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AMD Radeon HD 7970 X2

AMD Radeon HD 7970 X2: A Retrospective of the Dual-GPU Legend

April 2025

In an era where graphics cards with ray tracing and neural network technologies have become standard, the AMD Radeon HD 7970 X2 is a reminder of a time when engineers battled for performance through multi-GPU solutions. This model, released in the early 2010s, remains iconic among enthusiasts. Let's explore what makes it interesting in 2025.

1. Architecture and Key Features

Architecture: The HD 7970 X2 is a custom solution based on two Tahiti XT chips, connected using CrossFireX technology. At its core is the first generation of Graphics Core Next (GCN 1.0), designed to enhance parallel computing.

Process Technology: 28 nm — the standard of 2012. This limited energy efficiency but allowed for high clock speeds (925 MHz per core).

Unique Features:

- AMD Eyefinity: Support for up to 6 monitors for immersive gaming.

- CrossFireX: Combining two GPUs for double the performance (on paper).

- ZeroCore: Reducing power consumption in idle modes.

Lack of Modern Technologies: No hardware ray tracing, DLSS, or FidelityFX. These features appeared later in the RDNA and RDNA 2 series.

2. Memory

Type and Capacity: Each GPU is equipped with 3 GB of GDDR5 (a total of 6 GB, but not combined). The 384-bit bus on the chip provided a bandwidth of 264 GB/s per module.

Multi-GPU Features: Data was duplicated in the memory of both chips, so the actual usable capacity remained at 3 GB. This caused problems in games that demanded high VRAM.

Impact on Performance: For titles from 2012-2015 (such as Battlefield 4, Crysis 3), the memory was sufficient. By 2025, even 6 GB is inadequate for 4K or high-resolution textures in modern games.

3. Gaming Performance

Average FPS (in 2025, on low settings):

- 1080p:

- CS2 — 90-110 FPS.

- Fortnite (without Ray Tracing) — 45-60 FPS.

- Cyberpunk 2077 — 20-25 FPS.

- 1440p and 4K: Not recommended due to lack of VRAM and poor CrossFireX optimization.

CrossFireX Issues: Many games from the 2020s do not support multi-GPU setups, reducing real performance to that of a single HD 7970 chip.

Ray Tracing: No hardware support. Software implementations (through DirectX 12) yield less than 10 FPS even at 1080p.

4. Professional Tasks

OpenCL: GCN 1.0 supports OpenCL 1.2, allowing the card to be used for rendering in Blender or computations in MATLAB. However, its performance is 5-10 times lower than that of modern Radeon RX 7000 or NVIDIA RTX 4000 cards.

Video Editing: In Adobe Premiere Pro 2025, rendering 4K video will take 3-4 times longer compared to GPUs with hardware AV1 encoding.

Limitations: No CUDA support, and modern software often requires Vulkan 1.3 or DirectX 12 Ultimate, which are not available for the HD 7970 X2.

5. Power Consumption and Heat Output

TDP: 450-500 Watts (two chips + additional components).

Recommendations:

- Power Supply: At least 750 Watts with an 80+ Gold rating.

- Cooling: A case with 6-8 fans and good ventilation. Vertical GPU placement models (e.g., Thermaltake Core P3) are ideal.

- Thermal Paste: Replaced every 2-3 years due to drying out.

Temperatures: Up to 85°C under load. Noise from the cooling system can reach 45 dB.

6. Comparison with Competitors

Historical Competitors (2012-2013):

- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690: A dual-chip card based on Kepler. Better driver optimization but more expensive.

- AMD Radeon HD 7990: AMD's equivalent to the HD 7970 X2, with more refined cooling.

In 2025:

- NVIDIA RTX 3050 (8 GB): Better performance at 1080p, supports DLSS 3.5, and RTX. Price: $250.

- AMD Radeon RX 6600: Energy efficient, 8 GB GDDR6, supports FSR 3.0. Price: $220.

The HD 7970 X2 is only relevant as a collector's item or for retro gaming.

7. Practical Tips

Power Supply: Minimum of 750 Watts. Models from Corsair (RM750x) or Seasonic (Focus GX-750) are recommended.

Compatibility:

- Platform: Requires PCIe 3.0 x16. Compatible with modern motherboards but may not function in PCIe 4.0/5.0 slots without manual BIOS adjustment.

- OS: Windows 10 (limited driver support). Windows 11 and Linux require modified drivers.

Drivers: The latest official version is Adrenalin 21.5.2 (2021). For new games, consider open projects like AMDVLK.

8. Pros and Cons

Pros:

- Low price on the secondhand market ($50–$80).

- Unique design and historical significance.

- Support for Eyefinity for multi-monitor setups.

Cons:

- High power consumption.

- Lack of support for modern APIs and technologies.

- Noisy cooling system.

9. Conclusion

The AMD Radeon HD 7970 X2 in 2025 is a choice for:

- Retro hardware enthusiasts building PCs in the style of the 2010s.

- Budget builds for office tasks and older games.

- Collectors who appreciate GPU history.

Why not: The card is unsuitable for modern games and professional tasks. If you are looking for a GPU under $100, consider a used GTX 1060 or RX 570 — they are more efficient even without support for new technologies.

The HD 7970 X2 is an artifact of an era when multi-GPU setups were seen as the path to peak performance. Today, it reminds us of how far the industry has come in a decade.

Basic

Label Name

AMD

Platform

Desktop

Launch Date

August 2012

Model Name

Radeon HD 7970 X2

Generation

Southern Islands

Bus Interface

PCIe 3.0 x16

Transistors

4,313 million

Compute Units

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.

3.865 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

500W

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

3x 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.

Suggested PSU

900W

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)

Score

3.865 TFLOPS

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

Radeon Pro W6500M

4.094 +5.9%

Radeon R9 280X

4.014 +3.9%

Radeon HD 7970 X2

3.865

Radeon HD 7970

3.713 -3.9%

FirePro D700

3.552 -8.1%