Only at VC: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 final specifications

Published: Sep 16th 2014, 11:20 GMT

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 angle (1)

On September 19th, NVIDIA will finally reveal its new GeForce 900 series.

Two cards will be announced during a special event for gamers (Game24): GTX 980 and GTX 970.
While the GTX 970 is just a gap-filler, GeForce GTX 980 is much more – a proper new flagship card.

Introducing Maxwell GM204

First, let’s have a look at the new processor, the GM204. This is the first GPU based on ‘Second Generation Maxwell‘ architecture. When GM107 was announced, I think everyone was expecting GM2xx architecture to use smaller node, but unfortunately, we are still on 28nm fabrication node.

GeForce GTX 980 is equipped with full fat GM204, the 400 variant. This GPU has 16 Streaming Multiprocessors “Maxwell” (SMM). What you didn’t know, is that GM204 has 64 Raster Operating Units. Yes, GM204 has 64 ROPs, that’s more than Kepler GK110.

The GM204 has in fact, the same number of Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) — 128, but thanks to higher core clock, texture fillrate is actually higher.

There are 5.2 billion transistors packed into GM204, and the GPU has a die size of 398 mm2.

And for those wondering how large L2 Cache is, then the answer is: the same as GM107 — 2MB.

NVIDIA Maxwell GM204 has some cool features like Dynamic Super Resolution, which is basically a new upscaling technology advertised as ‘4k Quality on a 1080p display’.

Other interesting technology is Third Generation Delta Color Compression. This technology will help increase memory efficiency, which is definitely required with 256b interface.

The final buzzword for you is Multi-Pixel Programmable Sampling, technology improving sample randomization, and reducing quantization artifacts.

GM204 die shot and block diagram

GM204 is split into four Graphics Processing Clusters (GPCs). Each GPC has 4 SMMs. There are four 64b memory controllers. Large L2 Cache is accompanied by 64 ROPs.

Maxwell GM204-400NVIDIA Maxwell GM204 Block Diagram

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Final Specifications

GeForce GTX 980 has 2048 CUDA cores, 128 TMUs and 64 ROPs. Card is equipped with 4GB GDDR5 memory and 256-bit interface. It has a bandwidth of GTX 770, which is 224 GB/s. By comparing it to Kepler parts, we notice that Maxwell-based graphics cards arrive with relatively higher clock speeds, GTX 980 has a base clock of 1126 MHz and boost clock of 1216 MHz.

The biggest news here is that GTX 980 has only a TDP of 165W. That’s amazing power reduction compared to 250W GK110.

Last but not least, I can now confirm that GeForce GTX 980 has HDMI 2.0 support. And if you somehow missed my previous news, GTX 980 has 5 display outputs: DVI-I, HDMI2.0 and three DisplayPorts 1.2 (not 1.3).

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 will be released on September 19th. Card is expected to cost around $599 USD (unconfirmed).

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Specifications
GeForce GTX 980GeForce GTX 770GeForce GTX 780 Ti
Architecture28nm Maxwell28nm Kepler28nm Kepler
GPU Codename GM204-400GK104-425GK110-425
Die Size398 mm2294 mm2561 mm2
L2 Cache2 MB512 kB1.5 MB
Transistors5.2b3.54b7.08b
CUDA Cores204815362880
TMUs128128240
ROPs643248
Base Clock1126 MHz1046 MHz875 MHz
Boost Clock1216 MHz1085 MHz928 MHz
Memory Clock1750 MHz1750 MHz1750 MHz
Memory4GB GDDR52GB GDDR53GB GDDR5
Memory Bus256-bit256-bit384-bit
Bandwidth224 GB/s224 GB/s336 GB/s
FP Performance (SP)4.6 TFLOPs3.2 TFLOPs5.1 TFLOPs
Pixel Fillrate72.1 GP/s33.5 GP/s53.3 GP/s
Texture Fillrate144 GT/s134 GT/s213 GT/s
Power Connectors6pin + 6pin6pin + 8pin6pin + 8pin
Thermal Design Power165W230W250W
Launch DateSep 19th, 2014May 30th, 2013Nov 7th, 2013

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Pictures

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 front NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 angle (2) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 back NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 display outputs




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