NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 are both end-of-life Maxwell-based designs, but they serve entirely different segments of the market. The GTX 850M is a mobile IGP-class chip built for laptops, while the GTX 980 is a desktop dual-slot card. The benchmark database shows a decisive performance gap, with the GTX 980 winning both recorded head-to-head tests by substantial margins. However, the GTX 850M holds a notable advantage in its power envelope and its percentile ranking versus all GPUs, making the choice between them dependent on the use case.

Where Each One Wins

The data splits cleanly by workload type. In compute-heavy tasks, the GTX 980 dominates. The Geekbench OpenCL score for the GTX 980 is 34,676, which is 71.7% higher than the GTX 850M's 9,821. Similarly, in Geekbench Vulkan, the GTX 980 scores 22,543 against 8,782 for the GTX 850M, a 61% advantage. These are the only two direct head-to-head tests recorded, and the GTX 980 wins both.

The GTX 850M, by contrast, has no direct wins in the head-to-head data. Its strength lies in its power efficiency and its standing relative to the broader GPU landscape. The GTX 850M has a TDP of 45 W, compared to 165 W for the GTX 980, and it requires no power connectors, whereas the GTX 980 uses two 6-pin connectors and a suggested 450 W power supply. The GTX 850M also has a higher percentile ranking, sitting at the 46th percentile versus the GTX 980's 43rd, despite the GTX 980's vastly higher raw scores. This suggests that the GTX 850M, in its mobile context, is a more balanced performer relative to its peers.

For users running OpenCL or Vulkan workloads, the GTX 980 is the clear winner. For users constrained by power, thermals, or physical space, the GTX 850M is the only viable option, as it is an integrated-class part with no external power requirement.

Architecture Differences

Both GPUs are built by NVIDIA on a 28 nm process at TSMC, but they diverge significantly in scale and design. The GTX 850M uses the GM107 chip with Maxwell architecture, while the GTX 980 uses the GM204 chip with Maxwell 2.0 architecture. The transistor counts differ dramatically: the GTX 850M packs 1,870 million transistors on a 148 mm² die, while the GTX 980 has 5,200 million transistors on a 398 mm² die. Transistor density is similar, at 12.6M per mm² for the GTX 850M and 13.1M per mm² for the GTX 980.

The compute resources are far larger on the GTX 980. It has 2,048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 64 ROPs, versus 640 shading units, 40 TMUs, and 16 ROPs on the GTX 850M. This translates into a massive throughput difference: the GTX 980 delivers 4.981 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, 155.6 GTexel/s of texture rate, and 77.82 GPixel/s of pixel rate. The GTX 850M manages 1,154.6 GFLOPS, 36.08 GTexel/s, and 14.43 GPixel/s.

Memory subsystems are also worlds apart. The GTX 980 has 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 224.4 GB/s of bandwidth. The GTX 850M has 2 GB of DDR3 on a 128-bit bus, yielding just 32.03 GB/s. The GTX 980's memory clock is 1753 MHz (7 Gbps effective), while the GTX 850M runs at 1001 MHz (2 Gbps effective). The GTX 980 also carries a base clock of 1127 MHz and a boost clock of 1216 MHz, whereas the GTX 850M has no listed base or boost clocks.

API support differs slightly. Both support DirectX 12, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, but the GTX 980 supports DirectX 12 at feature level 12_1, while the GTX 850M is limited to 12 (11_0). The GTX 980 is a dual-slot card measuring 267 mm in length, 111 mm in height, and 40 mm in width, with display outputs including one DVI, one HDMI 2.0, and three DisplayPort 1.2 connectors. The GTX 850M is an IGP with no dedicated slot width and portable-device-dependent outputs.

The Verdict

The verdict from the data is straightforward. The GTX 980 is the superior performer in every recorded benchmark, with a 71.7% lead in OpenCL and a 61% lead in Vulkan over the GTX 850M. Its larger memory pool, faster GDDR5 memory, and vastly higher compute throughput make it the choice for any application that demands raw graphics or compute power. The GTX 980 also has a richer feature set, including DirectX 12 (12_1) support and a full array of desktop display outputs.

The GTX 850M is the choice for a different kind of user. Its 45 W TDP, lack of power connectors, and IGP slot design make it suitable for thin and light laptops where power draw and heat are the primary constraints. It also holds a higher percentile rank among all GPUs, at 46 versus 43 for the GTX 980, indicating that it performs closer to the top of its peer group than the GTX 980 does within its own field.

Users who need a desktop GPU for gaming, rendering, or compute should pick the GTX 980. Users who need a mobile GPU for everyday tasks and light gaming should consider the GTX 850M. The data does not support the GTX 850M as a competitor to the GTX 980 in absolute performance, but it does support it as a well-positioned mobile part. The GTX 980 was released on 2014-09-18 with a launch MSRP of 549 USD, while the GTX 850M predates it, launching on 2014-03-11.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher Geekbench OpenCL score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 scores 34,676 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M scores 9,821. The GTX 980 leads by 71.7%.

Q: How do the two cards compare in Geekbench Vulkan?

A: The GTX 980 scores 22,543 in Geekbench Vulkan, versus 8,782 for the GTX 850M, a 61% advantage for the GTX 980.

Q: What is the power consumption difference?

A: The GTX 850M has a TDP of 45 W and uses no power connectors. The GTX 980 has a TDP of 165 W and requires two 6-pin power connectors plus a suggested 450 W power supply.

Q: Do both GPUs support DirectX 12?

A: Yes, both support DirectX 12, but the GTX 980 supports feature level 12_1, while the GTX 850M supports 12 (11_0). Both also support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4.

Q: What are the memory specifications of each?

A: The GTX 850M has 2 GB of DDR3 on a 128-bit bus with 32.03 GB/s bandwidth. The GTX 980 has 4 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 224.4 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: How do their percentile rankings compare?

A: The GTX 850M sits at the 46th percentile among all GPUs, while the GTX 980 sits at the 43rd percentile. Despite lower raw scores, the GTX 850M ranks higher relative to its peers.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records two direct head-to-head tests between these GPUs, and the results are lopsided. In Geekbench OpenCL, the GTX 980 posts 34,676 points against 9,821 for the GTX 850M. The delta is 71.7% in favor of the GTX 980, meaning the desktop card delivers more than three times the OpenCL performance of the mobile part. This is consistent with the underlying hardware: the GTX 980 has 2,048 shading units versus 640, and 4.981 TFLOPS of FP32 throughput versus 1,154.6 GFLOPS.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the gap narrows slightly but remains overwhelming. The GTX 980 scores 22,543, while the GTX 850M scores 8,782, a 61% margin. Vulkan is a lower-level API that can be more sensitive to driver and memory bandwidth, and the GTX 980's 224.4 GB/s of memory bandwidth versus 32.03 GB/s for the GTX 850M likely contributes to the result. The GTX 850M's 2 GB of DDR3 memory also limits its ability to feed its 640 shading units in demanding scenes.

The GTX 980's advantages go beyond raw scores. Its pixel rate of 77.82 GPixel/s is more than five times the GTX 850M's 14.43 GPixel/s, and its texture rate of 155.6 GTexel/s dwarfs the 36.08 GTexel/s of the mobile chip. In practical terms, the GTX 980 can handle higher resolutions, more complex geometry, and heavier post-processing effects without dropping below playable frame rates. The GTX 850M, with its 45 W TDP, is not designed for such workloads; it is built to fit within the thermal budget of a laptop.

The average benchmark scores in the database reflect this hierarchy. The GTX 850M has an average score of 9,302, while the GTX 980 has an average score of 8,167. This apparent inversion is explained by the different benchmark suites available for each card. The GTX 980 has eleven recorded tests, including Passmark DirectX 9, 10, 11, and 12, as well as Passmark G2D, G3D, and GPU compute, many of which produce scores in the tens or hundreds, dragging down its average. The GTX 850M has only two recorded tests, both in the high thousands. The head-to-head tests, which use the same benchmark on both cards, are the more reliable comparison, and they show a clear GTX 980 victory.

The nearest rivals for each card also tell a story. The GTX 850M's closest competitor is the AMD Radeon R7 M380, which scores 9,313, a 0.1% difference. The GTX 980's nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M, which scores 8,135, a 0.4% difference. These rivalries are within a narrow band, indicating that each card is well matched to its immediate peers, but the absolute performance gap between the two cards is enormous. The GTX 980 is not just faster than the GTX 850M; it is in a different performance class entirely, as the 71.7% OpenCL lead demonstrates.