AMD Radeon HD 7970M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile Comparison

FAQ

Q: How does the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile compare to the AMD Radeon HD 7970M in the only shared benchmark?

A: In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RTX 4050 Mobile scores 74748, while the HD 7970M scores 17019. This yields a 339.2% higher score for the NVIDIA part, meaning the RTX 4050 Mobile is roughly 4.4 times faster in this compute workload.

Q: What is the average benchmark score for each GPU?

A: The RTX 4050 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 19049 across all its recorded tests. The HD 7970M has an average score of 17019, based solely on its single Geekbench OpenCL result.

Q: How does each GPU rank relative to all other GPUs in the database?

A: The RTX 4050 Mobile sits at the 63rd percentile among all GPUs, indicating it outperforms 63% of the database. The HD 7970M sits at the 60th percentile, a slightly lower standing.

Q: Which GPU has a higher transistor density, and what does that suggest?

A: The RTX 4050 Mobile packs 118.9 million transistors per square millimeter on a 5 nm process, versus 13.2M per square millimeter for the HD 7970M on 28 nm. The NVIDIA chip is far more density-efficient, reflecting a much newer manufacturing node.

Q: What are the memory specifications for each card?

A: The RTX 4050 Mobile has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 96-bit bus, delivering 192.0 GB/s bandwidth. The HD 7970M has 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, providing 153.6 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU has a higher pixel fill rate and texture fill rate?

A: The RTX 4050 Mobile achieves 84.24 GPixel/s and 140.4 GTexel/s. The HD 7970M achieves 27.20 GPixel/s and 68.00 GTexel/s. The NVIDIA card is roughly 3.1 times faster in pixel rate and about 2.1 times faster in texture rate.

The Verdict

The data is unequivocal: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile is the superior performer in every measurable category where both GPUs have recorded results. Its single head-to-head benchmark shows a 339.2% lead over the AMD Radeon HD 7970M in Geekbench OpenCL, a massive gap that reflects the generational divide between a 2023 Ada Lovelace part and a 2012 GCN 1.0 part.

Buyers should choose the RTX 4050 Mobile if they need modern features, higher compute throughput, and significantly more memory bandwidth per test. It also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) and Vulkan 1.4, while the HD 7970M only reaches DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170. The RTX 4050 Mobile also includes ray tracing cores and tensor cores, neither of which exists on the HD 7970M.

The HD 7970M is only relevant for legacy systems or specific MXM-based laptops where its 100 W TDP and older architecture are the only option. It is end-of-life, whereas the RTX 4050 Mobile is an active product. For any modern workload, the RTX 4050 Mobile wins decisively.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records only one shared benchmark between these two GPUs: Geekbench OpenCL. Here, the RTX 4050 Mobile scores 74748 points, versus 17019 points for the HD 7970M. The delta is 339.2%, meaning the NVIDIA GPU delivers more than four times the compute output in this OpenCL test.

This is not a marginal victory. It is a generational wipeout. The RTX 4050 Mobile's score places it near the top of the database's average scores, with an overall average of 19049 across all nine of its recorded benchmarks. The HD 7970M's average is 17019, but that figure comes from a single test, so its overall standing is less robust.

The RTX 4050 Mobile also wins on its other recorded benchmarks, such as PassMark G3D (14423), PassMark GPU Compute (5947), Geekbench Vulkan (75235), and DirectX 10/11/12 tests (79, 130, 61 respectively). The HD 7970M has no comparable recorded data for these tests, so no further head-to-head comparisons are possible.

In terms of raw throughput, the RTX 4050 Mobile's FP32 performance is 8.986 TFLOPS, while the HD 7970M is at 2.176 TFLOPS. That is a 4.1 times advantage. Pixel rate is 84.24 GPixel/s versus 27.20 GPixel/s, a 3.1 times lead. Texture rate is 140.4 GTexel/s versus 68.00 GTexel/s, a 2.1 times lead.

The only category where the HD 7970M shows any structural advantage is memory bus width: 256-bit versus 96-bit. Yet despite the wider bus, the HD 7970M's bandwidth is lower (153.6 GB/s versus 192.0 GB/s) because its GDDR5 memory runs at a much lower effective speed.

Specification Differences

The RTX 4050 Mobile and HD 7970M differ across nearly every specification field in the database. The NVIDIA GPU uses a 5 nm process node, while the AMD part uses 28 nm. Transistor counts are 18,900 million versus 2,800 million, a 6.75 times difference. Die size is 159 mm² versus 212 mm², meaning the RTX 4050 Mobile packs far more transistors into a smaller area.

Clock speeds: the RTX 4050 Mobile has a base clock of 1455 MHz and a boost of 1755 MHz. The HD 7970M has no base or boost clock recorded in the database. Memory clocks are 2000 MHz (16 Gbps effective) for the NVIDIA part and 1200 MHz (4.8 Gbps effective) for the AMD part.

Memory configuration: 6 GB GDDR6 on a 96-bit bus for the RTX 4050 Mobile, versus 2 GB GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus for the HD 7970M. Bandwidth is 192.0 GB/s versus 153.6 GB/s, so the newer card wins despite the narrower bus.

Compute units: the RTX 4050 Mobile has 2560 shading units, 80 TMUs, 48 ROPs, 20 RT cores, and 80 tensor cores. The HD 7970M has 1280 shading units, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs, with no RT cores and no tensor cores.

Power and form factor: the RTX 4050 Mobile has a TDP of 50 W and is an IGP (integrated graphics processor) with no power connectors. The HD 7970M has a TDP of 100 W and is an MXM Module with an MXM-B (3.0) bus interface.

API support: the RTX 4050 Mobile 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.

Architecture Differences

The RTX 4050 Mobile is built on NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace architecture, using the AD107 chip. This is a 5 nm design from TSMC, with 18,900 million transistors. Ada Lovelace introduces dedicated ray tracing cores (20 on this chip) and tensor cores (80), enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI workloads. The FP16 performance is listed as 8.986 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio to FP32, meaning the GPU can sustain full-rate half-precision compute.

The HD 7970M uses AMD's GCN 1.0 architecture, on the Wimbledon chip. This is a 28 nm design from TSMC, with 2,800 million transistors. GCN 1.0 was AMD's first unified shader architecture, but it lacks ray tracing cores and tensor cores entirely. FP16 performance is not recorded in the database, indicating that this GPU likely does not offer dedicated half-precision acceleration.

The transistor density difference is stark: 118.9M per mm² for the RTX 4050 Mobile versus 13.2M per mm² for the HD 7970M. This reflects not just the process node shrink (5 nm versus 28 nm), but also the architectural complexity of Ada Lovelace, which adds tensor cores, RT cores, and a much larger shader array.

The RTX 4050 Mobile supports PCIe 4.0 x8, while the HD 7970M uses an MXM-B (3.0) interface, which is a laptop-specific module standard. The NVIDIA part's 50 W TDP versus the AMD part's 100 W TDP also indicates a major efficiency advantage, likely due to the smaller process node and newer architecture.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4050 Mobile wins in every scenario that matters for modern computing. Its 339.2% lead in Geekbench OpenCL makes it the clear choice for compute-heavy tasks like OpenCL acceleration, physics simulation, and general-purpose GPU workloads. Its 8.986 TFLOPS FP32 performance is 4.1 times the HD 7970M's 2.176 TFLOPS, so any floating-point-heavy application will favor the NVIDIA part.

The RTX 4050 Mobile also wins on memory bandwidth (192.0 GB/s versus 153.6 GB/s) despite a narrower bus, and it has three times the VRAM capacity (6 GB versus 2 GB). This matters for larger textures, higher resolutions, and datasets that exceed 2 GB.

The HD 7970M has no recorded benchmark wins in the database. Its only advantage is its 256-bit memory bus, which theoretically allows for more memory channels, but in practice its lower bandwidth and smaller capacity put it at a disadvantage. It also has a higher TDP (100 W versus 50 W), so it is less power-efficient.

For ray tracing, AI inference, and DirectX 12 Ultimate features, the RTX 4050 Mobile is the only option with the required hardware. The HD 7970M cannot run these workloads with hardware acceleration.

For legacy compatibility, the HD 7970M might be the only choice in older MXM-based laptops, but that is a niche use case. The RTX 4050 Mobile is the winner for any new system, offering superior performance, efficiency, and feature support across the board.