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AMD Radeon HD 7970

AMD Radeon HD 7970

AMD Radeon HD 7970: A Retrospective of a Legend and Its Place in 2025

April 2025

Introduction

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is a graphics card that revolutionized the gaming industry in 2012. Despite its age, it still attracts interest from enthusiasts and owners of budget systems. In this article, we will explore its features, relevance in 2025, and practical usage tips.

Architecture and Key Features

Architecture: The HD 7970 is built on the first generation of Graphics Core Next (GCN 1.0). This was AMD's first architecture focused on parallel computing and modern API support.

- Manufacturing Process: 28 nm (4.3 billion transistors).

- Cores: 2048 stream processors, 32 ROP.

- Clock Speed: Base — 925 MHz, Boost — up to 1050 MHz (in reference models).

Unique Features of 2012:

- AMD Eyefinity: Support for up to 6 monitors simultaneously.

- DirectX 11.1 and OpenGL 4.2: Current standards at the time of release.

- ZeroCore Power: Energy savings during idle mode.

Absence of Modern Technologies:

The HD 7970 does not support ray tracing (RTX), DLSS, or FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR). However, in 2025, third-party mods can be used for upscaling in older projects.

Memory: Parameters and Impact on Performance

- Type: GDDR5.

- Size: 3 GB.

- Bus Width: 384-bit.

- Bandwidth: 264 GB/s (effective memory clock frequency — 5.5 GHz).

Relevance in 2025:

3 GB of video memory is critically low for modern games even at 1080p. For instance, in Cyberpunk 2077 or Starfield, medium settings may cause lag due to insufficient VRAM. However, for games from the 2010s (like The Witcher 3 or GTA V), the card still delivers 40-50 FPS at Full HD.

Gaming Performance

Examples of FPS (on low/medium settings at 1080p):

- CS2 (Counter-Strike 2): 90-110 FPS.

- Fortnite: 50-60 FPS (without activating FSR).

- Elden Ring: 25-35 FPS (minimum settings).

- Rocket League: 100-120 FPS.

Resolutions:

- 1080p: Acceptable for less demanding projects.

- 1440p and 4K: Not recommended — lack of VRAM and power.

Ray Tracing: Not supported natively. Software implementations (e.g., through Proton or emulators) yield FPS below 10.

Professional Tasks

- Video Editing: In Adobe Premiere Pro, rendering 1080p video will take 2-3 times longer than on modern GPUs.

- 3D Modeling: In Blender (via OpenCL), rendering a medium-complexity scene takes 30-40 minutes compared to 5-10 minutes on an RTX 4050.

- Scientific Calculations: OpenCL support allows using the card for simple tasks, but performance is 7-10 times lower compared to modern Radeon RX 7000 or NVIDIA RTX 40 series.

Power Consumption and Thermal Output

- TDP: 250 W.

- Cooling Recommendations:

- Minimum: 2-3 fans in the case with good airflow.

- Ideal: A combination of a tower CPU cooler and additional case fans.

- Power Supply: At least 500 W (with headroom for peak loads).

Temperatures: The reference model reached 80-85°C under load. Custom coolers (from Sapphire or MSI, for example) reduced temperatures to 70-75°C.

Comparison with Competitors

In 2012:

- NVIDIA GTX 680: Less powerful in computations but more energy-efficient (195 W TDP).

- AMD HD 7970 GHz Edition: A faster version with a clock speed of 1050 MHz.

In 2025:

- NVIDIA RTX 3050 (8 GB): 3-4 times more powerful, supports DLSS and RTX. Price — $250.

- AMD RX 6600 (8 GB): 200% faster in games, TDP 132 W. Price — $220.

Conclusion: The HD 7970 lags behind even budget newcomers in 2025 but can serve as a temporary solution for the most modest builds.

Practical Tips

1. Power Supply: 500-600 W with an 80+ Bronze certification. Example: EVGA 600 BQ.

2. Compatibility:

- PCIe 3.0 x16 (backward compatible with PCIe 4.0/5.0).

- Update the motherboard BIOS to avoid conflicts.

3. Drivers: The latest version is Adrenalin 21.5.2 (2021). For Windows 11, use compatibility mode.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

- Reliability and durability (with proper cooling).

- Eyefinity support for multi-monitor setups.

- Low cost on the used market ($50-80).

Cons:

- High power consumption.

- Lack of support for modern APIs (DirectX 12 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.3).

- Limited VRAM.

Final Conclusion: Who is the HD 7970 Suitable For?

1. Retro Gaming Enthusiasts: For running projects from the 2000s to 2010s on original hardware.

2. Budget Builds: If a temporary GPU is needed for $50-80.

3. Servers or Office PCs: For working with multiple monitors with no graphics requirements.

Alternative: If the budget allows, it's better to opt for a new Radeon RX 6400 ($150) — it's more energy-efficient, supports FSR, and has modern drivers.

Conclusion

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 is a legend of its time, but in 2025, its relevance is limited. It will suit those who appreciate historical hardware or are looking for a super-budget solution. However, for comfortable gaming and work in modern conditions, it's worth considering new entry-level GPUs.

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Basic

Label Name
AMD
Platform
Desktop
Launch Date
December 2011
Model Name
Radeon HD 7970
Generation
Southern Islands
Bus Interface
PCIe 3.0 x16
Transistors
4,313 million
Compute Units
32
TMUs
?
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.
128
Foundry
TSMC
Process Size
28 nm
Architecture
GCN 1.0

Memory Specifications

Memory Size
3GB
Memory Type
GDDR5
Memory Bus
?
The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.
384bit
Memory Clock
1375MHz
Bandwidth
?
Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.
264.0 GB/s

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate
?
Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.
29.60 GPixel/s
Texture Rate
?
Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.
118.4 GTexel/s
FP64 (double)
?
An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.
947.2 GFLOPS
FP32 (float)
?
An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.
3.713 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

Shading Units
?
The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.
2048
L1 Cache
16 KB (per CU)
L2 Cache
768KB
TDP
250W
Vulkan Version
?
Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.
1.2
OpenCL Version
1.2
OpenGL
4.6
DirectX
12 (11_1)
Power Connectors
1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
Shader Model
5.1
ROPs
?
The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.
32
Suggested PSU
600W

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)
Score
3.713 TFLOPS
3DMark Time Spy
Score
2325
OpenCL
Score
34541
Hashcat
Score
144625 H/s

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS
Radeon R9 280X
4.014 +8.1%
Radeon HD 7970 X2
3.865 +4.1%
Radeon HD 7970
3.713
FirePro D700
3.552 -4.3%
Quadro T2000 Max Q
3.384 -8.9%
3DMark Time Spy
Arc A550M
5182 +122.9%
Radeon RX 580 2048SP
3906 +68%
Radeon 780M
2755 +18.5%
Radeon HD 7970
2325
GeForce GT 1030 DDR4
623 -73.2%
OpenCL
GeForce RTX 2060
75816 +119.5%
CMP 30HX
57474 +66.4%
Radeon HD 7970
34541
T400
17024 -50.7%
GeForce GT 1030
10025 -71%
Hashcat / H/s
Radeon RX 470
154346 +6.7%
Radeon R9 280X
151963 +5.1%
Radeon HD 7970
144625
GeForce GTX 980M
143310 -0.9%
Quadro P2000
141898 -1.9%