NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop) vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 950 is a mid-range graphics card for desktop PCs. It is based on the 28nm Maxwell GM206 chip and offers 768 shaders, 48 TMUs and 32 ROPs. The graphics memory is typically 2 GB GDDR5 with 6.6 GHz effective and a 128-bit interface.

As a novelty compared to the previous Maxwell GM204 chip, the GM206 includes the new VP7 video engine with HVEC (H.265) decoding and encoding. Furthermore, the GTX 950 supports HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2 for 4K video output.

The 3D gaming performance of the GTX 950 is slightly better than the GeForce GTX 965M (33% more shaders but slower clock speed).

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 (Laptop)

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 for notebooks (not the GTX 980M, sometimes also referred to as GeForce GTX 990M) is an overclockable high-end graphics card for laptops. It is an desktop Geforce GTX 980 chip with the same specifications (2048 shaders, 1126 MHz base clock, 7 Gbps memory) based on selected GM204 chips (for lower power consumption).

The performance is also on a level with the desktop GTX 980. Due to the different cooling solutions, the long term performance may be slightly lower compared to a well cooled desktop, but Nvidia assures only small degrades in performance. Furthermore, the mobile GTX 980 supports overclocking out of the box and all laptop manufacturers plan to provide an easy to use tool to overclock the card on the fly.

The core features are also the same, so expect support for DirectX 12 (FL 12_1). There will be no support for the new H.265 video engine as found on the desktop GTX 950.

The power consumption of the card is a lot higher than other mobile graphics card like the GeForce GTX 980M (100 Watt TDP). According to Nvidia, the TDP of the reference design is still 165 Watt like in the desktop version. Including overclocking headroom, the power consumption may reach up to 200 Watt. Therefore, only big laptops with efficient cooling methods can house the GeForce GTX980 for laptops.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 SLI (Laptop)

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 SLI is a high-end DirectX 12-compatible graphics solution for laptops, consisting of two GeForce GTX 980 cards. Each card has a 28 nm GM204 GPU based on the Maxwell architecture with similar specifications as the desktop GeForce GTX 980. The clocks for the SLI-setup are usually identical to a single GTX 980.

With SLI, each card renders a single frame (AFR mode). Therefore, it may suffer from micro-stuttering in low fps ranges of 30 fps. This happens because of different time-spans between two frames (e.g., irregular delays between sequential frames).

The performance is on a level with the two desktop GTX 980 cards in SLI. Due to the different cooling solutions, the long-term performance may be slightly lower compared to a well cooled desktop, but Nvidia assures there will only be small degrades in performance. As with all SLI combinations, the performance depends on the driver support for the used benchmark and game. In our tests with an MSI GT80S, the 980 SLI was the fastest graphics solution for laptops. The 980M SLI was 17% slower, a single 980 26% slower. Therefore, the 980 SLI for laptops offers enough performance for all demanding games from 2015 in high details and 4K resolution.

The core features are also the same as the desktop 980, so expect support for DirectX 12 (FL 12_1). There will be no support for the new H.265 video engine as found on the desktop GTX 950.

The power consumption of a single card is a lot higher than other mobile graphics cards like the GeForce GTX 980M (100 Watt TDP). According to Nvidia, the TDP of the reference design is still 165 Watt like in the desktop version. So, the TDP of the SLI combination may be as high as 330 Watt. Therefore, only big laptops with efficient cooling methods can house the GeForce GTX980 for laptops.