GeForce GTX 950M Mac Edition vs GTX 980

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking	193	not rated
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	10.88	no data
Power efficiency	12.07	no data
Architecture	Maxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)	Maxwell (2014−2017)
GPU code name	GM204	GM107
Market segment	Desktop	Laptop
Release date	19 September 2014 (10 years ago)	13 March 2015 (9 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$549	no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

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 cores	2048	640
Core clock speed	1064 MHz	993 MHz
Boost clock speed	1216 MHz	1124 MHz
Number of transistors	5,200 million	1,870 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	165 Watt	75 Watt
Texture fill rate	155.6	44.96
Floating-point processing power	4.981 TFLOPS	1.439 TFLOPS
ROPs	64	16
TMUs	128	40

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).

Bus support	PCI Express 3.0	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	MXM-B (3.0)
Length	267 mm	no data
Height	4.376" (11.1 cm)	no data
Width	2-slot	no data
Recommended system power (PSU)	500 Watt	no data
Supplementary power connectors	2x 6-pin	no data
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 type	GDDR5	DDR3
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	2 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	7.0 GB/s	900 MHz
Memory bandwidth	224 GB/s	28.8 GB/s
Shared memory	-	no data

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 Connectors	Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2	No outputs
Multi monitor support	4 displays	no data
VGA аnalog display support	+	no data
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support	+	no data
HDMI	+	-
HDCP	+	-
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536	no data
G-SYNC support	+	-
Audio input for HDMI	Internal	no data

Supported technologies

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

GameStream	+	-
GeForce ShadowPlay	+	-
GPU Boost	2.0	no data
GameWorks	+	-
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder	+	-
Optimus	+	-
BatteryBoost	+	-

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (12_1)	12 (11_0)
Shader Model	6.4	5.1
OpenGL	4.5	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	1.2
Vulkan	1.1.126	1.1.126
CUDA	+	5.0

Pros & cons summary

---

Recency	19 September 2014	13 March 2015
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	2 GB
Power consumption (TDP)	165 Watt	75 Watt

---

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.

---