NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER Comparison

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti

The recorded data shows a decisive generational shift. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER wins all three head-to-head benchmark comparisons against the GTX 980 Ti, with margins ranging from a modest 12.5% in one API test to a staggering 357.9% in another. While the GTX 980 Ti remains a capable card for its era, the benchmark results indicate that the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is in a different performance class entirely, leveraging a much newer architecture, a smaller process node, and a substantially larger feature set.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is the clear winner across every measured category. It records a 3-0 sweep in head-to-head comparisons. Its most dominant victories come in compute-heavy workloads. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, it scores 199,267 points against the GTX 980 Ti's 43,513, a 357.9% advantage. This indicates a massive lead in general-purpose GPU compute, which is relevant for tasks like rendering, simulation, and data processing.

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 test shows a similar trend. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER scores 5,569 versus the GTX 980 Ti's 1,321, a 321.6% delta. This is a modern DirectX 12 workload, and the results show that the newer card handles the latest graphics API requirements with far greater efficiency.

The only test where the gap closes significantly is Geekbench Vulkan. Here, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER scores 53,683, which is only 12.5% higher than the GTX 980 Ti's 47,724. This suggests that in this specific API, the older Maxwell architecture is relatively more competitive, perhaps due to lower overhead or the workload's characteristics. However, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER still wins, so the GTX 980 Ti cannot claim a single benchmark victory in the recorded data. For the GTX 980 Ti, the strongest performance is relative, not absolute; it comes closest to parity in Vulkan, but it is still behind.

Architecture Differences

The two cards are separated by several architectural generations. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER uses the Ada Lovelace architecture on the AD103 chip, built on a 5 nm process at TSMC. The GTX 980 Ti uses the Maxwell 2.0 architecture on the GM200 chip, built on a 28 nm process. This process shrink is a primary driver of the performance gap, allowing for higher clock speeds and greater efficiency.

The transistor counts tell a stark story. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER packs 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 121.1M per mm². The GTX 980 Ti has 8,000 million transistors on a 601 mm² die, with a density of 13.3M per mm². The newer card fits over five times the transistors into a smaller physical space.

The memory subsystems differ significantly. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER has 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, delivering 672.3 GB/s of bandwidth. The GTX 980 Ti has 6 GB of GDDR5 memory on a wider 384-bit bus, but its bandwidth is only 336.6 GB/s. Even with a narrower bus, the newer memory type provides double the bandwidth.

Feature support is a major differentiator. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER includes 66 RT cores and 264 tensor cores, hardware dedicated to ray tracing and AI acceleration. The GTX 980 Ti has no RT cores or tensor cores at all. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the GTX 980 Ti is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1). The newer card supports PCIe 4.0 x16, whereas the older card uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Both cards support Vulkan 1.4 and OpenGL 4.6, but the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER has a newer display output configuration, including 1x HDMI 2.1 and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, compared to the GTX 980 Ti's 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, and 3x DisplayPort 1.2.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The largest single win for the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER comes in the Geekbench OpenCL test. It scores 199,267 against the GTX 980 Ti's 43,513, a delta of 357.9%. This is a raw compute performance test, and the result highlights the massive advantage in shading units and FP32 throughput. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER has 8,448 shading units and delivers 44.10 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the GTX 980 Ti has 2,816 shading units and delivers 6.060 TFLOPS.

The 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 benchmark shows a 321.6% advantage for the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, with scores of 5,569 and 1,321. This test is designed for modern hardware, and the data shows the GTX 980 Ti struggles to keep pace. The newer card's higher pixel rate (250.6 GPixel/s vs 103.3 GPixel/s) and texture rate (689.0 GTexel/s vs 189.4 GTexel/s) are directly reflected in this result.

The closest contest is in Geekbench Vulkan, where the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER wins by only 12.5%. The scores are 53,683 and 47,724. This is an interesting data point. It suggests that for certain workloads, the older card's architecture can still perform admirably. However, the fact remains that the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is faster here, and the margin, while smaller, is still a clear win.

FAQ

Q: Which card has higher memory bandwidth?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER has significantly higher memory bandwidth at 672.3 GB/s, compared to the GTX 980 Ti's 336.6 GB/s.

Q: Does the GTX 980 Ti support hardware ray tracing?

A: No. The GTX 980 Ti has no RT cores. The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER includes 66 RT cores for this purpose.

Q: What is the difference in average benchmark scores?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER has an average benchmark score of 31,087, while the GTX 980 Ti has an average score of 28,020. This puts the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER in the 76th percentile of all GPUs, and the GTX 980 Ti in the 73rd percentile.

Q: How does the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER compare to its closest rivals?

A: The data shows it is very close to its nearest rivals. It is 0.4% slower than the NVIDIA Quadro M5000 and the NVIDIA GRID M60-1Q, 1.4% slower than the NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell, and 1.9% slower than the NVIDIA TITAN RTX.

Q: What is the transistor density difference?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER has a transistor density of 121.1M per mm², while the GTX 980 Ti has a density of 13.3M per mm².

Q: Which card has a larger memory capacity?

A: The RTX 4070 Ti SUPER has 16 GB of memory, while the GTX 980 Ti has 6 GB of memory.

The Verdict

The data unequivocally points to the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER as the superior product. It wins every benchmark in the head-to-head comparison, and its architectural advantages are profound. Users who need modern features like ray tracing and tensor core acceleration have no choice but the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, as the GTX 980 Ti lacks these capabilities entirely.

For gaming, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is the only card that can handle modern DirectX 12 Ultimate workloads with high scores. The 3DMark Steel Nomad result shows a 321.6% lead, which will translate to a playable experience at high settings where the GTX 980 Ti would likely fail. The GTX 980 Ti's 73rd percentile ranking shows it is still a functional card, but its performance is anchored to an older era of software.

For compute tasks, the OpenCL result is decisive. The 357.9% margin in favor of the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER makes it the obvious choice for any GPU-accelerated workload. The GTX 980 Ti's 6.060 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is dwarfed by the newer card's 44.10 TFLOPS.

The GTX 980 Ti could be considered only for legacy systems or very specific tasks where its 12.5% deficit in Vulkan performance is acceptable and where the user does not need the extra memory, bandwidth, or feature set. However, for any future-proofing, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is the definitive choice from the data.

Specification Differences

• Process Node: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 5 nm; GTX 980 Ti is 28 nm.
• Transistors: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER has 45,900 million; GTX 980 Ti has 8,000 million.
• Die Size: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 379 mm²; GTX 980 Ti is 601 mm².
• Transistor Density: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 121.1M / mm²; GTX 980 Ti is 13.3M / mm².
• Base Clock: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 2340 MHz; GTX 980 Ti is 1000 MHz.
• Boost Clock: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 2610 MHz; GTX 980 Ti is 1076 MHz.
• Memory Size: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 16 GB; GTX 980 Ti is 6 GB.
• Memory Type: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is GDDR6X; GTX 980 Ti is GDDR5.
• Memory Bus Width: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 256 bit; GTX 980 Ti is 384 bit.
• Memory Bandwidth: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 672.3 GB/s; GTX 980 Ti is 336.6 GB/s.
• Shading Units: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER has 8448; GTX 980 Ti has 2816.
• TMUs: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER has 264; GTX 980 Ti has 176.
• ROPs: Both have 96.
• RT Cores: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER has 66; GTX 980 Ti has none.
• Tensor Cores: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER has 264; GTX 980 Ti has none.
• Pixel Rate: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 250.6 GPixel/s; GTX 980 Ti is 103.3 GPixel/s.
• Texture Rate: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 689.0 GTexel/s; GTX 980 Ti is 189.4 GTexel/s.
• FP32 Performance: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 44.10 TFLOPS; GTX 980 Ti is 6.060 TFLOPS.
• FP16 Performance: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 44.10 TFLOPS (1:1); GTX 980 Ti is null.
• TDP: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 285 W; GTX 980 Ti is 250 W.
• Slot Width: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is Triple-slot; GTX 980 Ti is Dual-slot.
• Power Connectors: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 1x 16-pin; GTX 980 Ti is 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin.
• Bus Interface: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is PCIe 4.0 x16; GTX 980 Ti is PCIe 3.0 x16.
• DirectX Support: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 12 Ultimate (12_2); GTX 980 Ti is 12 (12_1).
• Length: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 310 mm; GTX 980 Ti is 267 mm.
• Height: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 140 mm; GTX 980 Ti is 111 mm.
• Width: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 61 mm; GTX 980 Ti is 40 mm.
• Release Date: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 2024-01-23; GTX 980 Ti is 2015-06-01.
• Launch MSRP: RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is 799 USD; GTX 980 Ti is 649 USD.