GeForce RTX 3050 Max-Q Refresh 4 GB vs GTX 980 Mobile

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Primary details

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

Place in the ranking253not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation19.01no data
Power efficiency7.49no data
ArchitectureMaxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)Ampere (2020−2024)
GPU code nameGM204GA107
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date21 September 2015 (9 years ago)6 July 2022 (2 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$395.82 no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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 cores20482048
Core clock speed1064 MHz757 MHz
Boost clock speed1216 MHz1125 MHz
Number of transistors5,200 million8,700 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm8 nm
Power consumption (TDP)100-200 Watt35 Watt
Texture fill rate136.272.00
Floating-point processing power4.358 TFLOPS4.608 TFLOPS
ROPs6432
TMUs12864
Tensor Coresno data64
Ray Tracing Coresno data16

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).

Laptop sizelargeno data
Bus supportPCI Express 3.0no data
InterfaceMXM-B (3.0)PCIe 4.0 x8
Supplementary power connectorsno dataNone
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 typeGDDR5GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount4 GB4 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed7.0 GB/s1375 MHz
Memory bandwidth224 GB/s176.0 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 ConnectorsDual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2Portable Device Dependent
Multi monitor support4 displaysno data
VGA аnalog display support+no data
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support+no data
HDMI+-
HDCP+-
Maximum VGA resolution2048x1536no data
G-SYNC support+-
Audio input for HDMIInternalno data

Supported technologies

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

GameStream+-
GeForce ShadowPlay+-
GPU Boost2.0no data
GameWorks+-
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder+-
Optimus+-
BatteryBoost+-

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (12_1)12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model6.46.7
OpenGL4.54.6
OpenCL1.23.0
Vulkan1.1.1261.3
CUDA+8.6

Pros & cons summary


Recency 21 September 2015 6 July 2022
Chip lithography 28 nm 8 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 100 Watt 35 Watt

RTX 3050 Max-Q Refresh 4 GB has an age advantage of 6 years, a 250% more advanced lithography process, and 185.7% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 980 Mobile and GeForce RTX 3050 Max-Q Refresh 4 GB. We've got no test results to judge.


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 980 Mobile
GeForce GTX 980 Mobile
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Max-Q Refresh 4 GB
GeForce RTX 3050 Max-Q Refresh 4 GB

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

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3.5 76 votes

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3.2 21 vote

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Questions & comments

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