NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
VS
NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
VS
NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060

General info

The main nomenclature characteristics of video cards NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 and NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060. Pay attention to the position in the performance rating to choose the best one.

114
Place in performance rating
31
56.16
Value for money (0-100)
1.25
Maxwell
Architecture
Ampere
GM204
Code name
GA106
Desktop
Type
Desktop
19 September 2014 (7 years ago)
Release date
12 January 2021
$549
Launch price (MSRP)
$329
$503 (0.9x MSRP)
Price now
$420
25.30
Value for money
GM204
GPU code name
Desktop
Market segment

Technical specs

Choose the best graphics card between NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 and NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 based on manufacturing process, power consumption, and base frequency and overclocking potential of the GPU.

2048
Pipelines
3584
no data
Core clock speed
1320 MHz
1216 MHz
Boost Clock
1778 MHz
5,200 million
Transistor count
13,250 million
28 nm
Manufacturing process technology
8 nm
165 Watt
Power consumption (TDP)
170 Watt
144 billion/sec
Texture fill rate
198.0
4,981 gflops
Floating-point performance
2048
CUDA cores
8.6
2048
Pipelines / CUDA cores
1216 MHz
Boost clock speed
5,200 million
Number of transistors
165 Watt
Thermal design power (TDP)

Compatibility, dimensions and requirements

Additional technical information, does not greatly affect the performance rating when comparing the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 and NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060.

PCIe 3.0 x16
Interface
PCIe 4.0 x16
10.5" (26.7 cm)
Length
242 mm 9.5 inches
2x 6-pins
Supplementary power connectors
1x 12-pin (8+4)
+
SLI options
500 Watt
Recommended system power (PSU)
PCI Express 3.0
Bus support
PCIe 4.0 x16
no data
Width
112 mm 4.4 inches
4.376" (11.1 cm)
Height

Memory

Graphics card memory is used to store calculations. Modern software and 3D games require more and faster memory. The higher these parameters, the more productive the chip. The difference in these characteristics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 and NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 can be seen in this section.

GDDR5
Memory type
GDDR6
4 GB
Maximum RAM amount
12 GB
256 Bit
Memory bus width
192 bit
7.0 GB/s
Memory clock speed
224 GB/s
Memory bandwidth
360.0 GB/s
-
Shared memory

Video outputs and ports

The difference between the interfaces and ports of video cards NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 and NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060, the size and number of monitors.

Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2
Display Connectors
+
G-SYNC support
4 displays
Multi monitor support
+
HDCP
2048x1536
Maximum VGA resolution
Internal
Audio input for HDMI
+
HDMI
1x
no data
DisplayPort support
3x
+
VGA аnalog display support
+
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support

Technologies

The difference between NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 and NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 is the additional functionality.

+
3D Vision
2.0
GPU Boost
+
CUDA
+
GeForce Experience
+
Surround
+
Adaptive Vertical Sync
+
Optimus
+
GameStream
+
GeForce ShadowPlay
+
GameWorks
+
BatteryBoost
+
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder

API support

The difference in supported APIs is NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 and NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060. Hardware support (API) is not considered in synthetic benchmarks and performance tests.

12 (12_1)
DirectX
12 Ultimate (12_2)
4.5
OpenGL
4.6
1.1.126
Vulkan
1.2
6.4
Shader Model
1.2
OpenCL
3.0

Gaming performance

Select form the list the required name to identify gaming performance for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 and NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 graphics cards. The result shows how fast the game will run and whether it can be run on this computer. The different monitor resolutions – from low to 4K – are used for testing. Find out is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 or NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 good for gaming.


low
1280x720
med.
1920x1080
high
1920x1080
ultra
1920x1080
QHD
2560x1440
4K
3840x2160
Horizon Zero Dawn (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060
Death Stranding (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060
F1 2020 (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060
Gears Tactics (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060
Doom Eternal (2020) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060
Legend
5 Stutter – Insufficient data. Similar graphics cards stutter, the game is likely to show a low frame rate. There will be some lags.
May Stutter – Insufficient data. Similar graphics cards stutter, the game is likely to show a low frame rate. There will be some lags.
30 Fluent – According to the results of benchmarks the game should run at 25 frames per second (fps)
40 Fluent – According to the results of benchmarks the game should run at 35 frames per second (fps)
60 Fluent – According to the results of benchmarks the game should run at 58 frames per second (fps)
May Run Fluently – Insufficient data. Similar graphics cards show a smooth frame rate, comfortable for the game.
? Uncertain – Graphics cards testing has shown that a slower card can provide a high and stable frame rate for the same operation.
Uncertain – The work of the video card in the game is still being studied. Interpolation among analogs is not possible.
The value depicts the average frame rate. Hovering over the value, you can get individual results.

Advantages of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980

49.95% faster in synthetic tests

Less power consumption (165 Watt vs 170 Watt)

Advantages of NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060

Cheaper ($420 vs $503 (0.9x MSRP))

More pipelines (3584 vs 2048)

Finer manufacturing process technology (8 nm vs 28 nm)

More maximum RAM amount (12 GB vs 4 GB)

More memory bandwidth (360.0 GB/s vs 224 GB/s)

VR Ready

Multi Monitor

So, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 or NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060?

Judging by the results of synthetic and gaming tests, we recommend NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 .

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 versus NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 performance benchmarks comparison

User rating

0.0 Out of 0 CpusData Score NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
5.0 Out of 2 CpusData Score NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060