AMD Radeon HD 7970M vs NVIDIA T400 4 GB Comparison

The AMD Radeon HD 7970M and NVIDIA T400 4 GB are two very different GPUs from different eras, yet they land in the same performance percentile. The data shows a 2012 mobile flagship going up against a 2021 entry-level workstation card, with the T400 taking the only head-to-head benchmark win. This comparison highlights how architectural advancements and efficiency gains have reshaped the low-power GPU segment.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct benchmark comparison available is the Geekbench OpenCL test, and it is a narrow victory for the NVIDIA T400 4 GB. The T400 scores 17320 points, while the AMD Radeon HD 7970M scores 17019 points. This gives the T400 a 1.7% advantage, a margin that is well within run-to-run variance for most workloads. In practical terms, these two GPUs deliver nearly identical raw compute performance in OpenCL, despite their vastly different architectures and release dates.

Looking at the broader benchmark landscape, the HD 7970M's average score of 17019 places it in the 60th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rival, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690, scores 17037, which is only 0.1% higher. The HD 7970M also comes within 0.4% of the AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT (17083) and sits 1.1% behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 (17208). These are all much newer and more expensive cards, yet the old 7970M holds its ground in synthetic compute tests.

The T400 4 GB, with an average benchmark score of 16792, also sits in the 60th percentile. Its nearest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 7600S, which scores 16696, meaning the T400 is 0.6% ahead. The T400 trails the NVIDIA Tesla M4 (16932) by 0.8% and the GeForce GTX 690 (17037) by 1.4%. Interestingly, the T400's OpenCL score of 17320 is its strongest result, while its Vulkan score of 16263 shows a noticeable drop-off, suggesting the card's OpenCL drivers are better optimized than its Vulkan stack.

The delta percentages tell a clear story: both cards are clustered in a tight performance band around the 17,000-point mark. The 1.7% difference between the two in the head-to-head is smaller than the gap between either card and some of its own nearest rivals. For example, the HD 7970M is 1.1% behind the RTX 3070, which is a larger margin than the HD 7970M's deficit to the T400.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gap between these two GPUs is enormous. The AMD Radeon HD 7970M uses the Wimbledon chip based on GCN 1.0 architecture, built on a 28 nm process at TSMC. It packs 2,800 million transistors on a 212 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 13.2 million per square millimeter. In contrast, the NVIDIA T400 4 GB uses the TU117 chip based on Turing architecture, also fabricated by TSMC but on a 12 nm process. The TU117 contains 4,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die, achieving a density of 23.5 million per square millimeter. That is a 78% higher transistor density, allowing NVIDIA to pack far more logic into a similar physical footprint.

The compute resources differ dramatically. The HD 7970M has 1280 shading units, 80 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. The T400 4 GB has only 384 shading units, 24 TMUs, and 16 ROPs. Despite having roughly one-third the shader count, the T400 nearly matches the HD 7970M in OpenCL performance. This confirms the efficiency gains from Turing's architecture. The HD 7970M's raw FP32 throughput is 2.176 TFLOPS, while the T400 manages 1,094.4 GFLOPS, less than half. However, the T400 has a significant advantage in FP16 compute, offering 2.189 TFLOPS with 2:1 ratio, whereas the HD 7970M has no listed FP16 capability. Memory configurations also diverge sharply: the HD 7970M uses 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus for 153.6 GB/s of bandwidth, while the T400 uses 4 GB of GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus for only 80.00 GB/s. The HD 7970M's bandwidth advantage is substantial, but the T400's newer memory technology and higher effective clock speed of 10 Gbps help compensate.

Clock speeds reveal another major difference. The HD 7970M has no listed base or boost clock, only a memory clock of 1200 MHz with 4.8 Gbps effective. The T400 has a base clock of 420 MHz and a boost clock of 1425 MHz, with memory running at 1250 MHz and 10 Gbps effective. The T400's boost clock is over three times its base clock, indicating aggressive dynamic clocking behavior. Pixel and texture rates follow suit: the HD 7970M achieves 27.20 GPixel/s and 68.00 GTexel/s, while the T400 manages 22.80 GPixel/s and 34.20 GTexel/s. The HD 7970M wins on both fill rates, but the T400's architectural efficiency narrows the gap.

Power consumption is where the T400 dominates. The HD 7970M is rated at 100 W TDP and comes as an MXM Module with no power connectors, drawing power through the mobile interface. The T400 sips just 30 W, runs as a single-slot card, also has no power connectors, and recommends a 200 W power supply. The T400 is also a standard PCIe 3.0 x16 card with 3x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs, while the HD 7970M's display outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent" due to its MXM form factor. API support differs too: the HD 7970M supports DirectX 12 (11_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170, while the T400 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4.

The Verdict

The data does not point to a clear overall winner; it points to two different use cases. The NVIDIA T400 4 GB wins the only head-to-head benchmark by 1.7%, but that margin is negligible. What matters more is the context: the T400 achieves near-parity with the HD 7970M while consuming 70% less power, offering twice the memory capacity, and fitting in a single-slot PCIe form factor. If you need a low-profile workstation card for a desktop system with modern display outputs and Vulkan 1.4 support, the T400 is the obvious choice. The HD 7970M, however, retains advantages in memory bandwidth, texture fill rate, and raw FP32 throughput. The data shows the HD 7970M is the stronger card for bandwidth-bound and texture-heavy workloads, provided you can accommodate an MXM module and live with its portable-device-dependent outputs. The HD 7970M is end-of-life with no successor listed under that name, while the T400's successor is Workstation Ampere, indicating a continued product line. Production status for both is end-of-life, so this comparison is about legacy hardware. The T400's 4 GB VRAM is double the HD 7970M's 2 GB, which matters for modern workloads that exceed 2 GB. The HD 7970M's 153.6 GB/s bandwidth is 92% higher than the T400's 80.00 GB/s, which is decisive for certain compute tasks.

Specification Differences

| Specification | AMD Radeon HD 7970M | NVIDIA T400 4 GB |

|----------------|---------------------|------------------|

| Process Node | 28 nm | 12 nm |

| Transistors | 2,800 million | 4,700 million |

| Die Size | 212 mm² | 200 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 13.2M / mm² | 23.5M / mm² |

| Memory Size | 2 GB | 4 GB |

| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR6 |

| Bus Width | 256 bit | 64 bit |

| Bandwidth | 153.6 GB/s | 80.00 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 1280 | 384 |

| TMUs | 80 | 24 |

| ROPs | 32 | 16 |

| Pixel Rate | 27.20 GPixel/s | 22.80 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 68.00 GTexel/s | 34.20 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 2.176 TFLOPS | 1,094.4 GFLOPS |

| FP16 | None | 2.189 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 100 W | 30 W |

| Slot Width | MXM Module | Single-slot |

| Suggested PSU | None | 200 W |

| Bus Interface | MXM-B (3.0) | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | Portable Device Dependent | 3x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a |

| DirectX | 12 (11_1) | 12 (12_1) |

| Vulkan | 1.2.170 | 1.4 |

| Release Date | 2012-04-23 | 2021-05-05 |

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has higher raw FP32 compute performance?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 7970M has significantly higher FP32 throughput at 2.176 TFLOPS, compared to the NVIDIA T400 4 GB's 1,094.4 GFLOPS, which is less than half.

Q: Does the NVIDIA T400 support half-precision floating point?

A: Yes, the T400 4 GB supports FP16 at 2.189 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio, while the HD 7970M has no listed FP16 capability.

Q: How do their memory bandwidth figures compare?

A: The HD 7970M has 153.6 GB/s of bandwidth from a 256-bit GDDR5 bus, while the T400 4 GB offers 80.00 GB/s from a 64-bit GDDR6 bus. The HD 7970M has nearly double the bandwidth.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The HD 7970M is rated at 100 W TDP, while the T400 4 GB draws only 30 W. The T400 also lists a suggested power supply of 200 W, while the HD 7970M has no suggested PSU.

Q: Which card has better API support for modern applications?

A: The T400 4 GB supports DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.4, both newer than the HD 7970M's DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170. Both support OpenGL 4.6.

Q: How close is their OpenCL performance?

A: The T400 4 GB scores 17320 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 1.7% higher than the HD 7970M's 17019. This is the only direct benchmark comparison available.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Radeon HD 7970M wins in scenarios that demand raw throughput and memory bandwidth. Its 153.6 GB/s bandwidth is nearly double the T400's 80.00 GB/s, making it better suited for large data transfers and bandwidth-intensive compute. The HD 7970M also has a higher texture rate at 68.00 GTexel/s versus 34.20 GTexel/s, which benefits texture-heavy rendering tasks. Its FP32 output of 2.176 TFLOPS is exactly double the T400's 1,094.4 GFLOPS, so any workload that relies on single-precision float math will run faster on the HD 7970M. The HD 7970M also has more shading units (1280 vs 384), more TMUs (80 vs 24), and more ROPs (32 vs 16), giving it a structural advantage in traditional fill-rate-bound scenes. Its pixel rate of 27.20 GPixel/s exceeds the T400's 22.80 GPixel/s.

The NVIDIA T400 4 GB wins where efficiency, modern features, and capacity matter. Its 30 W TDP versus 100 W means it generates far less heat and can be powered by any standard slot. The 4 GB GDDR6 memory is double the capacity, allowing larger datasets and textures to reside on-card. The T400 supports newer APIs, including DirectX 12 (12_1) and Vulkan 1.4, plus FP16 compute at 2.189 TFLOPS, which the HD 7970M cannot do. Its 3x mini-DisplayPort 1.4a outputs are concrete and useful, whereas the HD 7970M's outputs depend on the portable device. The T400 is a standard PCIe 3.0 x16 card, making it drop-in compatible with desktop motherboards, while the HD 7970M requires an MXM-B (3.0) slot. The T400 also wins the sole head-to-head benchmark, taking the OpenCL test by 1.7%. For a modern workstation that needs a low-power, single-slot GPU with current display outputs and API support, the T400 is the practical pick. The HD 7970M is a performance relic that still holds its own in raw compute but is hamstrung by its mobile form factor and older feature set.