GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q Refresh vs GTX 980M

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking287not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Power efficiency13.30no data
ArchitectureMaxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)Turing (2018−2022)
GPU code nameGM204TU106B
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date7 October 2014 (10 years ago)29 January 2019 (5 years ago)

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 cores15361920
Core clock speed1038 MHz960 MHz
Boost clock speed1127 MHz1200 MHz
Number of transistors5,200 million10,800 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm12 nm
Power consumption (TDP)unknown115 Watt
Texture fill rate51.84144.0
Floating-point processing power1.659 TFLOPS4.608 TFLOPS
ROPs6448
TMUs96120
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).

Laptop sizelargeno data
Bus supportPCI Express 3.0no data
InterfaceMXM-B (3.0)PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectorsNoneNone
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 amount8 GB6 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit192 Bit
Memory clock speed2500 MHz1353 MHz
Memory bandwidth160 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 ConnectorsNo outputsNo outputs
VGA аnalog display support+no data
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support+no data
HDMI+-
G-SYNC support+-

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+-
Ansel+no data

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
OpenCL1.11.2
Vulkan1.1.1261.2.140
CUDA+7.5

Pros & cons summary


Recency 7 October 2014 29 January 2019
Maximum RAM amount 8 GB 6 GB
Chip lithography 28 nm 12 nm

GTX 980M has a 33.3% higher maximum VRAM amount.

RTX 2060 Max-Q Refresh, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 4 years, and a 133.3% more advanced lithography process.

We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 980M and GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q Refresh. 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.

Vote for your favorite

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


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

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

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


4.2 336 votes

Rate GeForce GTX 980M on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
2.8 57 votes

Rate GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q Refresh on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.