GeForce GTX 980M vs Geforce GTX 680

Intro

Compare all that to the Geforce GTX 680, which makes use of a 28 nm design. nVidia has clocked the core speed at 1006 MHz. The GDDR5 memory runs at a frequency of 1502 MHz on this specific model. It features 1536 SPUs as well as 128 TAUs and 32 Rasterization Operator Units.

Display Graphs

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Benchmarks

These are real-world performance benchmarks that were submitted by Hardware Compare users. The scores seen here are the average of all benchmarks submitted for each respective test and hardware.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics Score

GeForce GTX 980M		9476 points
Geforce GTX 680		7650 points
	Difference: 1826 (24%)

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 980M		100 Watts
Geforce GTX 680		195 Watts
	Difference: 95 Watts (95%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the Geforce GTX 680 should be 50% faster than the GeForce GTX 980M overall, because of its greater data rate. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		192256 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 980M		128000 MB/sec
	Difference: 64256 (50%)

Texel Rate

The Geforce GTX 680 should be much (approximately 29%) faster with regards to AF than the GeForce GTX 980M. (explain)

Geforce GTX 680		128768 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 980M		99648 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 29120 (29%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce GTX 980M should be much (more or less 106%) better at full screen anti-aliasing than the Geforce GTX 680, and capable of handling higher screen resolutions better. (explain)

GeForce GTX 980M		66432 Mpixels/sec
Geforce GTX 680		32192 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 34240 (106%)

Please note that the above 'benchmarks' are all just theoretical - the results were calculated based on the card's specifications, and real-world performance may (and probably will) vary at least a bit.

Price Comparison

Specifications

Memory Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the largest amount of data (measured in MB per second) that can be transferred over the external memory interface in one second. It's calculated by multiplying the card's bus width by its memory clock speed. If the card has DDR type memory, it must be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The better the memory bandwidth, the better the card will be in general. It especially helps with anti-aliasing, HDR and high resolutions.

Texel Rate: Texel rate is the maximum amount of texture map elements (texels) that can be processed per second. This figure is calculated by multiplying the total texture units by the core clock speed of the chip. The higher this number, the better the video card will be at texture filtering (anisotropic filtering - AF). It is measured in millions of texels applied per second.

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum number of pixels the graphics card can possibly record to its local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. Pixel rate is calculated by multiplying the number of Raster Operations Pipelines by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - aka Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel rate also depends on quite a few other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the memory bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the maximum fill rate.