GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile vs GTX 960

Place in performance ranking	318	88
Place by popularity	53	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	2.21	no data
Architecture	Maxwell (2014−2018)	Ampere (2020−2022)
GPU code name	GM206	GN20-E7 GA104
Market segment	Desktop	Laptop
Release date	22 January 2015 (9 years ago)	12 January 2021 (3 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$199	no data
Current price	$440 (2.2x MSRP)	no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Detailed specifications

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	1024	6144
CUDA cores	1024	no data
Core clock speed	1127 MHz	780 - 1100 MHz
Boost clock speed	1178 MHz	1245 - 1710 MHz
Number of transistors	2,940 million	17,400 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	120 Watt	150 Watt (80 - 150 Watt TGP)
Texture fill rate	72 billion/sec	296.6
Floating-point performance	2,413 gflops	no data

Form factor & compatibility

Information on GeForce GTX 960 and GeForce RTX 3080 Mobile compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop video cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility). For notebook video cards it's notebook size, connection slot and bus, if the video card is inserted into a slot instead of being soldered to the notebook motherboard.

Laptop size	no data	large
Bus support	PCI Express 3.0	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16
Length	9.5" (24.1 cm)	no data
Height	4.376" (11.1 cm)	no data
Width	2-slot	no data
Recommended system power (PSU)	400 Watt	no data
Supplementary power connectors	1x 6-pins	no data
SLI options	+	no data

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	16 GB
Memory bus width	128 Bit	256 Bit
Memory clock speed	7.0 GB/s	14000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	112 GB/s	384.0 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 Connectors	Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2	No outputs
Multi monitor support	4 displays	no data
HDMI	+	no data
HDCP	+	no data
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536	no data
G-SYNC support	+	no data
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	+	no data
GeForce ShadowPlay	+	no data
GPU Boost	2.0	no data
GameWorks	+	no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (12_1)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	6.4	6.5
OpenGL	4.4	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	2.0
Vulkan	+	1.2
CUDA	+	8.6

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark performance comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance 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 960 15.72

RTX 3080 Mobile 41.26
+162%

RTX 3080 Mobile outperforms GTX 960 by 162% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

GTX 960 10768

RTX 3080 Mobile 37933
+252%

RTX 3080 Mobile outperforms GTX 960 by 252% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

GTX 960 30751

RTX 3080 Mobile 78406
+155%

RTX 3080 Mobile outperforms GTX 960 by 155% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

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.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

GTX 960 7916

RTX 3080 Mobile 27194
+244%

RTX 3080 Mobile outperforms GTX 960 by 244% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

GTX 960 49918

RTX 3080 Mobile 107695
+116%

RTX 3080 Mobile outperforms GTX 960 by 116% in 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU.

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 8%

GTX 960 310860

RTX 3080 Mobile 544242
+75.1%

RTX 3080 Mobile outperforms GTX 960 by 75% in 3DMark Ice Storm GPU.

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 HD	65 −83.1%	119 +83.1%
1440p	27−30 −185%	77 +185%
4K	30 −60%	48 +60%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

24−27

no data

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	30−35	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	24−27	no data
Battlefield 5	50−55	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	30−35	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	24−27	no data
Far Cry 5	35−40	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	40−45	no data
Forza Horizon 4	70−75	no data
Hitman 3	30−33	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	60−65	no data
Metro Exodus	50−55	no data
Red Dead Redemption 2	40−45	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	50−55	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	50−55	no data

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	30−35	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	24−27	no data
Battlefield 5	50−55	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	30−35	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	24−27	no data
Far Cry 5	35−40	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	40−45	no data
Forza Horizon 4	70−75	no data
Hitman 3	30−33	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	60−65	no data
Metro Exodus	50−55	no data
Red Dead Redemption 2	40−45	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	50−55	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	50	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	50−55	no data

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	30−35	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	24−27	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	30−35	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	24−27	no data
Far Cry 5	35−40	no data
Forza Horizon 4	70−75	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	60−65	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	50−55	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	28	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	50−55	no data

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

40−45

no data

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	30−33	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	27−30	no data

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	16−18	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	12−14	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	18−20	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	8−9	no data
Far Cry 5	24−27	no data
Forza Horizon 4	30−33	no data
Hitman 3	18−20	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	30−35	no data
Metro Exodus	27−30	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	27−30	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	16−18	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	10−11	no data

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

24−27

no data

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	14−16	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	12−14	no data
Hitman 3	10−12	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	16−18	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	10−11	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16	no data

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	9−10	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	8−9	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	8−9	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4	no data
Far Cry 5	8−9	no data
Forza Horizon 4	21−24	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	16−18	no data
Metro Exodus	14−16	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	6−7	no data

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

14−16

no data

This is how GTX 960 and RTX 3080 Mobile compete in popular games:

RTX 3080 Mobile is 83% faster in 1080p
RTX 3080 Mobile is 185% faster in 1440p
RTX 3080 Mobile is 60% faster in 4K

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	15.72	41.26
Recency	22 January 2015	12 January 2021
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	16 GB
Chip lithography	28 nm	8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	120 Watt	150 Watt