AMD Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire vs AMD Radeon HD 6970M vs AMD Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire
AMD Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire
► remove from comparisonThe AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire (or sometimes called ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6970 X2) is a combination of two high-end graphics card for big and heavy laptops. Usually, each single card renders a single frame (AFR mode). Therefore, it may suffer from micro stuttering in low fps ranges of 30fps. This happens because of different timespans between two frames (e.g., irregular delays between sequential frames).
The HD 6970M is most likely based on the desktop HD 6850 graphics card. The codename of the mobile core is Blackcomb XT and it should have a similar power consumption as the GeForce GTX 480M. According to the roadmap ,the Blackcomb-based chips should feature the UVD3 video processor and Eyefinity+ support.
AMD Radeon HD 6970M
► remove from comparisonThe AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6970M (or sometimes called ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6970) is a high-end graphics card normally reserved for big and heavy laptops. It is based on the desktop HD 6850 graphics card and therefore features UVD3 video processing and Eyefinity+. The codename of this GPU is Blackcomb XT and it should have comparable power consumption results as the GeForce GTX 480M.
The 960 Stream processors are still based on the "old" 5D architecture similar to the 5000 series. Therefore, the number of shaders is not comparable to the 1D cores of current Nvidia GPUs. The Tessellation performance should be improved (like the desktop 6800 series) with the new cards. The Stream processors can be used with DirectX 11, OpenGL 4.1, DirectCompute 11 and OpenCL. With the latter two, the 6970M can also be used for general computations such as transcoding videos.
The 3D performance of this card lies between the GeForce GTX 470M and 485M, both of which are high-end notebook GPUs. In our tests, the 6970M is on average 33% faster than a GeForce GTX 480M, but the newer GTX 485M is still about 12% faster than the AMD card. Compared to the previous generation ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870, the Radeon 6970M is about 50% faster, but has greater power demands.
For gamers, this means that the Radeon HD 6970M is able to fluently display all most modern games in high detail settings. Only Crysis and Metro 2033 stutter in the highest detail settings at 1920x1080 resolution (see below).
The new UVD3 video decoder supports the decoding of MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, Flash and now also Multi-View Codec (MVC) and MPEG-4 part 2 (DivX, xVid) HD videos on the graphics card.
Furthermore, the HD 6900M series integrates an HD audio controller to transmit HD Audio (TrueHD or DTS Master Audio) over HDMI and/or DisplayPort (e.g. for Blu-Ray videos).
The AMD HD3D Technology offers support for Blu-Ray 3D and 3D displays (integrated and external). However, the solution is not as mature as Nvidia's 3D Vision.
Thanks to Eyefinity, the graphics chip is able to theoretically drive up to 6 monitors simultaneously. However, this only works if the laptop features enough video outputs.
The power consumption of the 6790M should be similar to the Nvidia GeForce GTX 480M / 485M and is therefore at about 100 Watts when considering the MXM board and the 2 GB GDDR5 memory. Eurocom, for example, states that the TDP ranges from about 75-100 Watts. As a result, the card is only suited for large laptops with good cooling solutions.
AMD Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire
► remove from comparisonThe AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire (or sometimes called the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6990 X2) is a combination of two high-end graphics card for big and heavy laptops. Usually, each single card renders a single frame. Therefore, it may suffer from micro stuttering in low fps ranges of 30fps. This happens because of different timespans between two frames (e.g., irregular delays between sequential frames).
The HD 6990M is based on the desktop HD 6870 graphics card. The codename of the mobile core is Blackcomb XTX and it should have high power consumption (>=100W) with UVD3 video processor and Eyefinity+ support. More information on the features of the single 6990M can be found on this page.
The Performance of the two HD 6990M in our first tests was about 5% behind that of the GeForce GTX 580M SLI. Therefore, the 6990M is one of the fastest mobile graphics solutions in 2011 and nearly all available games are playable with highest settings and antialiasing enabled (see below).
AMD Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire | AMD Radeon HD 6970M | AMD Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Radeon HD 6900M Series |
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Codename | Blackcomb XT | Blackcomb XT | Blackcomb XTX | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Architecture | Terascale 2 | Terascale 2 | Terascale 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pipelines | 1920 - unified | 960 - unified | 2240 - unified | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Core Speed | 680 MHz | 680 MHz | 715 MHz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Speed | 900 MHz | 900 MHz | 900 MHz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Bus Width | 256 Bit | 256 Bit | 256 Bit | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Max. Amount of Memory | 2x2048 MB | 2048 MB | 2x2048 MB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Shared Memory | no | no | no | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
API | DirectX 11, Shader 5.0 | DirectX 11, Shader 5.0 | DirectX 11, Shader 5.0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Transistors | 0 Billion | 1.7 Billion | 0 Billion | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
technology | 40 nm | 40 nm | 40 nm | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Notebook Size | large | large | large | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Date of Announcement | 06.01.2011 | 06.01.2011 | 12.07.2011 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Link to Manufacturer Page | www.amd.com | www.amd.com | www.amd.com | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Power Consumption | 75-100 Watt |
Benchmarks
3DM Vant. Perf. total + AMD Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire
specvp11 snx-01 + AMD Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire
Average Benchmarks AMD Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire → 100% n=20
Average Benchmarks AMD Radeon HD 6970M → 84% n=20
Average Benchmarks AMD Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire → 90% n=20

* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation
Game Benchmarks
The following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.

Max Payne 3
2012
Dirt Showdown
2012
Diablo III
2012
Risen 2: Dark Waters
2012
Mass Effect 3
2012
Alan Wake
2012
Anno 2070
2011
Battlefield 3
2011
Batman: Arkham City
2011
Fifa 12
2011
F1 2011
2011
Dirt 3
2011
Crysis 2
2011
Fifa 11
2010
Mafia 2
2010
StarCraft 2
2010
Metro 2033
2010
CoD Modern Warfare 2
2009Average Gaming AMD Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire → 100%
Average Gaming 30-70 fps → 100%
Average Gaming AMD Radeon HD 6970M → 64%
Average Gaming 30-70 fps → 65%
Average Gaming AMD Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire → 104%
Average Gaming 30-70 fps → 109%
AMD Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire | AMD Radeon HD 6970M | AMD Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire | |||||||||||||||||||
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low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | ||||
Max Payne 3 | 61.9 | 64.7 | 35.1 | 26.7 | |||||||||||||||||
Dirt Showdown | 76.6 | 64.2 | 59.5 | 30.3 | |||||||||||||||||
Diablo III | 193.4 | 132.1 | 89.4 | 64.6 | |||||||||||||||||
Risen 2: Dark Waters | 95.1 | 72.2 | 52.9 | 24.3 | |||||||||||||||||
Mass Effect 3 | 60 | 59.3 | 54.1 | ||||||||||||||||||
Alan Wake | 87 | 55 | 27.2 | ||||||||||||||||||
Star Wars: The Old Republic | 70 | 53 | 43.5 | ||||||||||||||||||
Anno 2070 | 207.8 | 97.1 | 58.6 | 29.7 | |||||||||||||||||
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | 51.5 | 48.4 | 40.8 | 30.6 | |||||||||||||||||
CoD: Modern Warfare 3 | 263.6 | 136.1 | 99.4 | 63.8 | |||||||||||||||||
Battlefield 3 | 84.3 | 58.8 | 45.7 | 19 | |||||||||||||||||
Batman: Arkham City | 96 | 88 | 71 | 35 | |||||||||||||||||
Fifa 12 | 377.1 | 215.9 | 176.3 | 135.7 | |||||||||||||||||
F1 2011 | 131 | 85 | 71 | 45 | |||||||||||||||||
Deus Ex Human Revolution | 174.7 | 102.7 | 45.1 | ||||||||||||||||||
Dirt 3 | 224.7 | 104.8 | 78.7 | 33.2 | 269.6 | 161 | 132.9 | 67.8 | |||||||||||||
Crysis 2 | 190.5 | 134.4 | 103.6 | 43 | 178.9 | 126.3 | 96.8 | 30.2 | 291.4 | 212.1 | 162.5 | 65.6 | |||||||||
Call of Duty: Black Ops | 167.2 | 123.7 | 123.3 | 103 | 76.7 | 67.3 | 65.3 | 68 | 167.5 | 122 | 118.4 | 106.4 | |||||||||
Fifa 11 | 621 | 400.2 | 343.1 | 327 | 508 | 325 | 178 | 170 | 659 | 398.7 | 347.7 | 353.5 | |||||||||
Mafia 2 | 95.7 | 87.1 | 89.9 | 88 | 71.6 | 69.8 | 67.4 | 54 | 85.3 | 86 | 89 | 86.4 | |||||||||
StarCraft 2 | 329.4 | 114.2 | 99.1 | 85 | 201 | 66.1 | 65.5 | 63 | 330.9 | 116.4 | 107.5 | 81.7 | |||||||||
Metro 2033 | 137 | 121.9 | 94.4 | 36 | 119 | 77.2 | 57 | 20 | 142.5 | 128.1 | 99.2 | 37.6 | |||||||||
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 | 199.4 | 194.5 | 163.2 | 94 | 132.5 | 111.4 | 82.9 | 49 | 199.7 | 196.6 | 184.8 | 110.2 | |||||||||
CoD Modern Warfare 2 | 287 | 167.4 | 160.6 | 127 | 172.9 | 105.2 | 94.9 | 72 | 246.3 | 116.4 | 110.4 | 87.3 | |||||||||
Risen | 165.9 | 134.9 | 123.8 | 99 | 116 | 78 | 60.4 | 45 | 165.2 | 133.1 | 119.7 | 110.5 | |||||||||
Resident Evil 5 | 199.3 | 122.2 | 124 | 102.6 | 80.1 | 78 | 200.2 | 141.6 | 143 | ||||||||||||
Need for Speed Shift | 94.1 | 78.3 | 66 | 89.2 | 59 | 56.6 | 57 | 96.2 | 70.8 | 46.1 | |||||||||||
Colin McRae: DIRT 2 | 195.5 | 163.3 | 142 | 83 | 105 | 94 | 73.2 | 49 | |||||||||||||
Anno 1404 | 207.1 | 143 | 133.4 | 82.2 | |||||||||||||||||
F.E.A.R. 2 | 279 | 190 | 181.8 | 159 | 156.5 | 106.3 | 101.1 | 86 | |||||||||||||
Left 4 Dead | 157.3 | 120.5 | |||||||||||||||||||
Far Cry 2 | 120.9 | 91.4 | 59 | ||||||||||||||||||
Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare | 251 | 160 | 103.4 | ||||||||||||||||||
Crysis - GPU Benchmark | 170.1 | 101.8 | 85.1 | 49 | 107.6 | 67.6 | 67 | 25 | |||||||||||||
Crysis - CPU Benchmark | 232.7 | 109.5 | 88.3 | 45 | 137.5 | 65.5 | 65 | 23 | |||||||||||||
Call of Juarez Benchmark | 82 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Half Life 2 - Lost Coast Benchmark | 204.8 | ||||||||||||||||||||
AMD Radeon HD 6970M Crossfire | AMD Radeon HD 6970M | AMD Radeon HD 6990M Crossfire | |||||||||||||||||||
low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | < 30 fps < 60 fps < 120 fps ≥ 120 fps | 1 14 | 5 9 | 7 8 | 4 7 5 | | | < 30 fps < 60 fps < 120 fps ≥ 120 fps | 1 16 18 | 4 18 6 | 10 21 4 | 8 15 8 2 | | | < 30 fps < 60 fps < 120 fps ≥ 120 fps | 1 10 | 4 7 | 7 5 | 2 8 2 | | |
For more games that might be playable and a list of all games and graphics cards visit our Gaming List