AMD Radeon HD 8970M vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher overall average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile has a higher average benchmark score at 18,159, compared to the AMD Radeon HD 8970M's 21,237. However, the database percentile ranking tells a different story: the AMD card sits at the 66th percentile of all GPUs, while the NVIDIA card sits at the 62nd percentile.

Q: How does the GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile compare to its closest rivals?

A: The RTX 3060 Mobile is within 1.2% of three rivals: it trails the AMD Radeon RX 460 by 1.2%, trails the Intel Arc A770M by 1.2%, and leads the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER by 0.4%. It also trails the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 by 0.2%.

Q: What is the most significant architectural difference between the two cards?

A: The AMD Radeon HD 8970M uses the GCN 1.0 architecture on a 28 nm TSMC process, while the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile uses the Ampere architecture on an 8 nm Samsung process. The RTX 3060 Mobile also includes dedicated ray tracing cores and tensor cores, which the HD 8970M lacks entirely.

Q: What is the difference in memory bandwidth between the two cards?

A: The RTX 3060 Mobile has 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is more than double the HD 8970M's 153.6 GB/s. The NVIDIA card uses 6 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit bus, while the AMD card uses 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus.

Q: Which card has a higher boost clock speed?

A: The RTX 3060 Mobile has a boost clock of 1425 MHz, significantly higher than the HD 8970M's boost clock of 900 MHz. The base clocks are closer: 900 MHz for the NVIDIA card versus 850 MHz for the AMD card.

Q: In the single head-to-head benchmark recorded, what was the performance gap?

A: In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the RTX 3060 Mobile scored 79,483 against the HD 8970M's 21,237, a delta of 73.3% in favor of the NVIDIA card. The HD 8970M recorded zero wins in head-to-head comparisons.

Where Each One Wins

The benchmark data paints an unambiguous picture: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile wins every recorded head-to-head comparison, taking all 1 wins against 0 for the AMD Radeon HD 8970M. The sole head-to-head test, Geekbench OpenCL, shows the RTX 3060 Mobile delivering a score of 79,483, which is 73.3% ahead of the HD 8970M's 21,237. For compute-oriented workloads that stress OpenCL performance, the RTX 3060 Mobile is the clear choice.

The AMD card's advantage lies not in raw performance but in its positioning within the broader database. The HD 8970M records a 66th percentile ranking among all GPUs, which is higher than the RTX 3060 Mobile's 62nd percentile. This means that while the NVIDIA card beats the AMD card decisively in their direct comparison, the HD 8970M sits in a slightly more favorable position relative to the entire field of recorded GPUs. This is a nuance worth noting: the AMD card's single benchmark score of 21,237 places it near a tight cluster of rivals, including the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL at 21,153 (0.4% behind) and the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile at 21,379 (0.7% ahead).

For users selecting between these two specific cards, the RTX 3060 Mobile wins on every measured dimension of compute performance. The HD 8970M offers no benchmark category where it outperforms the NVIDIA card. However, the AMD card's higher percentile ranking suggests that in the context of the full GPU landscape, its performance profile is more competitive relative to its contemporaries than the RTX 3060 Mobile's is relative to its own peers.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs represent fundamentally different eras of graphics architecture. The AMD Radeon HD 8970M is built on GCN 1.0, AMD's Graphics Core Next architecture from the Solar System generation. It uses the Neptune chip, fabricated by TSMC on a 28 nm process. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile uses the Ampere architecture, built on the GA106 chip, fabricated by Samsung on an 8 nm process. This process difference is substantial: the NVIDIA chip packs 12,000 million transistors into a 276 mm² die, while the AMD chip contains 2,800 million transistors on a 212 mm² die. The transistor density reflects this: the RTX 3060 Mobile achieves 43.5M transistors per mm², more than three times the HD 8970M's 13.2M per mm².

The feature sets diverge sharply. The RTX 3060 Mobile includes 30 ray tracing cores and 120 tensor cores, enabling hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-based features such as DLSS. The HD 8970M has neither of these dedicated units. The NVIDIA card also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the AMD card supports only DirectX 12 (11_1). Vulkan support differs as well: the RTX 3060 Mobile supports Vulkan 1.4, while the HD 8970M supports Vulkan 1.2.170. Both cards support OpenGL 4.6.

The memory subsystem reflects a generational leap. The RTX 3060 Mobile uses GDDR6 memory with a 192-bit bus, while the HD 8970M uses GDDR5 with a 256-bit bus. The NVIDIA card's memory runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective), delivering 336.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The AMD card's memory runs at 1200 MHz (4.8 Gbps effective), delivering 153.6 GB/s. Despite the narrower bus, the RTX 3060 Mobile achieves more than double the memory bandwidth.

The bus interface also differs: the RTX 3060 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x16, while the HD 8970M uses PCIe 3.0 x16. The AMD card is packaged as an MXM Module, while the NVIDIA card uses no external power connectors. Both cards list their display outputs as portable device dependent, reflecting their mobile positioning.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every specification category. The shading unit count is dramatically different: the RTX 3060 Mobile has 3,840 shading units, exactly three times the HD 8970M's 1,280. The texture mapping units follow a similar pattern: 120 TMUs on the NVIDIA card versus 80 on the AMD card. The render output units also differ, with 48 ROPs on the RTX 3060 Mobile versus 32 on the HD 8970M.

Clock speeds show a clear NVIDIA advantage. The base clock is 900 MHz for the RTX 3060 Mobile versus 850 MHz for the HD 8970M. The boost clock is 1425 MHz versus 900 MHz, a 58% advantage for the NVIDIA card. Memory clock speeds are 1750 MHz versus 1200 MHz, with effective rates of 14 Gbps versus 4.8 Gbps.

The compute throughput numbers reflect the combined effect of more cores and higher clocks. The RTX 3060 Mobile delivers 10.94 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the HD 8970M delivers 2.304 TFLOPS. The NVIDIA card also delivers 10.94 TFLOPS of FP16 performance at a 1:1 ratio, while the AMD card has no recorded FP16 value. Pixel rate is 68.40 GPixel/s for the NVIDIA card versus 28.80 GPixel/s for the AMD card. Texture rate is 171.0 GTexel/s versus 72.00 GTexel/s.

Memory configuration differs in both capacity and type. The RTX 3060 Mobile has 6 GB of GDDR6, while the HD 8970M has 4 GB of GDDR5. The bus width is 192 bits for the NVIDIA card and 256 bits for the AMD card. Despite the narrower bus, the NVIDIA card's bandwidth of 336.0 GB/s exceeds the AMD card's 153.6 GB/s.

Power draw is notable: the RTX 3060 Mobile has a TDP of 80 W, which is lower than the HD 8970M's 100 W. This means the newer, faster card consumes 20% less power. The release dates reflect the generational gap: the HD 8970M was released in May 2013, while the RTX 3060 Mobile was released in January 2021. Both cards are marked as end-of-life in the database.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded head-to-head data contains a single benchmark: Geekbench OpenCL. In this test, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile scores 79,483, while the AMD Radeon HD 8970M scores 21,237. The delta is 73.3% in favor of the NVIDIA card, which is the only head-to-head win recorded for either card.

This result is consistent with the specification differences. The RTX 3060 Mobile has three times the shading units (3,840 versus 1,280), a substantially higher boost clock (1425 MHz versus 900 MHz), and nearly four times the FP32 throughput (10.94 TFLOPS versus 2.304 TFLOPS). OpenCL workloads tend to scale with raw compute resources, and the NVIDIA card's advantages in every compute-related specification translate directly into this benchmark result.

The AMD card's closest rivals in the database provide context for its score. The HD 8970M's 21,237 score places it within 1.8% of the NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 (21,629, which is 1.8% ahead) and the NVIDIA RTX A4000 Mobile (21,379, which is 0.7% ahead). It leads the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GL (21,153, 0.4% behind) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 (21,035, 1% behind). This clustering suggests that the HD 8970M's OpenCL performance is competitive with a range of much newer midrange and workstation GPUs, even though it falls far behind the RTX 3060 Mobile.

The RTX 3060 Mobile's broader benchmark suite shows a mixed profile. Its average score of 18,159 is pulled down by low scores in specific Passmark tests: it scores 90 in Passmark DirectX 10, 110 in DirectX 11, 58 in DirectX 12, and 146 in DirectX 9. Its Passmark G3D score is 13,230, and its GPU compute score is 5,718. The Geekbench Vulkan score is 80,344, closely matching the OpenCL score of 79,483. The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score is 1,821.

The RTX 3060 Mobile's nearest rivals show how its average score of 18,159 fits into the broader landscape. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER is 0.4% behind, while the AMD Radeon Pro 5700 is 0.2% ahead. The AMD Radeon RX 460 and Intel Arc A770M are both 1.2% ahead. This tight clustering indicates that the RTX 3060 Mobile's average performance is squarely in the midrange tier of the database, despite its decisive victory over the much older HD 8970M in the OpenCL test.