Your Graphics Research
Your Graphics Research
| Recommended System Requirements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Game | Radeon R9 280X Crossfire | Radeon HD 7970 |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 5% | 64% |
| Hitman 3 | 36% | 113% |
| Assassins Creed: Valhalla | 4% | 50% |
| Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War | 7% | 45% |
| FIFA 21 | 47% | 17% |
| Grand Theft Auto VI | 47% | 130% |
| Far Cry 6 | 52% | 137% |
| Genshin Impact | 5% | 64% |
| World of Warcraft: Shadowlands | 50% | 135% |
| Battlefield 6 | 36% | 113% |
In terms of overall gaming performance, the graphical capabilities of the AMD Radeon R9 280X Crossfire are significantly better than the AMD Radeon HD 7970.
The Radeon HD 7970 has a 75 MHz higher core clock speed than the R9 280X, but the R9 280X has 128 more Texture Mapping Units than the Radeon HD 7970. As a result, the R9 280X exhibits a 99.2 GTexel/s better Texture Fill Rate than the Radeon HD 7970. This still holds weight but shader performance is generally more relevant, particularly since both of these GPUs support at least DirectX 10.
The Radeon HD 7970 has a 75 MHz higher core clock speed than the R9 280X, but the R9 280X has 32 more Render Output Units than the Radeon HD 7970. As a result, the R9 280X exhibits a 24.8 GPixel/s better Pixel Fill Rate than the Radeon HD 7970. However, both GPUs support DirectX 9 or above, and pixeling performance is only really relevant when comparing older cards.
The R9 280X was released over a year more recently than the Radeon HD 7970, and so the R9 280X is likely to have better driver support, meaning it will be more optimized for running the latest games when compared to the Radeon HD 7970.
Both GPUs exhibit very powerful performance, so it probably isn't worth upgrading from one to the other, as both are capable of running even the most demanding games at the highest settings.
The R9 280X has 3072 MB more video memory than the Radeon HD 7970, so is likely to be much better at displaying game textures at higher resolutions. This is supported by the fact that the R9 280X also has superior memory performance overall.
The R9 280X has 312 GB/sec greater memory bandwidth than the Radeon HD 7970, which means that the memory performance of the R9 280X is massively better than the Radeon HD 7970.
The Radeon R9 280X Crossfire has 4096 Shader Processing Units and the Radeon HD 7970 has 2048. However, the actual shader performance of the Radeon HD 7970 is 1610. The R9 280X having 2486 better shader performance and an altogether better performance when taking into account other relevant data means that the R9 280X delivers a massively smoother and more efficient experience when processing graphical data than the Radeon HD 7970.
The Radeon R9 280X Crossfire requires 550 Watts to run and the Radeon HD 7970 requires 250 Watts. We would recommend a PSU with at least 1000 Watts for the R9 280X and a PSU with at least 600 Watts for the Radeon HD 7970. The R9 280X requires 300 Watts more than the Radeon HD 7970 to run. The difference is significant enough that the R9 280X may have an adverse affect on your yearly electricity bills in comparison to the Radeon HD 7970.
| Core Speed | 850 MHz | vs |  | 925 MHz | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boost Clock | 1000 MHz | | vs | - | |
| Architecture | GCN 1.1 Tahiti XTL (x2) | GCN 1.0 Tahiti XT | |||
| OC Potential | Fair | vs |
| Good | |
| Driver Support | - | vs | Good | ||
| Release Date | 01 Oct 2013 | | vs | 29 Dec 2011 | |
| GPU Link | GD Link | GD Link | |||
| Approved | | | |||
| Comparison | |||||
| 1366x768 | - | vs | |
10
|
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1600x900 | - | vs | |
10
|
|
| 1920x1080 | 10
|
|
vs | 8.3
|
|
| 2560x1440 | - | vs | |
6.2
|
|
| 3840x2160 | - | vs | |
4.7
|
|
| Memory | 6144 MB | | vs | 3072 MB | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Memory Speed | 1500 MHz | | vs | 1375 MHz | |
| Memory Bus | 768 Bit | | vs | 384 Bit | |
| Memory Type | GDDR5 | | vs | | GDDR5 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 576GB/sec | | vs | 264GB/sec | |
| L2 Cache | 1536 KB | |
vs | 768 KB | |
| Delta Color Compression | no | vs | no | ||
| Memory Performance | 0% | |
vs | |
0% |
| Comparison | |||||
| Shader Processing Units | 4096 | | vs | 2048 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actual Shader Performance | 100% | | vs | 77% | |
| Technology | 28nm | | vs | | 28nm |
| Texture Mapping Units | 256 | | vs | 128 | |
| Texture Rate | 217.6 GTexel/s | | vs | 118.4 GTexel/s | |
| Render Output Units | 64 | | vs | 32 | |
| Pixel Rate | 54.4 GPixel/s | | vs | 29.6 GPixel/s | |
| Comparison | |||||
| Max Digital Resolution (WxH) | 4096x2160 | | vs | | 4096x2160 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VGA Connections | 0 | vs | 0 | ||
| DVI Connections | 0 | vs | | 1 | |
| HDMI Connections | 0 | vs | | 1 | |
| DisplayPort Connections | - | vs | - | ||
| Comparison | |||||
| Max Power | 550 Watts | vs | | 250 Watts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recommended PSU | 1000 Watts & 42 Amps | vs | | 600 Watts & 42 Amps | |
| DirectX | 11.2 | vs | | 12.0 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shader Model | 5.0 | | vs | | 5.0 |
| Open GL | 4.3 | vs | | 4.4 | |
| Open CL | - | vs | - | ||
| Notebook GPU | no | no | |||
| SLI/Crossfire | no | vs | | yes | |
| Dedicated | yes | | vs | | yes |
| Comparison | |||||
| Recommended Processor | Intel Core i7-3770K 4-Core 3.5GHz | vs | | Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recommended RAM | 8 GB | | vs | | 8 GB |
| Maximum Recommended Gaming Resolution | 1920x1080 | | vs | | 1920x1080 |
| Performance Value |  | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mini Review | Radeon R9 280X Crossfire is a solution of two Radeon R9 280X put together using AMD'S Crossfire technology. Check the page of Radeon R9 280X to know more about its chip. Crossfire relies a lot on proper driver support and may suffer from micro-stuttering in lower frame rates (below 30). Benchmarks indicate the performance is overall, is up to 60% better than a single Radeon R9 280X performing by itself but at times (depending whether or not the 3D game supports crossfire or in the graphics driver) it performed worse than a single Radeon R9 280X. Expect this combination to draw up to 550 Watt though the average power consumption should be slightly lower. Even the most demanding games will run at the highest settings. | Overview Radeon HD 7970 is a High-End Graphics Card based on the Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture. Architecture The GCN Architecture succeeds the 40nm Terascale Architecture. In addition to being produced with a 28nm Technology, the GCN Architecture adds other Technologies that allow for energy efficiency. For example, ZeroCore Power, a long idle power saving technology, allows the Graphics Cards to shut down by itself when the Monitor is turned off. GCN also adds Improved Anisotropic Filtering, DirectX 11 Tessellation and the Partially Resident Textures (PRT) Technology, which enables future games to utilize ultra-high resolution textures with the same performance as today's small and often repetitive textures. GPU It equips a GPU Codenamed Tahiti XT which has 32 Compute Units activated and thus offers 2048 Shader Processing Units, 128 TMUs and 32 ROPs. The Central Unit is clocked at 925MHz. Memory The GPU accesses a 3GB frame buffer of fast GDDR5, through a 384-bit memory interface. The size of the frame buffer is exaggerated and in no way benefits the GPU. The Memory Clock Operates at 1375MHz. Power Consumption With a rated board TDP of 275W, it requires at least a 600W PSU with one available 6-pin and one available 8-pin connectors. Performance Radeon HD 7950 used to compete with GeForce GTX 680 but its performance was even behind the lower positioned GeForce GTX 670 and was later replaced by a faster Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition. System Suggestions Radeon HD 7970 is best suited for resolutions up to and including 1920x1080. We recommend a Strong Processor (Intel Core i5 Quad Core/AMD FX Six Core) and 8GB of RAM for Optimal Performance. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recommended CPU | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Possible GPU Upgrades | - | ||||
| GPU Variants | - | ||||