AMD Radeon HD 7970M vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The single recorded comparison in the database is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and it produces a clear, though not overwhelming, victory for the AMD Radeon HD 7970M. The AMD part scores 17,019 points, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 scores 15,283 points. That works out to an 11.4% advantage for the AMD mobile chip, a decisive margin in a compute-oriented workload but one that still leaves the two parts in the same general performance tier.

Context from the nearest rival lists reinforces the picture. The HD 7970M lands within 0.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (17,037 points) and within 0.4% of the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (17,083 points). It is also just 1.1% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, which scores 17,208 points. That clustering means the HD 7970M, despite its age and mobile pedigree, is effectively trading blows with desktop parts from much later generations in this specific OpenCL test. On the other side, the GTX 580 sits in a slightly lower band. It matches the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (15,290 points) within 0%, edges the AMD Radeon 680M (15,270 points) by 0.1%, and beats the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (15,199 points) by 0.6% and the AMD Radeon RX 7600 (15,171 points) by 0.7%. The GTX 580 is not being blown away by its rivals; it is holding its ground within a tight group.

The delta between the two cards in the head-to-head is 11.4%, which is larger than the gaps seen inside each card's own rival cluster. That is worth noting: the HD 7970M's nearest rivals are all within 1.1% of it, and the GTX 580's nearest rivals are all within 0.7% of it, but the two cards themselves are separated by more than a full 11 points. Neither card is an outlier among its peers, but relative to each other, the AMD solution occupies a distinctly higher performance tier. The percentile data agrees, with the HD 7970M sitting at the 60th percentile among all GPUs and the GTX 580 at the 58th percentile.

In practical terms, the benchmark indicates that the HD 7970M delivers roughly 11% more OpenCL compute throughput than the GTX 580. For workloads that lean heavily on this type of general-purpose compute, that is a meaningful gap, enough to tip the balance in favor of the AMD card. The GTX 580, however, is not far behind, and its own rival positioning shows it is competitive with much newer hardware in the same test. Both cards are end-of-life products, so the comparison is primarily of historical interest, but the data is unambiguous about which one scores higher in this test.

The Verdict

The database shows a single head-to-head result, and it favors the AMD Radeon HD 7970M by 11.4%. For anyone evaluating these two GPUs specifically on OpenCL compute performance, the HD 7970M is the stronger choice. It posts a higher raw score, a higher percentile ranking (60th versus 58th), and it does so while being surrounded in the leaderboard by significantly newer desktop hardware. The GTX 580, by contrast, clusters with mid-range and integrated parts from later generations, including the RTX 2060 and the Radeon 680M.

That said, the GTX 580 is not a poor performer. Its score of 15,283 places it within 0.7% of several modern GPUs, which is a respectable result for a card from the Fermi 2.0 era. But the head-to-head delta is the deciding factor here: the HD 7970M wins the only recorded contest, and it does so by a comfortable double-digit margin. If the choice is purely about which card produces the better benchmark result, the answer is the AMD Radeon HD 7970M.

The GTX 580 does have its own strengths in other areas, such as memory bandwidth and pixel throughput, but those are not reflected in the head-to-head benchmark, and the instructions here are to stick strictly to the recorded data. On the evidence available, the HD 7970M is the better performer in the one test that matters for this comparison.

For buyers or collectors choosing between these two end-of-life cards, the data points one way. The HD 7970M offers higher compute performance, a better percentile standing, and a win in the only direct comparison recorded. The GTX 580 is competitive with its own peer group, but it does not match the AMD card's score. The verdict is straightforward: pick the HD 7970M for better benchmark results, and pick the GTX 580 only if its particular physical format, memory configuration, or desktop-oriented features are more important than raw compute score.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU wins the head-to-head benchmark?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 7970M wins the only recorded head-to-head test, the Geekbench OpenCL benchmark, by an 11.4% margin.

Q: What are the exact benchmark scores for each card?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 7970M scores 17,019 points, and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 scores 15,283 points.

Q: How does the HD 7970M compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The HD 7970M is within 0.1% of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 (17,037 points), within 0.4% of the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (17,083 points), and 1.1% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 (17,208 points).

Q: How does the GTX 580 compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GTX 580 matches the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (15,290 points) within 0%, beats the AMD Radeon 680M (15,270 points) by 0.1%, and leads the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 OEM (15,199 points) by 0.6%.

Q: What percentile rank does each card hold?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 7970M is at the 60th percentile among all GPUs, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 is at the 58th percentile.

Q: What is the memory configuration of each card?

A: The HD 7970M has 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 153.6 GB/s bandwidth, while the GTX 580 has 1536 MB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus with 192.4 GB/s bandwidth.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every major specification category. The AMD Radeon HD 7970M uses a 28 nm process node, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 uses a 40 nm node, both built by TSMC. Transistor counts are close: the HD 7970M has 2,800 million transistors on a 212 mm² die, while the GTX 580 has 3,000 million transistors on a much larger 520 mm² die. Transistor density tells the story of the process advantage, with the AMD chip at 13.2 million transistors per square millimeter versus 5.8 million for the NVIDIA chip.

Memory configurations also diverge. The HD 7970M carries 2 GB of GDDR5 across a 256-bit bus, yielding 153.6 GB/s of bandwidth. The GTX 580 has 1536 MB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, yielding a higher 192.4 GB/s of bandwidth. Memory clocks differ as well, with the HD 7970M running at 1200 MHz (4.8 Gbps effective) and the GTX 580 at 1002 MHz (4 Gbps effective). The NVIDIA card compensates for its lower clock with a wider bus.

Compute resources are heavily skewed toward the AMD card. The HD 7970M has 1,280 shading units, 80 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The GTX 580 has 512 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 48 ROPs. Pixel rate favors the GTX 580 slightly in structure (48 ROPs versus 32), but the measured rates tell a different story: the HD 7970M posts 27.20 GPixel/s versus 24.70 GPixel/s for the GTX 580. Texture rate favors the AMD card more clearly, at 68.00 GTexel/s versus 49.41 GTexel/s. Floating-point performance (FP32) is 2.176 TFLOPS for the HD 7970M and 1.581 TFLOPS for the GTX 580.

Power and physical specifications differ sharply. The HD 7970M is a 100 W MXM module with no power connectors and a portable-device-dependent display output. The GTX 580 is a 244 W dual-slot desktop card with a 1x 6-pin plus 1x 8-pin power connector configuration, a suggested 550 W power supply, and dimensions of 267 mm (10.5 inches) in length and 111 mm (4.4 inches) in height. The bus interface is MXM-B (3.0) for the AMD card and PCIe 2.0 x16 for the NVIDIA card. The GTX 580 also has a launch MSRP of 499 USD.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is substantial. The AMD Radeon HD 7970M is built on the Graphics Core Next (GCN) 1.0 architecture, using the Wimbledon chip, and belongs to the London (HD 7900M) generation. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 uses the Fermi 2.0 architecture with the GF110 chip and belongs to the GeForce 500 generation. These are fundamentally different design philosophies, with GCN designed for compute-heavy workloads and Fermi 2.0 representing an iterative refinement of NVIDIA's earlier Fermi architecture.

The manufacturing process is a major divider. The HD 7970M is fabricated on a 28 nm process, while the GTX 580 uses a 40 nm process. This explains the dramatic difference in die size despite similar transistor counts: the AMD chip fits 2,800 million transistors into 212 mm², while the NVIDIA chip spreads 3,000 million transistors across 520 mm². The smaller process node gives the AMD card a clear density advantage and contributes to its much lower 100 W TDP versus 244 W for the GTX 580.

The memory architecture also differs in approach. The HD 7970M uses a 256-bit bus with 2 GB of GDDR5, while the GTX 580 uses a wider 384-bit bus with 1536 MB of GDDR5. The NVIDIA card achieves higher bandwidth (192.4 GB/s versus 153.6 GB/s) through width rather than speed, since its memory clock is actually lower. The AMD card runs its memory at 1200 MHz (4.8 Gbps effective) compared to 1002 MHz (4 Gbps effective) for the GTX 580.

Shader and texture configurations reflect the different architectures. The HD 7970M has 1,280 shading units and 80 TMUs, while the GTX 580 has 512 shading units and 64 TMUs. The ROP count is the one area where the NVIDIA card has more hardware, with 48 ROPs versus 32, but the AMD card still achieves a higher pixel rate in the recorded data. The compute throughput advantage is clear: 2.176 TFLOPS versus 1.581 TFLOPS.

API support also differs. The HD 7970M supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170. The GTX 580 supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and OpenGL 4.6, but has no Vulkan support recorded in the database. This makes the AMD card more flexible for modern applications that rely on Vulkan. Release dates place the GTX 580 earlier, with a launch date of 2010-11-08, while the HD 7970M arrived later on 2012-04-23. The predecessor and successor designations also differ: the HD 7970M follows the Vancouver and precedes the Solar System, while the GTX 580 follows GeForce 400 and precedes GeForce 600.