GeForce GTX 980 VS GeForce RTX 4090
We are comparing the GeForce GTX 980 ( NVIDIA ) head-to-head with the GeForce RTX 4090 ( NVIDIA ) . You’ll get the key pros and cons of each graphics card, in-depth specs, and gaming benchmarks.
Note: This comparison of GeForce GTX 980 vs. GeForce RTX 4090 is based on Comparigon's analysis and is for informational purposes only.
Last Updated: August 20, 2026
KEY DIFFERENCES OF GeForce GTX 980 AND GeForce RTX 4090
Here’s how GeForce GTX 980 and GeForce RTX 4090 stack up against each other in their most impactful areas. Use these bullets to see at a glance which graphics card excels where.
Why GeForce RTX 4090 is the best choice:
-
239% higher 4K Ultra FPS (105 vs 31)
-
193% higher 1440p Ultra FPS (176 vs 60)
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166% higher 1080p Ultra FPS (218 vs 82)
-
107% higher Boost Clock (2520 MHz vs 1216 MHz)
-
244% higher PassMark G3D Mark score (38098 vs 11077)
SPECIFICATION TABLE COMPARISON OF GeForce GTX 980 AND GeForce RTX 4090
Below is the detailed specification table comparing GeForce GTX 980 and GeForce RTX 4090.
Note: Highlighted specs mean that GPU wins that spec row.
If neither side is highlighted, it is a tie or there is not enough data for both specs.
| Specification | GeForce GTX 980 | GeForce RTX 4090 |
|---|---|---|
|
General Info
|
||
| GPU Name: | GeForce GTX 980 | GeForce RTX 4090 |
| GPU Type: | Discrete | Discrete |
| Codename: | GM204 | AD102 |
| Vendor: | NVIDIA | NVIDIA |
| Foundry: | TSMC | TSMC |
| Architecture: | Maxwell 2.0 | Ada Lovelace |
| Generation: | GeForce 900 | GeForce 40 |
| Release Date: | September 19, 2014 | September 20, 2022 |
|
Board Design
|
||
| Bus Interface: | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |
| PCIe Version: | 3.0 | 4.0 |
| PCIe Lanes: | 16 | x16 |
| Process Size: | 28 nm | 5 nm |
| Transistors: | 5.2 billion | 76.3 billion |
| Density: | 13.1 MTr/mm² | 125.29 MTr/mm² |
| Die Size: | 398 mm² | 609 |
| Board Length: | 267 mm | 304 mm |
| Board Width: | 40 mm | 61 mm |
| Board Height: | 111 mm | 137 mm |
| Total Graphics Power (TGP): | 165 W | 450 W |
|
Graphics Processor
|
||
| Compute Units: | 16 | 128 |
| Shading Units: | 2048 | 16384 |
| Texture Mapping Units (TMUs): | 128 | 512 |
| Render Output Units (ROPs): | 64 | 176 |
| Tensor Cores: | — | 512 |
| Ray Tracing Cores: | — | 128 |
| Base Clock: | 1127 MHz | 2235 |
| Boost Clock: | 1216 MHz | 2520 |
| L1 Cache: | 48 KB (per SMM) | 128KB per cluster |
| L2 Cache: | 2 MB | 72MB shared |
|
Raw Performance
|
||
| Pixel Fill Rate: | 77.82 GPixel/s | 443.5 GPixel/s |
| Texture Fill Rate: | 155.6 GTexel/s | 1,290.2 GTexel/s |
| FP32 Performance: | 4.981 TFLOPs | 82.58 TFLOPs |
|
Memory
|
||
| Memory Type: | GDDR5 | GDDR6X |
| Memory Size: | 4 GB | 24 GB |
| Memory Bus Width: | 256-bit | 384-bit |
| Memory Clock: | 1753 MHz | 2625 |
| Effective Memory Speed: | 7000 Mbps | 21000 |
| Bandwidth: | 224.4 GB/s | 1010 |
|
APIs
|
||
| DirectX: | 12.1 | 12 |
| Vulkan: | 1.4 | 1.3 |
| OpenGL: | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL: | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| CUDA: | 5.2 | 8.9 |
| Ray Tracing: | 0 | Yes |
| DLSS: | 0 | DLSS 3 |
| DisplayPort: | 1.2 | 1.4a |
| HDMI: | 2.0 | — |
|
Gaming FPS
|
||
| 1080p Ultra (FPS): | 82 | 218 |
| 1440p Ultra (FPS): | 60 | 176 |
| 4K Ultra (FPS): | 31 | 105 |
|
Benchmarks
|
||
|
3D Mark
|
||
| Steel Nomad Lite | — | 42154 |
| Time Spy | — | 36315 |
| Solar Bay | — | 187290 |
| Port Royal | — | 26128 |
| Fire Strike | 11112 | 72272 |
| Wild Life Extreme | — | 85225 |
| Night Raid | — | 195744 |
|
GeekBench 6 OpenCL
|
||
| Compute Score | — | 316301 |
| Background Blur | — | 318.9 img/sec |
| Face Detection | — | 222.8 img/sec |
| Horizon Detection | — | 14.2 Gpixels/sec |
| Edge Detection | — | 21 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian Blur | — | 23.9 Gpixels/sec |
| Feature Matching | — | 2.38 Gpixels/sec |
| Stereo Matching | — | 1950 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle Physics | — | 48090.4 FPS |
|
Passmark Graphics
|
||
| G3D Mark | 11077 | 38098 |
| G2D Mark | 789 | 1303 |
| DirectX 11 | 83 | 324 |
| DirectX 12 | 46 | 151 |
| GPU Compute | 4744 | 26273 Ops/s |
|
GFXBench 5
|
||
| Aztec Ruins High (4K) | — | 615.90 |
| Aztec Ruins Normal | — | 1617.60 |
| Car Chase | — | 1228.60 |
| Manhattan 3.1.1 (1440p) | — | 1234.60 |
| T-Rex | — | 6286.00 |
| Tessellation | — | 12119.10 |
| ALU 2 | — | 15073.40 |
| Driver Overhead 2 | — | 303.70 |
| API | — | OpenGL |
| OS | — | Windows |
|
Blender (Rendering)
|
||
| Blender Score | — | 11795 |
|
GeekBench 6 ML
|
||
| Single Precision | — | 42962 |
| Half Precision | — | 59636 |
| Quantized | — | 31670 |
| Image Classification | — | 15600 |
| Image Segmentation | — | 36657 |
| Image Super Resolution | — | 48114 |
| Face Detection | — | 78111 |
| Pose Estimation | — | 289639 |
| Text Classification | — | 4074 |
| Machine Translation | — | 6349 |
| Object Detection | — | 21186 |
| Depth Estimation | — | 75599 |
| Style Transfer | — | 601428 |
| Framework | — | ONNX |
| Backend | — | DirectML |
|
FurMark
|
||
| 1080p Vulkan | 3569 | 27475 |
| 1440p Vulkan | 2309 | 20403 |
| 2160p Vulkan | 1312 | 11883 |
| 1080p OpenGL | 3912 | 24851 |
| 1440p OpenGL | 2572 | 19078 |
| 2160p OpenGL | 1425 | 11425 |
Tip: ▲ indicates a higher-is-better spec advantage, while ▼ indicates a lower-is-better advantage.
PERFORMANCE CHART COMPARISON OF GeForce GTX 980 AND GeForce RTX 4090
The charts below visualize how GeForce GTX 980 and GeForce RTX 4090 stack up in key performance metrics.
Radar Chart Comparison
Bullet Chart Comparison
Release Timeline of GeForce GTX 980 and GeForce RTX 4090
GeForce GTX 980 was released 8 years, 1 day earlier than GeForce RTX 4090.
Value For Money Calculator
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Domain Score Summary
Note: Scores (0 to 100) are generated by Comparigon’s scoring algorithm and are intended as a high-level guide. They may not map 1-to-1 with the individual spec-by-spec comparisons shown in the table.
Our Verdict
In conclusion, the GeForce RTX 4090 dominates overall compared to the GeForce GTX 980. It comes out ahead across every comparable key area.
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