GeForce GT 540M vs GTX 980 SLI Mobile

VS

Aggregate performance score

We've compared GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile and GeForce GT 540M, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

GTX 980 SLI Mobile
2015
2x 8 GB GDDR5, 330 Watt
39.23
+3064%

GTX 980 SLI Mobile outperforms GT 540M by a whopping 3064% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking1141038
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiency8.292.47
ArchitectureMaxwell (2014−2017)Fermi (2010−2014)
GPU code nameN16E-GXX SLIGF108
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date22 September 2015 (9 years ago)5 January 2011 (13 years ago)

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores409696
Core clock speed1126 MHz672 MHz
Boost clock speed1228 MHzno data
Number of transistors10400 Million585 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)330 Watt35 Watt
Texture fill rateno data10.75
Floating-point processing powerno data0.258 TFLOPS
ROPsno data4
TMUsno data16

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Laptop sizelargelarge
Interfaceno dataMXM-A (3.0)
SLI options+-

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeGDDR5DDR3
Maximum RAM amount2x 8 GB2 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed3500 MHz900 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data28.8 GB/s
Shared memory--

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectorsno dataNo outputs
G-SYNC support+-

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

3D Blu-Ray-+
3D Gaming-+
Optimus-+

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX12_112 API
Shader Modelno data5.1
OpenGLno data4.5
OpenCLno data1.1
Vulkan-N/A
CUDA++

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. 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 39.23
+3064%
GT 540M 1.24

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
+3635%
GT 540M 888

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
+995%
GT 540M 4355

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
+3249%
GT 540M 760

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Average FPS across all PC games

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

900p500−550
+3025%
16
−3025%
Full HD132
+560%
20
−560%
4K65
+3150%
2−3
−3150%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 65−70
+2167%
3−4
−2167%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 80−85
+1267%
6−7
−1267%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 65−70
+3250%
2−3
−3250%
Battlefield 5 120−130
+4033%
3−4
−4033%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 75−80
+1850%
4−5
−1850%
Cyberpunk 2077 65−70
+2167%
3−4
−2167%
Far Cry 5 80−85
+8300%
1−2
−8300%
Far Cry New Dawn 95−100
+3100%
3−4
−3100%
Forza Horizon 4 190−200
+9400%
2−3
−9400%
Hitman 3 80−85
+1267%
6−7
−1267%
Horizon Zero Dawn 160−170
+1057%
14−16
−1057%
Metro Exodus 120−130
+4033%
3−4
−4033%
Red Dead Redemption 2 90−95
+4450%
2−3
−4450%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 140−150
+1663%
8−9
−1663%
Watch Dogs: Legion 120−130
+288%
30−35
−288%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 80−85
+1267%
6−7
−1267%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 65−70
+3250%
2−3
−3250%
Battlefield 5 120−130
+4033%
3−4
−4033%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 75−80
+1850%
4−5
−1850%
Cyberpunk 2077 65−70
+2167%
3−4
−2167%
Far Cry 5 80−85
+8300%
1−2
−8300%
Far Cry New Dawn 95−100
+3100%
3−4
−3100%
Forza Horizon 4 190−200
+9400%
2−3
−9400%
Hitman 3 80−85
+1267%
6−7
−1267%
Horizon Zero Dawn 160−170
+1057%
14−16
−1057%
Metro Exodus 120−130
+4033%
3−4
−4033%
Red Dead Redemption 2 90−95
+4450%
2−3
−4450%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 140−150
+1663%
8−9
−1663%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 137
+1145%
10−12
−1145%
Watch Dogs: Legion 120−130
+288%
30−35
−288%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 80−85
+1267%
6−7
−1267%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 65−70
+3250%
2−3
−3250%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 75−80
+1850%
4−5
−1850%
Cyberpunk 2077 65−70
+2167%
3−4
−2167%
Far Cry 5 80−85
+8300%
1−2
−8300%
Forza Horizon 4 190−200
+9400%
2−3
−9400%
Hitman 3 80−85
+1267%
6−7
−1267%
Horizon Zero Dawn 160−170
+1057%
14−16
−1057%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 140−150
+1663%
8−9
−1663%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 74
+573%
10−12
−573%
Watch Dogs: Legion 120−130
+288%
30−35
−288%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 90−95
+4450%
2−3
−4450%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 70−75
+7300%
1−2
−7300%
Far Cry New Dawn 55−60
+2850%
2−3
−2850%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 40−45
+4100%
1−2
−4100%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 40−45
+4100%
1−2
−4100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 45−50 0−1
Cyberpunk 2077 30−33
+2900%
1−2
−2900%
Far Cry 5 45−50
+4400%
1−2
−4400%
Forza Horizon 4 210−220
+3517%
6−7
−3517%
Hitman 3 50−55
+614%
7−8
−614%
Horizon Zero Dawn 80−85
+2000%
4−5
−2000%
Metro Exodus 70−75
+3500%
2−3
−3500%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 90−95
+4550%
2−3
−4550%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 55−60 0−1
Watch Dogs: Legion 190−200
+3067%
6−7
−3067%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 65−70
+1550%
4−5
−1550%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 35−40
+3800%
1−2
−3800%
Far Cry New Dawn 30−35 0−1
Hitman 3 30−35 0−1
Horizon Zero Dawn 180−190
+3500%
5−6
−3500%
Metro Exodus 45−50
+4800%
1−2
−4800%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 51
+5000%
1−2
−5000%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 24−27
+2500%
1−2
−2500%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 24−27
+2300%
1−2
−2300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 24−27 0−1
Cyberpunk 2077 12−14 0−1
Far Cry 5 21−24 0−1
Forza Horizon 4 50−55
+5300%
1−2
−5300%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 50−55
+5200%
1−2
−5200%
Watch Dogs: Legion 18−20 0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 30−35
+1033%
3−4
−1033%

This is how GTX 980 SLI Mobile and GT 540M compete in popular games:

  • GTX 980 SLI Mobile is 3025% faster in 900p
  • GTX 980 SLI Mobile is 560% faster in 1080p
  • GTX 980 SLI Mobile is 3150% faster in 4K

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

  • in Forza Horizon 4, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the GTX 980 SLI Mobile is 9400% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

  • Without exception, GTX 980 SLI Mobile surpassed GT 540M in all 47 of our tests.

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 39.23 1.24
Recency 22 September 2015 5 January 2011
Chip lithography 28 nm 40 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 330 Watt 35 Watt

GTX 980 SLI Mobile has a 3063.7% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 4 years, and a 42.9% more advanced lithography process.

GT 540M, on the other hand, has 842.9% lower power consumption.

The GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GT 540M in performance tests.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

Vote for your favorite

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile
GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile
NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M
GeForce GT 540M

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


3.3 65 votes

Rate GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
3.4 903 votes

Rate GeForce GT 540M on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.