GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q Refresh vs GTX 980

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Primary details

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

Place in the ranking195not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation10.98no data
Power efficiency11.99no data
ArchitectureMaxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)Turing (2018−2022)
GPU code nameGM204TU106B
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date19 September 2014 (10 years ago)29 January 2019 (5 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$549 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 cores20481920
Core clock speed1064 MHz960 MHz
Boost clock speed1216 MHz1200 MHz
Number of transistors5,200 million10,800 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm12 nm
Power consumption (TDP)165 Watt115 Watt
Texture fill rate155.6144.0
Floating-point processing power4.981 TFLOPS4.608 TFLOPS
ROPs6448
TMUs128120
Tensor Coresno data240
Ray Tracing Coresno data30

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).

Bus supportPCI Express 3.0no data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Length267 mmno data
Height4.376" (11.1 cm)no data
Width2-slotno data
Recommended system power (PSU)500 Wattno data
Supplementary power connectors2x 6-pinNone
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 GB6 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit192 Bit
Memory clock speed7.0 GB/s1353 MHz
Memory bandwidth224 GB/s259.8 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 1.2No outputs
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 Model6.46.5
OpenGL4.54.6
OpenCL1.21.2
Vulkan1.1.1261.2.140
CUDA+7.5

Pros & cons summary


Recency 19 September 2014 29 January 2019
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 6 GB
Chip lithography 28 nm 12 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 165 Watt 115 Watt

RTX 2060 Max-Q Refresh has an age advantage of 4 years, a 50% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 133.3% more advanced lithography process, and 43.5% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 980 and GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q Refresh. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that GeForce GTX 980 is a desktop card while GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q Refresh is a notebook one.


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
GeForce GTX 980
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q Refresh
GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q Refresh

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


4.3 1465 votes

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2.8 57 votes

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Questions & comments

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