Graphics cards/Comparison
13 specifications
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 vs AMD Radeon RX 470
On paper, the AMD Radeon RX 470 has more shading units. Specifications describe what each card is designed to do; how much of that either one holds under continuous load is a separate question.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
NVIDIA · GeForce GTX 900 · Desktop
AMD Radeon RX 470
AMD · Radeon RX 400 · Desktop
Compute
Memory
Power and platform
A check marks the higher figure only on rows where higher is unambiguously better. Rows without one are not ties; they are specifications where “better” has no meaning.
Reading the table
What the difference means.
Video memory
Both carry 4 GB, so neither has the advantage where memory is the limit: high resolutions, heavy textures and local AI models fill both at the same point.
Shading units
The counts differ, 2,048 against 1,664, but these are different designs from different makers, and a shading unit on one is not the same amount of work as on the other. The row cannot be used to rank this pair.
Board power
The GTX 970 draws up to 145 W against 120 W. That is heat the case has to exhaust and current the power supply has to deliver: allow a supply of about 550 W for the GTX 970 with a typical processor, and check the card's power connectors against the supply's. A card that cannot shed its heat does not fail. It lowers its clocks after a few minutes, which is the frame rate that falls the longer you play.
Which to pick, on paper
- A small case or a modest power supply
- RX 470
- 120 W against 145 W: less heat, fewer power connectors, quieter fans.
What no table says
How much of its speed a graphics card keeps after the first minute depends on the cooling and the power limit of the machine it is in. If you own one of these, measure it: the test is free and runs in this browser.
Questions
- Is the GTX 970 better than the RX 470?
- By need, on the specifications: a small case or a modest power supply: the RX 470. They are different designs, so the raw counts cannot rank them. Frame rates depend on the game and its settings, and how much speed either card keeps after ten minutes depends on its cooling, which is what a sustained test measures.
- What power supply does the GTX 970 need?
- Allow about 550 W with a typical processor, and make sure the supply has the power connectors the card uses. The RX 470 at 120 W is easier on both.
More comparisons
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (GDDR6)
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
- AMD Radeon RX 470 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
- AMD Radeon RX 470 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
- AMD Radeon RX 470 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630
- AMD Radeon RX 470 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (GDDR6)
- AMD Radeon RX 470 vs AMD Radeon RX 480
Every figure on this table is a design target. None of it is a measurement.
Nothing above describes how a graphics card behaves twenty minutes into a sustained workload, which is where two chips with nearly identical specifications routinely diverge. A boost clock is a ceiling the vendor permits, not a rate the chip sustains, and whether it holds depends on the cooling, the case, the power profile and the room. None of those appear on a specification sheet.
We deliberately do not reduce these figures to a single score. A composite invented from specifications would look authoritative and measure nothing, and choosing the weights would be choosing the winner.