NVIDIA · GeForce GTX 900 Series

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 is a graphics card released on September 18, 2014, built on the Maxwell architecture. It has 2,048 shading units, 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, 224.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth, a boost clock of 1.22 GHz and a 165 W board power rating. It scores 11,073 in the PassMark G3D benchmark. It supports DirectX 12 and OpenGL 4.5.

MaxwellGM204-400-A1

10/10 key specs recorded · 52 facts

Depth: 41 recorded fields, 9 features, 5 PassMark workloads

Specification data last verified November 2, 2026 against PassMark Videocard Benchmark, NVIDIA Developer: Video Encode and Decode GPU Support Matrix and Wikipedia GPU list tables (wikigrid-2026-09). Coverage: 10 of 10 tracked specifications recorded.

PassMark Videocard Benchmark NVIDIA Developer: Video Encode and Decode GPU Support Matrix PassMark Videocard Benchmark Wikipedia GPU list tables (wikigrid-2026-09)

Shading units

2,048cores

Memory

4 GB

GDDR5 · 256-bit

Boost clock

1.22 GHz

1.13 GHz base

Board power

165 W

Performance

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 scores 11,073 in the PassMark G3D benchmark, higher than 89.9% of the 2,658 GPUs benchmarked (PassMark rank #277), measured across 14,373 submitted results. Its PassMark G2D score is 788.

PassMark G3D Mark

11,073

Rank #277
Faster than 89.9% of 2,658 GPUs
14,373 samples

0relative to the fastest GPU on record (41,928)

PassMark workload tests

DirectX 9 164 fps

reference: fastest recorded 526 fps · faster than 85.4% of 1,675 GPUs

DirectX 10 53 fps

reference: fastest recorded 231 fps · faster than 77.3% of 1,602 GPUs

DirectX 11 83 fps

reference: fastest recorded 362 fps · faster than 81.5% of 1,430 GPUs

DirectX 12 46 fps

reference: fastest recorded 213 fps · faster than 77.9% of 1,274 GPUs

GPU Compute 4,739 ops/s

reference: fastest recorded 26,591 ops/s · faster than 82.2% of 1,447 GPUs

Averages of PassMark PerformanceTest submissions; frames/sec are PassMark test-scene rates, not game FPS. Tests PassMark does not report for this card are omitted. PassMark listing

In the PassMark workload tests the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 averages DirectX 9 164 fps, DirectX 10 53 fps, DirectX 11 83 fps, DirectX 12 46 fps and GPU Compute 4,739 ops/s, across 14,373 submitted results. Frames per second are PassMark test-scene rates, not game frame rates.

As stated by PassMark

Category Desktop

Bus interface PCIe 3.0 x16

Max memory 4 GB

Core clock 1126 MHz

Memory clock 1752.5 MHz

DirectX 12

OpenGL 4.5

Max TDP 165 W

First benchmarked 2014-09-19

Samples 14,373

PassMark listing (collected 2026-09-30)

PassMark's own listing for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 states the PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, up to 4 GB of memory, a core clock of 1126 MHz, DirectX 12 and OpenGL 4.5, first benchmarked on 2014-09-19. These are PassMark's figures, shown separately from the specification tables above.

Not to be confused with

This page covers the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 specifically. It is a different product from NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M, which have their own specifications. Check the exact model name before comparing figures.

Graphics processor

Architecture Maxwell

Codename GM204-400-A1

Chip Not recorded

Process node Not recorded

Transistors 5,200 M

Die size 398 mm²

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 is based on the Maxwell architecture, uses the GM204-400-A1 graphics processor, contains 5,200 million transistors and has a die size of 398 mm².

Shader configuration

Shading units 2,048

Compute units Not recorded

Streaming multiprocessors Not recorded

Execution units Not recorded

Texture units (TMUs) 128

Render output units (ROPs) 64

Ray tracing cores Not recorded

Tensor / AI cores Not recorded

XMX engines Not recorded

Infinity cache Not recorded

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 has 2,048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units and 64 render output units.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 does not use XMX engines; those are specific to Intel Arc graphics. Infinity Cache is an AMD architectural feature and does not apply to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980. Feex has no recorded ray tracing core count for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980.

Clock speeds

Base clock 1.13 GHz

Boost clock 1.22 GHz

Game clock Not recorded

Memory clock Not recorded

Effective memory clock Not recorded

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 runs at a base clock of 1.13 GHz and boosts to 1.22 GHz.

Memory

Size 4 GB

Type GDDR5

Bus width 256-bit

Bandwidth 224.4 GB/s

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 is equipped with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory, uses a 256-bit memory bus and delivers 224.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

Board and power

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 has a board power rating of 165 W and it connects over PCIe 3.0 x16.

Board power (TDP) 165 W

Total board power Not recorded

Suggested PSU Not recorded

Power connectors Not recorded

Slot width Not recorded

Length Not recorded

Width Not recorded

Height Not recorded

Cooler Not recorded

Max temperature Not recorded

Bus interface PCIe 3.0 x16

Market

Launched September 18, 2014

Launch price $549

Status Not recorded

Form factor Not recorded

Segment Desktop

Series GeForce GTX 900 Series

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 was released on September 18, 2014 and launched at a price of $549.

Benchmarks

PassMark G3D 11,073

PassMark G2D 788

Rank #277

Samples 14,373

Graphics and compute APIs

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 supports DirectX 12 and OpenGL 4.5.

DirectX 12

OpenGL 4.5

Feex has no recorded CUDA compute capability for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980. Feex has no recorded Vulkan version for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980. Feex has no recorded OpenCL version for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980.

Media engine

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 provides hardware encode for H.264 (AVC) and HEVC (H.265) and hardware decode for H.264 (AVC). It does not support hardware encode for AV1 and decode for HEVC (H.265), AV1 and VP9.

NVIDIA NVENC encoder 5th Generation Encoder engines: 2NVIDIA's dedicated video-encoding engine, used by streaming and capture software; newer generations encode more efficiently.

NVIDIA NVDEC decoder 1st Generation Decoder engines: 1NVIDIA's dedicated video-decoding engine; newer generations support more codecs and formats.

Hardware video codec support of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
Codec	Encode	Decode
H.264 (AVC)	Supported4:4:4: Yes	Supported
HEVC (H.265)	Supported4:2:2: No; 4:4:4: No; 10-bit: No; B-frames: No; 8K: No	Not supported
AV1	Not supported	Not supported
VP9	Not stated by the vendor	Not supported

supported explicitly not supported not stated by the vendor

Media engines recorded for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980: NVIDIA NVENC encoder (5th Generation, encoder engines: 2) and NVIDIA NVDEC decoder (1st Generation, decoder engines: 1).

Naming and aliases

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 is also known by other names: PassMark also lists it as NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (Mobile).

Other names (PassMark) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (Mobile)

Feex fleet

1 Feex machine reports the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 as its graphics hardware.

1 Feex machine with this GPU

The count covers machines that have reported hardware to Feex, counted once each; excluded and test machines are not counted, and no machine identity is published.

Frequently asked questions

How much VRAM does the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 have?

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 has 4 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus. Its memory bandwidth is 224.4 GB/s.

How much power does the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 use and what power supply does it need?

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 has a board power rating of 165 W.

How fast is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980?

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 scores 11,073 in the PassMark G3D benchmark, higher than 89.9% of the 2,658 GPUs benchmarked. Its PassMark rank is #277. In the PassMark DirectX 12 test it averages 46 fps.

Does the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 support AV1 encoding?

No. Feex records AV1 hardware encoding as explicitly not supported on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980.

What bus interface does the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 use?

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 connects over PCIe 3.0 x16.

When was the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 released and how much did it cost at launch?

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 was released on September 18, 2014 and launched at a price of $549.

Corrections to this record

After an audit, 1 value on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 record was corrected and 1 empty field was filled from sources. Each change is listed with its old value, new value, rule and sources.