RTX A40 vs GeForce GTX 980M
Contents
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | 345 | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Power efficiency | 13.53 | no data |
| Architecture | Maxwell 2.0 (2014−2019) | Ampere (2020−2025) |
| GPU code name | GM204 | GA102 |
| Market segment | Laptop | Workstation |
| Release date | 7 October 2014 (11 years ago) | 5 October 2020 (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 cores | 1536 | 10752 |
| Core clock speed | 1038 MHz | 1305 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 1127 MHz | 1755 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 5,200 million | 28,300 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 28 nm | 8 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | unknown | 300 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 51.84 | 589.7 |
| Floating-point processing power | 1.659 TFLOPS | 37.74 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 64 | 112 |
| TMUs | 96 | 336 |
| Tensor Cores | no data | 336 |
| Ray Tracing Cores | no data | 84 |
| L1 Cache | 576 KB | 10.5 MB |
| L2 Cache | 2 MB | 6 MB |
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 size | large | no data |
| Bus support | PCI Express 3.0 | no data |
| Interface | MXM-B (3.0) | PCIe 4.0 x16 |
| Length | no data | 267 mm |
| Width | no data | 2-slot |
| Supplementary power connectors | None | 8-pin EPS |
| 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 type | GDDR5 | GDDR6 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 8 GB | 48 GB |
| Memory bus width | 256 Bit | 384 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 2500 MHz | 1812 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 160 GB/s | 695.8 GB/s |
| Shared memory | - | - |
| Resizable BAR | - | + |
Connectivity and outputs
This section shows the types and number of video connectors on each GPU. The data applies specifically to desktop reference models (for example, NVIDIA’s Founders Edition). OEM partners often modify both the number and types of ports. On notebook GPUs, video‐output options are determined by the laptop’s design rather than the graphics chip itself.
| Display Connectors | No outputs | 3x DisplayPort |
| 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 Boost | 2.0 | no data |
| GameWorks | + | - |
| H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder | + | - |
| Optimus | + | - |
| BatteryBoost | + | - |
| Ansel | + | no data |
API and SDK support
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (12_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |
| Shader Model | 6.4 | 6.5 |
| OpenGL | 4.5 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 1.1 | 2.0 |
| Vulkan | 1.1.126 | 1.2 |
| CUDA | + | 8.6 |
| DLSS | - | + |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 7 October 2014 | 5 October 2020 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 8 GB | 48 GB |
| Chip lithography | 28 nm | 8 nm |
RTX A40 has an age advantage of 5 years, a 500% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 250% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 980M and RTX A40. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that GeForce GTX 980M is a notebook graphics card while RTX A40 is a workstation one.
Other comparisons
We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.
