NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
VS
AMD Radeon HD 7970
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
VS
AMD Radeon HD 7970

General info

The general info section in the graphics cards comparison list contains information about the date of release, type, overall rating and other useful data for identifying winner between NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB  vs  AMD Radeon HD 7970.

136
Place in performance rating
246
58.53
Value for money (0-100)
14.46
Pascal
Architecture
GCN
GP106
Code name
Tahiti
Desktop
Type
Desktop
18 August 2016 (5 years ago)
Release date
22 December 2011 (9 years ago)
$199
Launch price (MSRP)
$549
$441 (2.2x MSRP)
Price now
$429 (0.8x MSRP)
no data
Design
reference
30.53
Value for money
5.80
GP106
GPU code name
Tahiti XT
Desktop
Market segment
Desktop

Technical specs

Which GPU is better between NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB  vs  AMD Radeon HD 7970 in the fabrication process, power consumption, and also base and turbo frequency of the GPU is the most important part containing in the graphics cards hierarchy.

1152
Pipelines
2048
1506 MHz
Core clock speed
no data
1708 MHz
Boost Clock
925 MHz
4,400 million
Transistor count
4,313 million
16 nm
Manufacturing process technology
28 nm
120 Watt
Power consumption (TDP)
300 Watt
123.0
Texture fill rate
118.4
3,935 gflops
Floating-point performance
3,789 gflops
1152
Pipelines / CUDA cores
2048
1708 MHz
Boost clock speed
925 MHz
4,400 million
Number of transistors
4,313 million
120 Watt
Thermal design power (TDP)
300 Watt

Compatibility, dimensions and requirements

Let’s discuss how graphics cards NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB and AMD Radeon HD 7970 come in different sizes (length), connector types and types of interfaces.

PCIe 3.0 x16
Interface
PCIe 3.0 x16
250 mm
Length
274 mm
1x 6-pin
Supplementary power connectors
1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
no data
Bus support
PCIe 2.1 x16

Memory

Graphics cards memory plays important role both in gaming and in applications for graphics. The card will perform much quicker and better, if it has more memory capacity and right memory type. What is the difference between NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB vs AMD Radeon HD 7970.

GDDR5
Memory type
GDDR5
3 GB
Maximum RAM amount
3 GB
192 Bit
Memory bus width
384 Bit
8008 MHz
Memory clock speed
1375 MHz
192.2 GB/s
Memory bandwidth
264 GB/s
no data
Shared memory
-

Video outputs and ports

Let’s find out the difference in extra ports between two graphics cards. What's the difference between NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB vs AMD Radeon HD 7970.

1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort
Display Connectors
1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
no data
Eyefinity
+
+
HDMI
+
no data
DisplayPort support
-

Technologies

Let’s have a look what is the difference. It is worthwhile to note that NVIDIA and AMD are using different technologies.

no data
AppAcceleration
-
no data
CrossFire
1
no data
FreeSync
1
no data
HD3D
-
no data
PowerTune
-
no data
TrueAudio
-
no data
ZeroCore
-
no data
Enduro
-

API support

The confrontation between the two contenders NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB and AMD Radeon HD 7970 is practically over. The hardware support (API) does not greatly affect the overall performance, it is not considered in synthetic benchmarks and other performance tests. 

12 (12_1)
DirectX
DirectX® 11
4.6
OpenGL
4.6
+
Vulkan
no data
no data
Shader Model
5.1
no data
OpenCL
1.2
no data
Mantle
-

Gaming performance

Select form the list the required name to identify gaming performance for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB and AMD Radeon HD 7970 graphics cards. The result shows how fast the game will run and whether it can be run on this computer. The different monitor resolutions – from low to 4K – are used for testing. Find out is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB or AMD Radeon HD 7970 good for gaming.


low
1280x720
med.
1920x1080
high
1920x1080
ultra
1920x1080
QHD
2560x1440
4K
3840x2160
Horizon Zero Dawn (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
AMD Radeon HD 7970
Death Stranding (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
AMD Radeon HD 7970
F1 2020 (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
AMD Radeon HD 7970
Gears Tactics (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
AMD Radeon HD 7970
Doom Eternal (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB
AMD Radeon HD 7970
Legend
5 Stutters – This game is very likely to stutter and have poor frame rates. Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, average frame rates are expected to fall below 25fps
May Stutter – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, stutters and poor frame rates are expected.
30 Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 25fps
40 Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 35fps
60 Fluent – Based on all known benchmarks using the specified graphical settings, this game should run at or above 58fps
May Run Fluently – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game. Based on interpolated information from surrounding graphics cards of similar performance levels, fluent frame rates are expected.
? Uncertain – This graphics card experienced unexpected performance issues during testing for this game. A slower card may be able to achieve better and more consistent frame rates than this particular GPU running the same benchmark scene.
Uncertain – This graphics card has not been explicitly tested on this game and no reliable interpolation can be made based on the performances of surrounding cards of the same class or family.
The value in the fields displays the average frame rate of all values in the database. Move your cursor over the value to see individual results.

Advantages of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB

20.1% faster in synthetic tests

Finer manufacturing process technology (16 nm vs 28 nm)

Less power consumption (120 Watt vs 300 Watt)

Advantages of AMD Radeon HD 7970

Cheaper ($429 (0.8x MSRP) vs $441 (2.2x MSRP))

More pipelines (2048 vs 1152)

More memory bandwidth (264 GB/s vs 192.2 GB/s)

So, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB or AMD Radeon HD 7970?

Judging by the results of synthetic and gaming tests, we recommend NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB .

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3 GB versus AMD Radeon HD 7970 performance benchmarks comparison

Overall benchmark performance

Unigine Heaven 4.0

Benchmark Unigine Heaven 4.0: Graphic cards performance test result. Check Unigine Heaven 4.0 test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Benchmark 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

3DMark Fire Strike Score

Benchmark 3DMark Fire Strike Score: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark Fire Strike Score test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Benchmark 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

Benchmark 3DMark 11 Performance GPU: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark 11 Performance GPU test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

3DMark Vantage Performance

Benchmark 3DMark Vantage Performance: Graphic cards performance test result. Check 3DMark Vantage Performance test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

Unigine Heaven 3.0

Benchmark Unigine Heaven 3.0: Graphic cards performance test result. Check Unigine Heaven 3.0 test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

Passmark

Benchmark Passmark: Graphic cards performance test result. Check Passmark test results of GPUs on hitesti.com

User rating

4.3 Out of 455 Hitesti Score
4.2 Out of 31 Hitesti Score