GeForce GTX 980 vs GeForce RTX 3080

Intro

Compare those specifications to the GeForce RTX 3080, which features a core clock frequency of 1440 MHz and a GDDR6X memory frequency of 1188 MHz. It also features a 320-bit bus, and uses a 8 nm design. It is made up of 8704 SPUs, 272 Texture Address Units, and 96 Raster Operation Units.

Display Graphs

Hide Graphs

Power Usage and Theoretical Benchmarks

Power Consumption (Max TDP)

GeForce GTX 980		165 Watts
GeForce RTX 3080		320 Watts
	Difference: 155 Watts (94%)

Memory Bandwidth

Theoretically speaking, the GeForce RTX 3080 should be 248% faster than the GeForce GTX 980 overall, due to its greater data rate. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3080		778547 MB/sec
GeForce GTX 980		224000 MB/sec
	Difference: 554547 (248%)

Texel Rate

The GeForce RTX 3080 will be much (more or less 172%) more effective at AF than the GeForce GTX 980. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3080		391680 Mtexels/sec
GeForce GTX 980		144128 Mtexels/sec
	Difference: 247552 (172%)

Pixel Rate

The GeForce RTX 3080 will be a lot (more or less 92%) faster with regards to FSAA than the GeForce GTX 980, and also able to handle higher resolutions while still performing well. (explain)

GeForce RTX 3080		138240 Mpixels/sec
GeForce GTX 980		72064 Mpixels/sec
	Difference: 66176 (92%)

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: Memory bandwidth is the largest amount of information (in units of MB per second) that can be transferred across the external memory interface in a second. It is calculated by multiplying the card's interface width by its memory speed. In the case of DDR RAM, it should be multiplied by 2 again. If it uses DDR5, multiply by ANOTHER 2x. The higher the memory bandwidth, the faster the card will be in general. It especially helps with AA, High Dynamic Range and high resolutions.

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

Pixel Rate: Pixel rate is the maximum amount of pixels that the graphics chip can possibly write to the local memory in one second - measured in millions of pixels per second. The number is worked out by multiplying the number of Render Output Units by the the core clock speed. ROPs (Raster Operations Pipelines - also sometimes called Render Output Units) are responsible for drawing the pixels (image) on the screen. The actual pixel output rate also depends on lots of other factors, especially the memory bandwidth of the card - the lower the bandwidth is, the lower the potential to get to the max fill rate.