GeForce GTX 980 vs GTX TITAN

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Aggregate performance score

We've compared GeForce GTX TITAN and GeForce GTX 980, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

GTX TITAN
2013
6 GB GDDR5, 250 Watt
21.26

GTX 980 outperforms GTX TITAN by a substantial 36% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking258195
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation3.2810.98
Power efficiency5.8311.97
ArchitectureKepler (2012−2018)Maxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)
GPU code nameGK110GM204
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Release date19 February 2013 (11 years ago)19 September 2014 (10 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$999 $549

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

GTX 980 has 235% better value for money than GTX TITAN.

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 cores26882048
Core clock speed837 MHz1064 MHz
Boost clock speed876 MHz1216 MHz
Number of transistors7,080 million5,200 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)250 Watt165 Watt
Texture fill rate196.2155.6
Floating-point processing power4.709 TFLOPS4.981 TFLOPS
ROPs4864
TMUs224128

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 supportPCI Express 3.0PCI Express 3.0
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Length267 mm267 mm
Height4.376" (11.1 cm)4.376" (11.1 cm)
Width2-slot2-slot
Recommended system power (PSU)no data500 Watt
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin2x 6-pin
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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount6 GB4 GB
Memory bus width384-bit GDDR5256 Bit
Memory clock speed6.0 GB/s7.0 GB/s
Memory bandwidth288.4 GB/s224 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 ConnectorsOne Dual Link DVI-I, One Dual Link DVI-D, One HDMI, One DisplayPortDual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2
Multi monitor support4 displays4 displays
VGA аnalog display supportno data+
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) supportno data+
HDMI++
HDCP++
Maximum VGA resolution2048x15362048x1536
G-SYNC support-+
Audio input for HDMIInternalInternal

Supported technologies

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

Blu Ray 3D+-
3D Gaming+-
3D Vision+-
GameStream-+
GeForce ShadowPlay-+
GPU Boostno data2.0
GameWorks-+
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder-+
Optimus-+
3D Vision Live+-
BatteryBoost-+

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (11_0)12 (12_1)
Shader Model5.16.4
OpenGL4.44.5
OpenCL1.21.2
Vulkan1.1.1261.1.126
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 TITAN 21.26
GTX 980 28.82
+35.6%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

GTX TITAN 8194
GTX 980 11104
+35.5%

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 TITAN 10470
GTX 980 12938
+23.6%

GeekBench 5 OpenCL

Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU's processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses OpenCL API by Khronos Group.

GTX TITAN 24431
GTX 980 34883
+42.8%

GeekBench 5 Vulkan

Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU's processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses Vulkan API by AMD & Khronos Group.

GTX TITAN 21830
GTX 980 40029
+83.4%

GeekBench 5 CUDA

Geekbench 5 is a widespread graphics card benchmark combined from 11 different test scenarios. All these scenarios rely on direct usage of GPU's processing power, no 3D rendering is involved. This variation uses CUDA API by NVIDIA.

GTX TITAN 17711
GTX 980 29546
+66.8%

Octane Render OctaneBench

This is a special benchmark measuring graphics card performance in OctaneRender, which is a realistic GPU rendering engine by OTOY Inc., available either as a standalone program, or as a plugin for 3DS Max, Cinema 4D and many other apps. It renders four different static scenes, then compares render times with a reference GPU which is currently GeForce GTX 980. This benchmark has nothing to do with gaming and is aimed at professional 3D graphics artists.

GTX TITAN 85
GTX 980 96
+12.9%

Unigine Heaven 4.0

This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark, a newer version of Unigine 3.0 with relatively small differences. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. The benchmark is still sometimes used, despite its significant age, as it was released back in 2013.

GTX TITAN 1783
GTX 980 1889
+5.9%

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:

Full HD65−70
−43.1%
93
+43.1%
1440p35−40
−48.6%
52
+48.6%
4K27−30
−40.7%
38
+40.7%

Cost per frame, $

1080p15.375.90
1440p28.5410.56
4K37.0014.45

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 45−50
+0%
45−50
+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 69
+0%
69
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 45−50
+0%
45−50
+0%
Battlefield 5 86
+0%
86
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 55−60
+0%
55−60
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 45−50
+0%
45−50
+0%
Far Cry 5 84
+0%
84
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 77
+0%
77
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 253
+0%
253
+0%
Hitman 3 55−60
+0%
55−60
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 120−130
+0%
120−130
+0%
Metro Exodus 95−100
+0%
95−100
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 70−75
+0%
70−75
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 130
+0%
130
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 110−120
+0%
110−120
+0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 83
+0%
83
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 45−50
+0%
45−50
+0%
Battlefield 5 74
+0%
74
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 55−60
+0%
55−60
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 45−50
+0%
45−50
+0%
Far Cry 5 69
+0%
69
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 64
+0%
64
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 230
+0%
230
+0%
Hitman 3 55−60
+0%
55−60
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 120−130
+0%
120−130
+0%
Metro Exodus 95−100
+0%
95−100
+0%
Red Dead Redemption 2 70−75
+0%
70−75
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 100−105
+0%
100−105
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 132
+0%
132
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 110−120
+0%
110−120
+0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 35
+0%
35
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 45−50
+0%
45−50
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 55−60
+0%
55−60
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 45−50
+0%
45−50
+0%
Far Cry 5 50
+0%
50
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 59
+0%
59
+0%
Hitman 3 55−60
+0%
55−60
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 120−130
+0%
120−130
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 100−105
+0%
100−105
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 46
+0%
46
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 110−120
+0%
110−120
+0%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 70−75
+0%
70−75
+0%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5 47
+0%
47
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 44
+0%
44
+0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 27
+0%
27
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 27−30
+0%
27−30
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 30−35
+0%
30−35
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 20−22
+0%
20−22
+0%
Far Cry 5 33
+0%
33
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 147
+0%
147
+0%
Hitman 3 35−40
+0%
35−40
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 60−65
+0%
60−65
+0%
Metro Exodus 55−60
+0%
55−60
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 65−70
+0%
65−70
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 35−40
+0%
35−40
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 150−160
+0%
150−160
+0%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 45−50
+0%
45−50
+0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5 22
+0%
22
+0%
Far Cry New Dawn 24
+0%
24
+0%
Hitman 3 21−24
+0%
21−24
+0%
Horizon Zero Dawn 140−150
+0%
140−150
+0%
Metro Exodus 30−35
+0%
30−35
+0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 29
+0%
29
+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 14
+0%
14
+0%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 16−18
+0%
16−18
+0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 16−18
+0%
16−18
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
Far Cry 5 16
+0%
16
+0%
Forza Horizon 4 34
+0%
34
+0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 35−40
+0%
35−40
+0%
Watch Dogs: Legion 12−14
+0%
12−14
+0%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2 24−27
+0%
24−27
+0%

This is how GTX TITAN and GTX 980 compete in popular games:

  • GTX 980 is 43% faster in 1080p
  • GTX 980 is 49% faster in 1440p
  • GTX 980 is 41% faster in 4K

All in all, in popular games:

  • there's a draw in 72 tests (100%)

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 21.26 28.82
Recency 19 February 2013 19 September 2014
Maximum RAM amount 6 GB 4 GB
Power consumption (TDP) 250 Watt 165 Watt

GTX TITAN has a 50% higher maximum VRAM amount.

GTX 980, on the other hand, has a 35.6% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 1 year, and 51.5% lower power consumption.

The GeForce GTX 980 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTX TITAN in performance tests.


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

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN
GeForce GTX TITAN
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
GeForce GTX 980

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.


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Questions & comments

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