NVIDIA started GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile sales 22 September 2015. This is a laptop graphics card based on a Maxwell architecture and made with 28 nm manufacturing process. It is primarily aimed at gamers. 2x 8 GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 3.5 GHz are supplied.

Power consumption is at 330 Watt.

Primary details

Some basic facts about GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop): architecture, market segment, release date etc.

Place in the ranking	114
Place by popularity	not in top-100
Power efficiency	8.16	of 100.00 (Radeon 890M)
Architecture	Maxwell (2014−2017)
GPU code name	N16E-GXX SLI
Market segment	Laptop
Release date	22 September 2015 (9 years ago)

Detailed specifications

GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop)'s specs such as number of shaders, GPU base clock, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop)'s performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	4096	of 21760 (GeForce RTX 5090)
Core clock speed	1126 MHz	of 2670 MHz (Arc B580)
Boost clock speed	1228 MHz	of 3599 MHz (Radeon RX 7990 XTX)
Number of transistors	10400 Million	of 208,000 million (B200 SXM 192 GB)
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	of 3 nm (Arc Graphics 140V)
Power consumption (TDP)	330 Watt	of 2400 Watt (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem)

Form factor & compatibility

This section provides details about the physical dimensions of GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop) and its compatibility with other computer components. This information is useful when selecting a computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards, it includes details about the interface and bus (for motherboard compatibility) and additional power connectors (for power supply compatibility).

Laptop size	large
SLI options	+

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of memory installed on GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop): its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Note that GPUs integrated into processors have no dedicated memory and use a shared part of system RAM instead.

Memory type	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	2x 8 GB	of 294912 (Radeon Instinct MI325X)
Memory bus width	256 Bit	of 8192 Bit (Radeon Instinct MI250X)
Memory clock speed	3500 MHz	of 20000 (RTX 5000 Ada Generation Mobile)
Shared memory	-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop). As a rule, this section is relevant only for desktop reference graphics cards, since for notebook ones the availability of certain video outputs depends on the laptop model, while non-reference desktop models can (though not necessarily will) bear a different set of video ports.

G-SYNC support

API compatibility

APIs supported by GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop), sometimes including their particular versions.

DirectX	12_1
CUDA	+

Benchmark performance

Synthetic benchmark performance of GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

GTX 980 SLI Mobile 39.28

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

GTX 980 SLI Mobile 33169

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

GTX 980 SLI Mobile 47704

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

GTX 980 SLI Mobile 25453

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

GTX 980 SLI Mobile 155238

Gaming performance

Let's see how good GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile is for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in frames per second. Comparisons with game system requirements are included, but remember that sometimes official requirements may reflect reality inaccurately.

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular modern games across different resolutions:

Full HD	133
4K	63

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

65−70

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	80−85
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	65−70
Battlefield 5	120−130
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	75−80
Cyberpunk 2077	65−70
Far Cry 5	80−85
Far Cry New Dawn	95−100
Forza Horizon 4	190−200
Hitman 3	80−85
Horizon Zero Dawn	160−170
Metro Exodus	120−130
Red Dead Redemption 2	90−95
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	140−150
Watch Dogs: Legion	120−130

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	80−85
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	65−70
Battlefield 5	120−130
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	75−80
Cyberpunk 2077	65−70
Far Cry 5	80−85
Far Cry New Dawn	95−100
Forza Horizon 4	190−200
Hitman 3	80−85
Horizon Zero Dawn	160−170
Metro Exodus	120−130
Red Dead Redemption 2	90−95
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	140−150
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	137
Watch Dogs: Legion	120−130

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	80−85
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	65−70
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	75−80
Cyberpunk 2077	65−70
Far Cry 5	80−85
Forza Horizon 4	190−200
Hitman 3	80−85
Horizon Zero Dawn	160−170
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	140−150
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	74
Watch Dogs: Legion	120−130

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

90−95

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	70−75
Far Cry New Dawn	55−60

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	40−45
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	40−45
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	45−50
Cyberpunk 2077	30−33
Far Cry 5	45−50
Forza Horizon 4	210−220
Hitman 3	50−55
Horizon Zero Dawn	80−85
Metro Exodus	70−75
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	90−95
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	55−60
Watch Dogs: Legion	190−200

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

65−70

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	35−40
Far Cry New Dawn	30−35
Hitman 3	30−35
Horizon Zero Dawn	180−190
Metro Exodus	45−50
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	51

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	24−27
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	24−27
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	24−27
Cyberpunk 2077	12−14
Far Cry 5	21−24
Forza Horizon 4	50−55
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	50−55
Watch Dogs: Legion	18−20

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

30−35

Closest competitors

GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile's performance relative to its closest rivals among notebook graphics cards.

Radeon RX 6800S 102.42

Radeon RX 7700S 100.92

GeForce RTX 2080 Mobile 100.08

GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile 100

GeForce RTX 2080 Super Mobile 99.97

Radeon RX 6650M 99.8

Radeon RX 6700S 98.96

AMD equivalent

According to our data, the closest AMD alternative to GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile is Radeon RX 6650M, which is nearly equal in speed and lower by 2 positions in our ranking.