GeForce GTX 980M vs Radeon R9 290X

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce GTX 980M and Radeon R9 290X, there are a couple of things to consider. Cards with more VRAM in general perform better and allow you to play on higher graphics settings. Size also makes a difference. A model with a large heatsink can occupy up to three expansion slots on a motherboard. Be sure you have enough room in your PC case. When comparing GPUs with different architectures, more processing cores and even higher TFLOPS will not always translate to better performance. To help you decide which GPU you need, we have measured frame rates in a number of popular games. For more on how the GeForce GTX 980M stacks up against Radeon R9 290X, check out specs charts below.

GeForce GTX 980M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: GeForce GTX 980M is only used in laptop graphics. It has lower GPU clock speed compared to the desktop variant, which results in lower power consumption, but also 10-30% lower gaming performance. Check available laptop models with GeForce GTX 980M here:

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 980M Radeon R9 290X
Power consumption (TDP) 250 Watt
Interface MXM-B (3.0) PCIe 3.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors None 1 x 6-pin + 1 x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 8 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors No outputs 2x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
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  • GeForce GTX 980M is connected by MXM-B (3.0), and Radeon R9 290X uses PCIe 3.0 x16 interface.
  • GeForce GTX 980M has 4 GB more memory, than Radeon R9 290X.
  • GeForce GTX 980M is used in Laptops, and Radeon R9 290X - in Desktops.
  • GeForce GTX 980M is build with Maxwell architecture, and Radeon R9 290X - with GCN.
  • GeForce GTX 980M and Radeon R9 290X are manufactured by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of GeForce GTX 980M is 1250 MHz higher, than Radeon R9 290X.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 35−40 35−40
ultra / 1080p 24−27 24−27
QHD / 1440p 18−20 18−20
4K / 2160p 10−11 10−11
low / 720p 60−65 60−65
medium / 1080p 45−50 45−50
GeForce GTX 980M and Radeon R9 290X have the same average FPS in Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 980M Radeon R9 290X
Architecture Maxwell GCN
Code name GM204 Hawaii XT
Type Laptop Desktop
Release date 7 October 2014 24 October 2013
Pipelines 1536 2816
Core clock speed 1038 MHz
Boost Clock 1127 MHz 947 MHz
Transistor count 5,200 million 6,200 million
Manufacturing process technology 28 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 51.84 176.0
Floating-point performance 3,462 gflops 5,632 gflops
Length 275 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 512 Bit
Memory clock speed 2500 MHz 1250 MHz
Memory bandwidth 160 GB/s 320 GB/s
Shared memory - -
G-SYNC support +
DirectX 12 (12_1)
Shader Model 6.4 6.3
OpenGL 4.5 4.6
OpenCL 1.1 2.0
Vulkan 1.1.126 +
CUDA +
Monero / XMR (CryptoNight) 0.76 kh/s
FreeSync +
CUDA cores 1536
Bus support PCI Express 3.0 PCIe 3.0
SLI options +
HDMI + +
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 383 Mh/s 623 Mh/s
Laptop size large
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support +
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder +
Optimus +
Eyefinity +
HD3D +
TrueAudio +
Design reference
DisplayPort support +
CrossFire +
DDMA audio +
Decred / DCR (Decred) 1.07 Gh/s
Ethereum / ETH (DaggerHashimoto) 25.75 Mh/s
Zcash / ZEC (Equihash) 350 Sol/s
GameStream +
GeForce ShadowPlay +
GPU Boost 2.0
GameWorks +
BatteryBoost +
AppAcceleration +
LiquidVR +
TressFX +
UVD +
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