AMD Radeon HD 6490M vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile

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Combined performance score

GTX 980 SLI Mobile
38.73
+3893%

GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile outperforms Radeon HD 6490M by 3893% in our combined benchmark results.

General info

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

Place in performance ranking1081072
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Value for money76.610.03
ArchitectureMaxwell (2014−2018)Terascale 2 (2009−2015)
GPU code nameN16E-GXX SLISeymour XT
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date22 September 2015 (8 years old)6 January 2011 (13 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)no data$1,193.03
Current price$301 $248 (0.2x MSRP)
Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

GTX 980 SLI Mobile has 255267% better value for money than HD 6490M.

Technical specs

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 cores4096160
Core clock speed1126 MHz700 / 750 / 800 MHz
Boost clock speed1228 MHzno data
Number of transistors10400 Million370 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)330 Wattno data
Texture fill rateno data6.400
Floating-point performanceno data256 gflops

Size and compatibility

Information on GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile and Radeon HD 6490M compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. 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 sizelargeno data
Interfaceno dataPCIe 2.0 x16
SLI options+no data

Memory

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 typeGDDR5DDR3/GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount2x 8 GB512 MB
Memory bus width256 Bit64 Bit
Memory clock speed3500 MHz800 MHz
Memory bandwidthno data25.6 GB/s
Shared memory--

Video outputs and ports

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 Connectorsno dataNo outputs
G-SYNC support+no data

API support

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

DirectX12_111.2 (11_0)
Shader Modelno data5.0
OpenGLno data4.4
OpenCLno data1.2
Vulkanno dataN/A
CUDA+no data

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 980 SLI Mobile 38.73
+3893%
HD 6490M 0.97

GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile outperforms Radeon HD 6490M by 3893% in our combined benchmark results.


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 980 SLI Mobile 47704
+1800%
HD 6490M 2511

GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile outperforms Radeon HD 6490M by 1800% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

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 980 SLI Mobile 33169
+5419%
HD 6490M 601

GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile outperforms Radeon HD 6490M by 5419% in 3DMark 11 Performance 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 HD136
+656%
18
−656%
4K64
+6300%
1−2
−6300%

Performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 65−70
+2167%
3−4
−2167%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 65−70
+6800%
1−2
−6800%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 65−70
+6700%
1−2
−6700%
Battlefield 5 110−120
+5550%
2−3
−5550%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 100−110
+1078%
9−10
−1078%
Cyberpunk 2077 65−70
+2167%
3−4
−2167%
Far Cry 5 95−100
+4800%
2−3
−4800%
Far Cry New Dawn 90−95
+4550%
2−3
−4550%
Forza Horizon 4 110−120
+5850%
2−3
−5850%
Hitman 3 120−130 0−1
Horizon Zero Dawn 80−85 0−1
Red Dead Redemption 2 60−65
+1967%
3−4
−1967%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 90−95
+1467%
6−7
−1467%
Watch Dogs: Legion 70−75
+7100%
1−2
−7100%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 65−70
+6800%
1−2
−6800%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 65−70
+6700%
1−2
−6700%
Battlefield 5 110−120
+5550%
2−3
−5550%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 100−110
+1078%
9−10
−1078%
Cyberpunk 2077 65−70
+2167%
3−4
−2167%
Far Cry 5 95−100
+4800%
2−3
−4800%
Far Cry New Dawn 90−95
+4550%
2−3
−4550%
Forza Horizon 4 110−120
+5850%
2−3
−5850%
Hitman 3 120−130 0−1
Horizon Zero Dawn 80−85 0−1
Metro Exodus 65−70
+6800%
1−2
−6800%
Red Dead Redemption 2 60−65
+1967%
3−4
−1967%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 90−95
+1467%
6−7
−1467%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 132
+4300%
3−4
−4300%
Watch Dogs: Legion 70−75
+7100%
1−2
−7100%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 65−70
+6800%
1−2
−6800%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 65−70
+6700%
1−2
−6700%
Battlefield 5 110−120
+5550%
2−3
−5550%
Cyberpunk 2077 65−70
+2167%
3−4
−2167%
Far Cry 5 95−100
+4800%
2−3
−4800%
Far Cry New Dawn 90−95
+4550%
2−3
−4550%
Forza Horizon 4 110−120
+5850%
2−3
−5850%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 74
+2367%
3−4
−2367%
Watch Dogs: Legion 70−75
+7100%
1−2
−7100%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 60−65
+2033%
3−4
−2033%
Hitman 3 70−75
+2300%
3−4
−2300%
Horizon Zero Dawn 50−55
+575%
8−9
−575%
Metro Exodus 40−45
+4200%
1−2
−4200%
Red Dead Redemption 2 30−35 0−1
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 55−60
+1060%
5−6
−1060%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 40−45
+4100%
1−2
−4100%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 40−45
+4200%
1−2
−4200%
Battlefield 5 80−85
+3950%
2−3
−3950%
Cyberpunk 2077 30−35
+3000%
1−2
−3000%
Far Cry 5 70−75
+7000%
1−2
−7000%
Far Cry New Dawn 70−75
+7200%
1−2
−7200%
Forza Horizon 4 80−85
+4000%
2−3
−4000%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 55−60
+5500%
1−2
−5500%
Watch Dogs: Legion 35−40 0−1

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 35−40
+3400%
1−2
−3400%
Hitman 3 35−40
+3800%
1−2
−3800%
Horizon Zero Dawn 30−33
+275%
8−9
−275%
Metro Exodus 27−30 0−1
Red Dead Redemption 2 21−24 0−1
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 30−35 0−1
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 51
+5000%
1−2
−5000%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 24−27 0−1
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 24−27 0−1
Battlefield 5 45−50
+4600%
1−2
−4600%
Cyberpunk 2077 12−14 0−1
Far Cry 5 35−40
+1133%
3−4
−1133%
Far Cry New Dawn 40−45
+720%
5−6
−720%
Forza Horizon 4 50−55
+5300%
1−2
−5300%
Watch Dogs: Legion 20−22 0−1

This is how GTX 980 SLI Mobile and HD 6490M compete in popular games:

1080p resolution:

  • GTX 980 SLI Mobile is 656% faster than HD 6490M

4K resolution:

  • GTX 980 SLI Mobile is 6300% faster than HD 6490M

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

  • in Far Cry 5, with 1440p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the GTX 980 SLI Mobile is 7000% faster than the HD 6490M.

All in all, in popular games:

  • Without exception, GTX 980 SLI Mobile surpassed HD 6490M in all 25 of our tests.

Advantages and disadvantages


Performance score 38.73 0.97
Recency 22 September 2015 6 January 2011
Chip lithography 28 nm 40 nm

The GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 6490M in performance tests.


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

User ratings

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile
GeForce GTX 980 SLI Mobile
AMD Radeon HD 6490M
Radeon HD 6490M

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Questions and comments

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