses 3 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, achieving a bandwidth of 264.0 GB/s. The T600 Mobile uses 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 128-bit bus, which yields a bandwidth of 192.0 GB/s. The HD 7970's wider bus is a classic hallmark of a high-end desktop part, designed to feed its massive shader array, whereas the T600 Mobile's smaller bus is optimized for power efficiency. In terms of API support, the T600 Mobile is more modern, supporting DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.4, while the HD 7970 tops out at DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The T600 Mobile also has a base clock of 780 MHz and a boost clock of 1410 MHz, whereas the HD 7970's base and boost clocks are not listed.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in the Geekbench OpenCL test?

A: The NVIDIA T600 Mobile wins the head-to-head Geekbench OpenCL benchmark, scoring 35486 compared to the AMD Radeon HD 7970's 34541. This gives the T600 Mobile a 2.7% lead over the AMD card.

Q: How does the AMD Radeon HD 7970 compare to its own nearest rivals?

A: The HD 7970's average benchmark score is 34541, placing it in the 79th percentile of all GPUs. It is nearly tied with the NVIDIA T1000 8 GB (34561, -0.1%) and the NVIDIA A2 (34690, -0.4%). It is slightly ahead of the NVIDIA TITAN V (34355, 0.5%) and the NVIDIA RTX A1000 (34207, 1%).

Q: What are the key differences in memory bandwidth and capacity?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 7970 has 3 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 384-bit bus, providing 264.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The NVIDIA T600 Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing 192.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD card has significantly more bandwidth, but the NVIDIA card has more capacity.

Q: Is the NVIDIA T600 Mobile more power-efficient?

A: The data indicates a massive difference in power consumption. The AMD Radeon HD 7970 has a TDP of 250 W and requires a 600 W power supply, along with a 1x 6-pin and 1x 8-pin power connector. The NVIDIA T600 Mobile has a TDP of just 40 W and uses no power connectors, as it is an IGP (Integrated Graphics Processor) for portable devices.

Q: Which GPU has a higher transistor density?

A: The NVIDIA T600 Mobile has a significantly higher transistor density of 23.5M / mm², despite having more total transistors (4,700 million vs. 4,313 million). This is because it is built on a 12 nm process, while the AMD Radeon HD 7970 uses a 28 nm process, resulting in a density of only 12.3M / mm².

Q: What are the production statuses of these two GPUs?

A: Both the AMD Radeon HD 7970 and the NVIDIA T600 Mobile are listed as "End-of-life" in the production status field. The HD 7970 was released on 2012-01-08, while the T600 Mobile was released much later, on 2021-04-11.

The Verdict

The data presents a clear, if nuanced, verdict. For raw compute performance in the Geekbench OpenCL test, the NVIDIA T600 Mobile is the winner, but only by a slim 2.7% margin. This is a remarkable achievement for a 40 W mobile part against a 250 W desktop behemoth. The T600 Mobile's victory is likely attributed to its architectural efficiency, higher clock speeds, and support for FP16 compute, which the HD 7970 lacks.

However, the story is not one-sided. The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is a desktop-oriented card with a much higher texture fill rate (118.4 GTexel/s vs. 78.96 GTexel/s) and significantly higher memory bandwidth (264.0 GB/s vs. 192.0 GB/s). These specifications suggest that the HD 7970 would be superior in tasks that are heavily reliant on texture throughput and memory bandwidth, such as traditional rasterized gaming at high resolutions. The HD 7970 also has a higher FP32 compute rate (3.789 TFLOPS vs. 2.527 TFLOPS), meaning it could be faster in certain legacy or FP32-only compute workloads.

The percentile rankings show the HD 7970 in the 79th percentile of all GPUs, while the T600 Mobile sits in the 77th percentile. This suggests that, on average, the HD 7970 is actually a slightly stronger performer across a broader spectrum of tasks, even though it loses the specific OpenCL test. The T600 Mobile's average score of 32849 is lower than its OpenCL score, dragged down by its Vulkan score of 30211, whereas the HD 7970's average is equal to its OpenCL score. Ultimately, the verdict depends on the workload: the T600 Mobile is the more efficient and modern compute part, while the HD 7970 is the more powerful traditional graphics card on paper.

Specification Differences

The following table highlights the fields where the two GPUs differ significantly:

• Architecture: GCN 1.0 (AMD) vs. Turing (NVIDIA)
• Process Node: 28 nm (AMD) vs. 12 nm (NVIDIA)
• Transistors: 4,313 million (AMD) vs. 4,700 million (NVIDIA)
• Die Size: 352 mm² (AMD) vs. 200 mm² (NVIDIA)
• Transistor Density: 12.3M / mm² (AMD) vs. 23.5M / mm² (NVIDIA)
• Memory Size: 3 GB (AMD) vs. 4 GB (NVIDIA)
• Memory Type: GDDR5 (AMD) vs. GDDR6 (NVIDIA)
• Memory Bus: 384 bit (AMD) vs. 128 bit (NVIDIA)
• Memory Bandwidth: 264.0 GB/s (AMD) vs. 192.0 GB/s (NVIDIA)
• Shading Units: 2048 (AMD) vs. 896 (NVIDIA)
• Texture Mapping Units: 128 (AMD) vs. 56 (NVIDIA)
• Pixel Rate: 29.60 GPixel/s (AMD) vs. 45.12 GPixel/s (NVIDIA)
• Texture Rate: 118.4 GTexel/s (AMD) vs. 78.96 GTexel/s (NVIDIA)
• FP32 Performance: 3.789 TFLOPS (AMD) vs. 2.527 TFLOPS (NVIDIA)
• TDP: 250 W (AMD) vs. 40 W (NVIDIA)
• Slot Width: Dual-slot (AMD) vs. IGP (NVIDIA)
• Power Connectors: 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin (AMD) vs. None (NVIDIA)
• Suggested PSU: 600 W (AMD) vs. None (NVIDIA)
• Display Outputs: 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, 2x mini-DisplayPort 1.2 (AMD) vs. Portable Device Dependent (NVIDIA)
• Vulkan API: 1.2.170 (AMD) vs. 1.4 (NVIDIA)
• Release Date: 2012-01-08 (AMD) vs. 2021-04-11 (NVIDIA)

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 holds the advantage in scenarios that demand raw throughput and legacy compute. Its higher FP32 performance (3.789 TFLOPS) and texture fill rate (118.4 GTexel/s) make it a potentially stronger candidate for older games or scientific applications that rely on single-precision math and heavy texture sampling. Its massive memory bandwidth (264.0 GB/s) is a clear win for data-heavy workloads that can utilize its 384-bit bus, and its higher percentile rank (79th vs. 77th) suggests it is a more consistent performer overall. It also has the advantage of a physical desktop form factor with multiple display outputs, including DVI and HDMI.

The NVIDIA T600 Mobile wins on efficiency and modern features. Its 2.7% lead in the OpenCL benchmark, despite a fraction of the power draw (40 W vs. 250 W), demonstrates a massive efficiency advantage. It is the clear winner for any mobile or space-constrained application. Its support for FP16 compute (5.053 TFLOPS) gives it a distinct edge in AI inference and machine learning tasks that leverage reduced precision. The newer Turing architecture also provides superior API support, including DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.4, which could be crucial for modern software. In a portable workstation, the T600 Mobile is the only viable choice, given the HD 7970's power and physical requirements.