RTX A40 vs GeForce GTX 980
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 205 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Cost-effectiveness evaluation | 9.52 | no data |
| Power efficiency | 12.00 | no data |
| Architecture | Maxwell 2.0 (2014−2019) | Ampere (2020−2024) |
| GPU code name | GM204 | GA102 |
| Market segment | Desktop | Workstation |
| Release date | 19 September 2014 (10 years ago) | 5 October 2020 (4 years ago) |
| Launch price (MSRP) | $549 | no data |
Cost-effectiveness evaluation
The higher the performance-to-price ratio, the better. We use the manufacturer's recommended prices for comparison.
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 | 10752 |
| Core clock speed | 1064 MHz | 1305 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 1216 MHz | 1755 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 5,200 million | 28,300 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 8 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 165 Watt | 300 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 155.6 | 589.7 |
| Floating-point processing power | 4.981 TFLOPS | 37.74 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 64 | 112 |
| TMUs | 128 | 336 |
| Tensor Cores | no data | 336 |
| Ray Tracing Cores | no data | 84 |
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 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |
| Length | 267 mm | 267 mm |
| Height | 4.376" (11.1 cm) | no data |
| Width | 2-slot | 2-slot |
| Recommended system power (PSU) | 500 Watt | no data |
| Supplementary power connectors | 2x 6-pin | 8-pin EPS |
| 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 | GDDR6 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 48 GB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 384 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 7.0 GB/s | 1812 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 224 GB/s | 695.8 GB/s |
| Shared memory | - | - |
| Resizable BAR | - | + |
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 | 3x DisplayPort |
| 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 and SDK compatibility
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (12_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |
| Shader Model | 6.4 | 6.5 |
| OpenGL | 4.5 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.2 | 2.0 |
| Vulkan | 1.1.126 | 1.2 |
| CUDA | + | 8.6 |
| DLSS | - | + |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 19 September 2014 | 5 October 2020 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 48 GB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 8 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 165 Watt | 300 Watt |
GTX 980 has 81.8% lower power consumption.
RTX A40, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 6 years, a 1100% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 250% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 980 and RTX A40. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that GeForce GTX 980 is a desktop card while RTX A40 is a workstation one.
Other comparisons
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