NVIDIA started GeForce GTX 980 Mobile sales 21 September 2015 at a recommended price of $395.82 . This is a laptop graphics card based on a Maxwell 2.0 architecture and made with 28 nm manufacturing process. It is primarily aimed at gamers. 4 GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 7.0 GB/s are supplied, and together with 256 Bit memory interface this creates a bandwidth of 224 GB/s.

Compatibility-wise, this is a graphics card attached via MXM-B (3.0) interface. Power consumption is at 100-200 Watt.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking	252
Place by popularity	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	19.02
Power efficiency	7.51	of 100.00 (Radeon 890M)
Architecture	Maxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)
GPU code name	GM204
Market segment	Laptop
Release date	21 September 2015 (9 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$395.82	of 14,999 (Quadro Plex 7000)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

Detailed specifications

GeForce GTX 980 (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 (Laptop)'s performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider its benchmark and gaming test results.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	2048	of 21760 (GeForce RTX 5090)
Core clock speed	1064 MHz	of 2610 MHz (Radeon RX 6500 XT)
Boost clock speed	1216 MHz	of 3599 MHz (Radeon RX 7990 XTX)
Number of transistors	5,200 million	of 208,000 million (B200 SXM 192 GB)
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	of 3 nm (Arc Graphics 140V)
Power consumption (TDP)	100-200 Watt	of 2400 Watt (Data Center GPU Max Subsystem)
Texture fill rate	136.2	of 2,554 (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Floating-point processing power	4.358 TFLOPS	of 109.7 (GeForce RTX 5090)
ROPs	64	of 192 (Radeon RX 7900 XTX)
TMUs	128	of 1280 (Data Center GPU Max NEXT)

Form factor & compatibility

This section provides details about the physical dimensions of GeForce GTX 980 (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
Bus support	PCI Express 3.0
Interface	MXM-B (3.0)
SLI options	+

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of memory installed on GeForce GTX 980 (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	4 GB	of 294912 (Radeon Instinct MI325X)
Memory bus width	256 Bit	of 8192 Bit (Radeon Instinct MI250X)
Memory clock speed	7.0 GB/s	of 20000 (RTX 5000 Ada Generation Mobile)
Memory bandwidth	224 GB/s	of 5,171 GB/s (Radeon Instinct MI300X)
Shared memory	-

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on GeForce GTX 980 (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.

Display Connectors	Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2
Multi monitor support	4 displays
VGA аnalog display support	+
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support	+
HDMI	+
HDCP	+
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536
G-SYNC support	+
Audio input for HDMI	Internal

Supported technologies

Technological solutions and APIs supported by GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop). You'll probably need this information if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

GameStream	+
GeForce ShadowPlay	+
GPU Boost	2.0
GameWorks	+
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder	+
Optimus	+
BatteryBoost	+

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (12_1)
Shader Model	6.4
OpenGL	4.5	of 4.6 (GeForce RTX 4090)
OpenCL	1.2
Vulkan	1.1.126
CUDA	+

Benchmark performance

Synthetic benchmark performance of GeForce GTX 980 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 Mobile 21.55

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 Mobile 17201

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 Mobile 39702

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 Mobile 13047

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 Mobile 76705

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.

GTX 980 Mobile 347481

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 maya-04

GTX 980 Mobile 107

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 sw-03

GTX 980 Mobile 49

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 snx-02

GTX 980 Mobile 6

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 catia-04

GTX 980 Mobile 54

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 creo-01

GTX 980 Mobile 35

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 medical-01

GTX 980 Mobile 31

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 showcase-01

GTX 980 Mobile 59

SPECviewperf 12 - specvp12 energy-01

GTX 980 Mobile 7

SPECviewperf 12 - Showcase

GTX 980 Mobile 59

SPECviewperf 12 - Maya

This part of SPECviewperf 12 workstation benchmark uses Autodesk Maya 13 engine to render a superhero energy plant static scene consisting of more than 700 thousand polygons, in six different modes.

GTX 980 Mobile 107

SPECviewperf 12 - Catia

GTX 980 Mobile 54

SPECviewperf 12 - Solidworks

GTX 980 Mobile 49

SPECviewperf 12 - Siemens NX

GTX 980 Mobile 6

SPECviewperf 12 - Creo

GTX 980 Mobile 35

SPECviewperf 12 - Medical

GTX 980 Mobile 31

SPECviewperf 12 - Energy

GTX 980 Mobile 7.2

Gaming performance

Let's see how good GeForce GTX 980 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	97
1440p	60
4K	45

Cost per frame, $

1080p	4.08
1440p	6.60
4K	8.80

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

35−40

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	45−50
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	35−40
Battlefield 5	70−75
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	45−50
Cyberpunk 2077	35−40
Far Cry 5	50−55
Far Cry New Dawn	55−60
Forza Horizon 4	130−140
Hitman 3	40−45
Horizon Zero Dawn	100−110
Metro Exodus	75−80
Red Dead Redemption 2	55−60
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	70−75
Watch Dogs: Legion	95−100

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	45−50
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	35−40
Battlefield 5	70−75
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	45−50
Cyberpunk 2077	35−40
Far Cry 5	50−55
Far Cry New Dawn	55−60
Forza Horizon 4	130−140
Hitman 3	40−45
Horizon Zero Dawn	100−110
Metro Exodus	75−80
Red Dead Redemption 2	55−60
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	70−75
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	124
Watch Dogs: Legion	95−100

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	45−50
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	35−40
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	45−50
Cyberpunk 2077	35−40
Far Cry 5	50−55
Forza Horizon 4	130−140
Hitman 3	40−45
Horizon Zero Dawn	100−110
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	70−75
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	44
Watch Dogs: Legion	95−100

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

55−60

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	40−45
Far Cry New Dawn	30−35

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	21−24
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	21−24
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	24−27
Cyberpunk 2077	12−14
Far Cry 5	24−27
Forza Horizon 4	120−130
Hitman 3	24−27
Horizon Zero Dawn	45−50
Metro Exodus	40−45
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	45−50
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	24−27
Watch Dogs: Legion	120−130

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

35−40

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	21−24
Far Cry New Dawn	16−18
Hitman 3	16−18
Horizon Zero Dawn	110−120
Metro Exodus	24−27
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	30

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	12−14
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	12−14
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	12−14
Cyberpunk 2077	5−6
Far Cry 5	12−14
Forza Horizon 4	30−33
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	24−27
Watch Dogs: Legion	10−11

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

18−20

Closest competitors

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

GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q 106.03

Radeon RX 5600M 105.8

GeForce GTX 880M SLI 100.46

GeForce GTX 980 Mobile 100

Radeon 890M 99.86

GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Mobile 93.78

Radeon 880M 93.69

AMD equivalent

According to our data, the closest AMD alternative to GeForce GTX 980 Mobile is Radeon 890M, which is nearly equal in speed and lower by 1 position in our ranking.