AMD Radeon HD 7970M vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The benchmark data delivers a decisive verdict: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti dominates the AMD Radeon HD 7970M in the only shared test, the Geekbench OpenCL workload. The GTX 1080 Ti scores 67,929 against the HD 7970M’s 17,019, a delta of -74.9% for the AMD part. That is not a marginal gap; it is a generational chasm. The GTX 1080 Ti delivers roughly four times the raw compute throughput in this specific test, and the margin is so wide that no other metric in the pack can offset it.

Look closer at what that delta means. The HD 7970M’s score of 17,019 places it within 0.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (17,037) and 0.4% of the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (17,083). It is also just 1.1% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 (17,208). In other words, the 2012-era mobile chip sits in a performance class that includes modern desktop cards, at least in this single OpenCL benchmark. The GTX 1080 Ti, by contrast, posts 67,929, a score so far above its own nearest rivals that the comparison is almost abstract. Its closest listed competitor, the AMD Radeon Pro W5500, scores 15,679 — a 0.8% deficit for the NVIDIA card. The RTX 2060 trails by 1.7% at 15,290. The GTX 1080 Ti is not merely faster; it is in a different stratosphere, outpacing its nearest named rivals by more than 4x.

The head-to-head table shows only one benchmark, and the GTX 1080 Ti wins it outright. The win count is 1 for NVIDIA, 0 for AMD. That is the entire quantitative story. No multi-core test, no gaming frame-rate comparison, no ray-tracing workload exists in the pack. The data is sparse but unambiguous: when both cards run the same OpenCL workload, the Pascal-based GPU annihilates the GCN 1.0 part. The 74.9% delta is the largest margin recorded anywhere in the fact pack, and it is the only direct comparison available.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti than the AMD Radeon HD 7970M in the shared benchmark?

A: In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the GTX 1080 Ti scores 67,929 versus the HD 7970M’s 17,019, a delta of -74.9% for the AMD card. The NVIDIA card is approximately four times faster in raw score.

Q: Which card has a higher percentile ranking among all GPUs?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 7970M ranks in the 60th percentile, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti ranks in the 58th percentile. Despite the GTX 1080 Ti’s massive OpenCL lead, its percentile is actually lower by 2 points.

Q: What are the closest rivals to each card based on average benchmark score?

A: The HD 7970M’s nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (17,037, -0.1% delta), followed by the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (17,083, -0.4%). The GTX 1080 Ti’s nearest rival is the AMD Radeon R9 M380 (15,521, 0.2%), with the AMD Radeon Pro W5500 (15,679, -0.8%) close behind.

Q: Does the AMD card have any benchmark wins over the NVIDIA card?

A: No. In the only head-to-head benchmark available (Geekbench OpenCL), the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti wins. The winsA field is 0, and winsB is 1.

Q: Which card has more shading units and texture mapping units?

A: The GTX 1080 Ti has 3,584 shading units and 224 TMUs, compared to the HD 7970M’s 1,280 shading units and 80 TMUs. The NVIDIA card also has 88 ROPs versus 32 on the AMD card.

Q: How do the memory subsystems differ?

A: The GTX 1080 Ti uses 11 GB of GDDR5X on a 352-bit bus with 484.4 GB/s bandwidth, while the HD 7970M uses 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 153.6 GB/s bandwidth. The NVIDIA card offers over three times the bandwidth.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from entirely different architectural eras. The AMD Radeon HD 7970M is built on GCN 1.0, codenamed Wimbledon, and uses a 28 nm process at TSMC. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti uses the Pascal architecture, chip GP102, and is fabbed on a 16 nm process, also at TSMC. The node shrink is substantial: 28 nm down to 16 nm, which directly enables the GTX 1080 Ti’s higher transistor count and density. The HD 7970M packs 2,800 million transistors on a 212 mm² die, yielding a density of 13.2 million transistors per mm². The GTX 1080 Ti carries 11,800 million transistors on a 471 mm² die — a density of 25.1 million per mm². That is nearly double the density, and the raw transistor count is more than quadruple.

The memory architecture also diverges sharply. The HD 7970M uses 2 GB of GDDR5 with a 256-bit bus and 153.6 GB/s bandwidth. The GTX 1080 Ti uses 11 GB of GDDR5X with a 352-bit bus and 484.4 GB/s bandwidth. The memory type alone — GDDR5X versus GDDR5 — signals a newer generation, and the bandwidth advantage (484.4 GB/s versus 153.6 GB/s) is a direct consequence of both wider bus and faster memory clock (1376 MHz versus 1200 MHz). The HD 7970M’s memory runs at 4.8 Gbps effective, while the GTX 1080 Ti’s runs at 11 Gbps effective.

Compute resources are equally lopsided. The HD 7970M has 1,280 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The GTX 1080 Ti has 3,584 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 88 ROPs. Pixel rate for the NVIDIA card is 139.2 GPixel/s versus 27.20 GPixel/s for AMD. Texture rate is 354.4 GTexel/s versus 68.00 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 11.34 TFLOPS versus 2.176 TFLOPS. The GTX 1080 Ti also supports FP16 at 177.2 GFLOPS (1:64), while the HD 7970M has no listed FP16 capability. Neither card has RT cores or tensor cores.

API support differs as well. The HD 7970M supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The GTX 1080 Ti supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. The higher DirectX feature level (12_1 versus 11_1) and newer Vulkan version (1.4 versus 1.2.170) on the NVIDIA card reflect its more modern architecture.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every measurable specification. The GTX 1080 Ti has a base clock of 1481 MHz and a boost clock of 1582 MHz; the HD 7970M lists no base or boost clock. Memory clocks are 1376 MHz (11 Gbps effective) for NVIDIA versus 1200 MHz (4.8 Gbps effective) for AMD. Memory size is 11 GB versus 2 GB; bus width is 352 bit versus 256 bit; bandwidth is 484.4 GB/s versus 153.6 GB/s.

The GTX 1080 Ti has 3,584 shading units, 224 TMUs, and 88 ROPs. The HD 7970M has 1,280 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. Pixel rate is 139.2 GPixel/s versus 27.20 GPixel/s. Texture rate is 354.4 GTexel/s versus 68.00 GTexel/s. FP32 is 11.34 TFLOPS versus 2.176 TFLOPS. FP16 is 177.2 GFLOPS (1:64) on NVIDIA, absent on AMD.

Power and physical specs also diverge. The GTX 1080 Ti has a TDP of 250 W, is dual-slot, requires 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin power connectors, and suggests a 600 W PSU. The HD 7970M has a TDP of 100 W, is an MXM module, and has no power connectors. The GTX 1080 Ti uses PCIe 3.0 x16; the HD 7970M uses MXM-B (3.0). Display outputs are 1x HDMI 2.0 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a on NVIDIA, versus "Portable Device Dependent" on AMD. Dimensions for the GTX 1080 Ti are 267 mm length, 112 mm height, 40 mm width; the HD 7970M has no listed dimensions. The GTX 1080 Ti has a launch MSRP of 699 USD; the HD 7970M has no listed launch MSRP.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti is the superior performer in the only shared benchmark. The OpenCL score of 67,929 versus 17,019 is a 74.9% deficit for the AMD card, and no other test exists to challenge that result. If the selection criterion is raw compute performance, the GTX 1080 Ti wins outright. The HD 7970M’s 60th percentile ranking versus the GTX 1080 Ti’s 58th percentile is the sole metric where AMD appears ahead, but that is a global percentile across all GPUs, not a head-to-head comparison. In a direct matchup, NVIDIA’s card is faster by a factor of four.

The GTX 1080 Ti also wins on every architectural and specification front. It has more than double the shading units, nearly triple the TMUs, more than double the ROPs, over five times the FP32 throughput, over three times the memory bandwidth, and over five times the memory capacity. Its process node is smaller (16 nm versus 28 nm), its transistor density is nearly double, and its API support is newer. The HD 7970M’s only advantages are lower TDP (100 W versus 250 W), smaller form factor (MXM module versus dual-slot), and no external power connectors — all of which matter only in a mobile or embedded context.

For a desktop user, the GTX 1080 Ti is the clear choice based on benchmark data. For a laptop or compact system where power and space are constrained, the HD 7970M holds a niche, but that niche is about physical fit, not performance. The verdict is simple: the GTX 1080 Ti wins on every performance metric in the fact pack.

Where Each One Wins

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti wins in every benchmark category where data exists. The Geekbench OpenCL score is the only direct comparison, and it wins by 74.9%. It also wins on theoretical compute metrics: FP32 (11.34 TFLOPS versus 2.176 TFLOPS), pixel rate (139.2 GPixel/s versus 27.20 GPixel/s), and texture rate (354.4 GTexel/s versus 68.00 GTexel/s). Memory bandwidth is 484.4 GB/s versus 153.6 GB/s. The GTX 1080 Ti is the pick for any workload that demands maximum raw throughput, high-resolution textures, or large datasets. Its 11 GB of VRAM is over five times the HD 7970M’s 2 GB, making it suitable for modern game assets and compute workloads that exceed 2 GB. The newer Vulkan 1.4 and DirectX 12 (12_1) support also make it more future-proof for API-heavy applications.

AMD Radeon HD 7970M wins where power efficiency and physical footprint are the priority. Its TDP of 100 W is less than half the GTX 1080 Ti’s 250 W. It is an MXM module with no power connectors, designed for portable devices, whereas the GTX 1080 Ti is a dual-slot card requiring 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin connectors and a 600 W PSU. The HD 7970M’s 60th percentile ranking is also 2 points higher than the GTX 1080 Ti’s 58th, indicating that relative to the entire GPU landscape, the AMD part holds its own better than the NVIDIA card does against modern competition. But that is a global ranking, not a head-to-head win. In any direct compute test, the GTX 1080 Ti wins. The HD 7970M is the choice only for systems that cannot physically accommodate or power a high-end desktop GPU.