10 Aug 2021 - Graphics card reviewed

The Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP Edition is a very low performing piece of gaming hardware and can probably only run indie system requirements.

This card meets game requirements up to DirectX 11.

Here we take a closer look at the various performances across 1080p, 1440p and 4K screen resolutions for the Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP Edition. In particular this is looking at the Ultra graphics settings to see what sort of FPS this graphics card can get across some of the more popular games played in 2023. We look at 1000 of the most demanding games available today and this GPU is better than the recommended graphics requirement of more than 201 games in the list.

With 1080p being the most common gaming resolution at the moment we explored how well the Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP Edition can run Far Cry 6 at 1080p and saw it return weak frame rates at the following graphics settings - Low: 0 FPS, Medium: 0 FPS, High: 0 FPS and Ultra: 0 FPS. For performance contrast we can see that Star Citizen is predicted to return a playable 26 FPS at Ultra 1080p.

We move on to 1440p, and tested Far Cry 6 which delivered weak FPS results. Here are the graphic presets - Low: 0 FPS, Medium: 0 FPS, High: 0 FPS and Ultra: 0 FPS. Next we have Star Citizen running on Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP Edition which is predicted to get L: 52FPS, M: 41FPS, H: 28FPS, U: 20FPS. And for performance contrast the popular FIFA 22 gets L: 128FPS, M: 101FPS, H: 68FPS, U: 48FPS at 1440p. 1440p Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP Edition PC gaming is going to struggle to keep a solid FPS, but a modern game could have a few options tweaked to get it playable at this res but on low graphics settings.

How many years will the Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP Edition graphics card play newly released games and how long until you should consider upgrading the Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP Edition in your PC? We think this Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP Edition has around 6-12 months until an upgrade should be considered.

Whats a good PC graphics upgrade for the Radeon HD 7970 DirectCU II TOP Edition? Upgrading this graphics card would have us consider the RX 5000 Series Radeon RX 5500 XT 8GB which is 60% more powerful. This upgrade choice can also run 716 games from the most demanding games today. Alternatively upgrading this graphics card would have us consider the RX 5000 Series Radeon RX 5300 which is 28% more powerful. This upgrade choice can also run 300 games from the most demanding games today.