AMD Radeon HD 7970M vs AMD Radeon RX 6600 Comparison

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon RX 6600 and AMD Radeon HD 7970M occupy very different positions in the performance spectrum, separated by roughly a decade of GPU architecture evolution. The benchmark data available for direct comparison is limited to a single shared test, Geekbench OpenCL, but the broader recorded measurements for the RX 6600 paint a more complete picture of its capabilities.

The RX 6600 wins the only head-to-head benchmark available in the database. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 6600 scores 28,850 against the HD 7970M's 17,019, a delta of 69.5% in favor of the newer card. This is a decisive margin, but it is only one workload. The HD 7970M has no other recorded benchmark entries in the database, so its strengths outside of OpenCL compute cannot be quantified here. The data simply does not include DirectX, Vulkan, or compute results for the older mobile GPU.

For the RX 6600, the database records a wider set of results. Its Passmark G3D score is 15,096, its Passmark GPU Compute score is 6,554, and its Geekbench Vulkan score is 67,623. The Geekbench Metal score reaches 88,398, while Geekbench OpenCL sits at 28,850. The RX 6600 also appears in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 with a score of 1,492, and in Passmark legacy DirectX tests: DirectX 9 at 197, DirectX 10 at 95, DirectX 11 at 152, and DirectX 12 at 51. Its Passmark G2D score is 889.

The HD 7970M's single recorded score places it at the 60th percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the RX 6600 sits at the 63rd percentile. The average benchmark score for the RX 6600 is 19,036, compared to 17,019 for the HD 7970M. That gap of roughly 2,000 points in average score reflects the RX 6600's advantage across a broader range of workloads, though the limited data for the HD 7970M makes percentile comparison less robust than one would prefer.

The use-case split is clear from the recorded data. The RX 6600 is the card for modern API workloads, with DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4, plus hardware ray tracing cores. The HD 7970M, with DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170, is limited to older feature levels and lacks ray tracing entirely. For legacy DirectX 9 or DirectX 10 workloads, the RX 6600 still leads in the Passmark tests, but the margins are not as dramatic as in modern APIs. The RX 6600 scores 197 in Passmark DirectX 9 versus 152 in DirectX 11, suggesting that older fixed-function workloads are not where this card shines; its architecture is optimized for contemporary shading models and compute-heavy rendering.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from entirely different architectural lineages. The RX 6600 uses the Navi 23 chip built on RDNA 2.0, manufactured on a 7 nm process at TSMC. The HD 7970M uses the Wimbledon chip based on GCN 1.0, built on a 28 nm process, also at TSMC. The process node difference is substantial: 7 nm versus 28 nm, which directly impacts transistor density. The RX 6600 packs 11,060 million transistors into a 237 mm² die, yielding a density of 46.7 million transistors per square millimeter. The HD 7970M contains 2,800 million transistors on a 212 mm² die, for a density of 13.2 million per square millimeter. The RX 6600 fits roughly four times as many transistors into a similar physical area.

The memory subsystems differ in both capacity and type. The RX 6600 ships with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 224.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The HD 7970M has 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, with 153.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The RX 6600 has less than half the bus width but still achieves 45.8% more bandwidth thanks to the faster memory technology and higher effective data rate: 14 Gbps effective for the RX 6600 versus 4.8 Gbps effective for the HD 7970M.

Compute resources show the generational leap. The RX 6600 has 1,792 shading units, 112 texture mapping units, and 64 render output units. It also includes 28 ray tracing cores, a feature absent from the HD 7970M entirely. The HD 7970M has 1,280 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The RX 6600's pixel rate is 159.4 GPixel/s versus 27.20 GPixel/s for the HD 7970M, and its texture rate is 279.0 GTexel/s versus 68.00 GTexel/s. Floating-point performance tells a similar story: 8.928 TFLOPS FP32 for the RX 6600 against 2.176 TFLOPS for the HD 7970M. The RX 6600 also supports FP16 at 17.86 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio, while the HD 7970M has no recorded FP16 capability.

Clock speeds differ significantly. The RX 6600 has a base clock of 1626 MHz, a game clock of 2044 MHz, and a boost clock of 2491 MHz. The HD 7970M has no base or boost clock recorded in the database, so direct frequency comparison is not possible. The RX 6600's memory clock is 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective, while the HD 7970M's memory runs at 1200 MHz with 4.8 Gbps effective.

Power and form factor also diverge. The RX 6600 is a dual-slot card with a 132 W TDP, requiring a single 8-pin power connector and a 300 W suggested power supply. It uses PCIe 4.0 x8 for the bus interface. The HD 7970M is an MXM module with a 100 W TDP, no power connectors, and an MXM-B (3.0) bus interface. Its display outputs are marked as portable device dependent, meaning it was designed for laptops, not desktop use. The RX 6600 offers 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a outputs.

API support reflects the architectural gap. The RX 6600 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The HD 7970M supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The DirectX feature level difference, 12_2 versus 11_1, is significant for modern games and applications that rely on mesh shaders, variable rate shading, and other DirectX 12 Ultimate features.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains exactly one direct head-to-head benchmark between these two GPUs: Geekbench OpenCL. The RX 6600 scores 28,850, while the HD 7970M scores 17,019. That is a 69.5% advantage for the RX 6600. This is a compute-oriented workload, measuring OpenCL performance, which tends to favor architectures with higher raw FP32 throughput and better memory bandwidth. The RX 6600 has both advantages: 8.928 TFLOPS versus 2.176 TFLOPS in FP32, and 224.0 GB/s versus 153.6 GB/s in bandwidth.

The 69.5% delta is larger than the difference in their average benchmark scores would suggest. The RX 6600's average score is 19,036, and the HD 7970M's is 17,019, a difference of 11.9%. The OpenCL result is more lopsided because it isolates compute performance, where the architectural improvements of RDNA 2.0 over GCN 1.0 are most pronounced. The GCN architecture was designed for compute-heavy workloads in its era, but RDNA 2.0 has substantially improved the efficiency of compute units, and the 7 nm process allows far higher clock speeds.

Looking at the RX 6600's other recorded benchmarks provides context for where it excels. Its Geekbench Vulkan score of 67,623 is more than double its OpenCL score, indicating that the Vulkan driver path is particularly well optimized for this card. The Metal score of 88,398 is even higher. These results suggest that the RX 6600 is well suited to modern graphics APIs and compute workloads that can leverage its ray tracing cores and advanced shader features.

For the HD 7970M, the absence of additional benchmark data means its performance in DirectX or Vulkan workloads cannot be assessed from the database. The single OpenCL score of 17,019 places it at the 60th percentile of all GPUs, which is respectable for a mobile GPU from 2012, but it is clearly outclassed by the RX 6600 in this specific test.

The Passmark results for the RX 6600 show an interesting pattern. Its DirectX 9 score of 197 is higher than its DirectX 12 score of 51, and its DirectX 11 score of 152 is also higher than DirectX 12. This is counterintuitive at first glance, but it reflects the fact that older DirectX versions are less demanding on modern hardware, and the Passmark test suite may not scale the workload with the card's capabilities. The G2D score of 889 indicates strong 2D performance, while the G3D score of 15,096 and GPU Compute score of 6,554 round out the picture.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in OpenCL compute?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 6600 scores 28,850 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 69.5% higher than the HD 7970M's 17,019. This is the only direct head-to-head benchmark recorded in the database.

Q: Do these GPUs support the same DirectX version?

A: No. The RX 6600 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the HD 7970M supports DirectX 12 (11_1). The RX 6600 also supports Vulkan 1.4, while the HD 7970M supports Vulkan 1.2.170.

Q: How much memory does each GPU have?

A: The RX 6600 has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus with 224.0 GB/s bandwidth. The HD 7970M has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus with 153.6 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Does the HD 7970M support ray tracing?

A: No. The HD 7970M has no ray tracing cores. The RX 6600 includes 28 ray tracing cores.

Q: What are the process nodes for these GPUs?

A: The RX 6600 is built on a 7 nm TSMC process with 11,060 million transistors on a 237 mm² die. The HD 7970M uses a 28 nm TSMC process with 2,800 million transistors on a 212 mm² die.

Q: Which GPU has a higher pixel fill rate?

A: The RX 6600 has a pixel rate of 159.4 GPixel/s, compared to 27.20 GPixel/s for the HD 7970M. The RX 6600 also leads in texture rate at 279.0 GTexel/s versus 68.00 GTexel/s.

Q: How do their average benchmark scores compare?

A: The RX 6600 has an average benchmark score of 19,036 and sits at the 63rd percentile of all GPUs. The HD 7970M has an average score of 17,019 and sits at the 60th percentile.

The Verdict

The data points to a clear winner for almost any modern workload. The AMD Radeon RX 6600 beats the AMD Radeon HD 7970M in the only directly comparable benchmark, Geekbench OpenCL, by 69.5%. It has more memory, higher bandwidth, more shading units, more TMUs, more ROPs, and the only ray tracing cores of the two. Its process node advantage, 7 nm versus 28 nm, underpins a roughly fourfold transistor density advantage. Its DirectX 12 Ultimate support and Vulkan 1.4 compatibility mean it can run modern APIs that the HD 7970M cannot fully utilize.

The HD 7970M is not without merit in its historical context. It was a mobile GPU from 2012, and its 60th percentile ranking among all GPUs in the database is respectable. Its 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus was generous for its era, and its GCN 1.0 architecture was designed with compute in mind. But the database records only one benchmark for it, and that benchmark shows it trailing the RX 6600 by a wide margin.

For a user choosing between these two today, the RX 6600 is the only sensible option if the workload involves modern games, ray tracing, or compute acceleration. The HD 7970M's lack of ray tracing cores, older DirectX feature level, and smaller memory capacity make it unsuitable for contemporary applications. The RX 6600's 8 GB of memory is four times the HD 7970M's 2 GB, and its 224.0 GB/s bandwidth is 45.8% higher despite a narrower bus.

The HD 7970M might still serve in a legacy system running older DirectX 9 or DirectX 10 games, but the RX 6600 also scores higher in those Passmark legacy tests. There is no recorded workload in the database where the HD 7970M outperforms the RX 6600. The verdict is unambiguous: the RX 6600 is the superior GPU by every measurable metric in the database, and the HD 7970M should be considered only for historical interest or very specific legacy use cases where its MXM form factor is required.