NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Mobile and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti represent two distinct eras of GPU design, separated by a decade of architectural evolution. The RTX 5070 Mobile is a modern, power-efficient Blackwell 2.0 part built for laptops, while the GTX 980 Ti is a legendary, high-power desktop flagship from the Maxwell 2.0 generation. Benchmark data shows the mobile chip delivering a massive performance uplift over its predecessor, with the RTX 5070 Mobile scoring an average benchmark of 29,928 compared to the GTX 980 Ti's 28,020, placing both in the 75th and 73rd percentiles of all GPUs, respectively.

FAQ

Q: How much faster is the RTX 5070 Mobile than the GTX 980 Ti in OpenCL?

A: The RTX 5070 Mobile scores 122,238 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 180.9% higher than the GTX 980 Ti's 43,513 score. This is the largest performance gap between the two in the head-to-head data.

Q: What is the difference in average benchmark scores between the two cards?

A: The RTX 5070 Mobile has an average benchmark score of 29,928, while the GTX 980 Ti scores 28,020. This puts the RTX 5070 Mobile about 1,900 points ahead, a margin that places it 0.5% above the RTX 2080 Ti, while the GTX 980 Ti sits 0.2% above the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X.

Q: Which card has a higher transistor density?

A: The RTX 5070 Mobile, built on a 5 nm process, has a transistor density of 121.0M per mm². The GTX 980 Ti, using a 28 nm process, has a density of just 13.3M per mm², a nearly tenfold difference.

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

A: No. The GTX 980 Ti's Maxwell 2.0 architecture has no RT cores listed, whereas the RTX 5070 Mobile features 36 RT cores for hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The RTX 5070 Mobile has a TDP of 50 W and uses no power connectors, being an IGP-class mobile part. The GTX 980 Ti has a 250 W TDP, requires a dual-slot cooler, and needs both a 6-pin and an 8-pin power connector, with a suggested PSU of 600 W.

Q: In Vulkan performance, which card wins and by how much?

A: The RTX 5070 Mobile wins in Geekbench Vulkan with a score of 116,960, which is 145.1% ahead of the GTX 980 Ti's 47,724 score. This demonstrates a substantial advantage in modern graphics API workloads.

Architecture Differences

The fundamental architectural gap between these GPUs is immense. The RTX 5070 Mobile is built on NVIDIA's Blackwell 2.0 architecture using the GB206 chip, manufactured on a 5 nm process at TSMC. This contrasts sharply with the GTX 980 Ti's Maxwell 2.0 architecture, which uses the GM200 chip on a mature 28 nm process. The process node difference is stark: 5 nm versus 28 nm, which directly impacts transistor density. The RTX 5070 Mobile packs 21,900 million transistors into a die size of just 181 mm², yielding a density of 121.0M transistors per mm². In comparison, the GTX 980 Ti has only 8,000 million transistors spread across a massive 601 mm² die, resulting in a much lower density of 13.3M per mm².

The memory subsystems reflect their respective generations. The RTX 5070 Mobile uses 8 GB of GDDR7 memory on a 128-bit bus, delivering 384.0 GB/s of bandwidth. The GTX 980 Ti uses 6 GB of GDDR5 on a wider 384-bit bus, but achieves slightly lower bandwidth at 336.6 GB/s. While the bus width is narrower on the newer card, the faster GDDR7 memory (24 Gbps effective) compensates, offering higher total bandwidth.

Compute resources have been completely reorganized. The RTX 5070 Mobile has 4,608 shading units, 144 TMUs, 48 ROPs, 36 RT cores, and 144 tensor cores. The GTX 980 Ti has fewer shading units at 2,816, but more TMUs at 176 and more ROPs at 96. This different distribution reflects the shift toward parallel compute and ray tracing workloads in modern GPUs. The GTX 980 Ti has no RT cores or tensor cores, as those features did not exist in Maxwell 2.0.

The feature set is a major differentiator. The RTX 5070 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which includes features like ray tracing and mesh shaders. The GTX 980 Ti only supports DirectX 12 (12_1). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The RTX 5070 Mobile also uses a PCIe 5.0 x16 interface, while the GTX 980 Ti is limited to PCIe 3.0 x16. The RTX 5070 Mobile has no display outputs of its own, being "Portable Device Dependent," whereas the GTX 980 Ti offers 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, and 3x DisplayPort 1.2 outputs.

Power efficiency is where the mobile chip dominates. The RTX 5070 Mobile has a TDP of just 50 W and requires no power connectors, fitting into an IGP slot width. The GTX 980 Ti draws 250 W, is dual-slot, and requires a 600 W power supply. This makes the RTX 5070 Mobile roughly five times more power-efficient while delivering significantly higher performance. The production status also differs: the RTX 5070 Mobile is Active, while the GTX 980 Ti is End-of-life.

The Verdict

The data presents a clear verdict: the RTX 5070 Mobile is the superior performer in every benchmark category where both have data. It wins both head-to-head tests, with a 180.9% lead in OpenCL and a 145.1% lead in Vulkan. Its average benchmark score of 29,928 places it in the 75th percentile of all GPUs, just 0.1% behind the RTX 3070 Ti and 0.5% ahead of the RTX 2080 Ti. The GTX 980 Ti, with an average score of 28,020, sits in the 73rd percentile, closely matched with the AMD Radeon Pro W5500X and Radeon Pro Vega 20.

For users choosing between these two, the decision hinges on the use case. The RTX 5070 Mobile is the clear choice for modern gaming and compute workloads that leverage DirectX 12 Ultimate features, ray tracing, and tensor cores. Its 50 W TDP makes it suitable for thin-and-light laptops, while still outperforming a desktop flagship from 2015. The GTX 980 Ti, despite its age, remains competitive in raw rasterization performance, as evidenced by its 73rd percentile ranking. However, it lacks hardware ray tracing and has no tensor core support, limiting its usefulness in modern AI-accelerated applications.

The GTX 980 Ti does have some advantages in physical specifications: it has more ROPs (96 vs 48) and a wider memory bus (384-bit vs 128-bit), which historically helps at high resolutions. However, these advantages do not translate into benchmark wins. The RTX 5070 Mobile's higher shading unit count (4,608 vs 2,816) and faster memory technology deliver better real-world results. The GTX 980 Ti's launch MSRP was 649 USD, but the RTX 5070 Mobile has no listed launch MSRP, reflecting its mobile-first positioning. In summary, the RTX 5070 Mobile is the better card for virtually all modern workloads, while the GTX 980 Ti serves as a historical reference point for how far GPU technology has advanced.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across nearly every specification category. The process node is a clear generational leap: the RTX 5070 Mobile uses 5 nm, while the GTX 980 Ti uses 28 nm. This leads to a transistor count of 21,900 million versus 8,000 million, and a die size of 181 mm² versus 601 mm². The RTX 5070 Mobile has a transistor density of 121.0M per mm², compared to 13.3M per mm² for the GTX 980 Ti.

Clock speeds are surprisingly close, with the GTX 980 Ti having a higher base clock (1000 MHz vs 907 MHz) and boost clock (1076 MHz vs 1425 MHz). However, the RTX 5070 Mobile's boost clock is significantly higher at 1425 MHz. Memory configurations differ: the RTX 5070 Mobile has 8 GB of GDDR7 on a 128-bit bus with 384.0 GB/s bandwidth, while the GTX 980 Ti has 6 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus with 336.6 GB/s bandwidth. The memory clock is 1500 MHz (24 Gbps effective) for the RTX 5070 Mobile versus 1753 MHz (7 Gbps effective) for the GTX 980 Ti.

Core counts show a major shift: the RTX 5070 Mobile has 4,608 shading units, 144 TMUs, and 48 ROPs, while the GTX 980 Ti has 2,816 shading units, 176 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. The RTX 5070 Mobile adds 36 RT cores and 144 tensor cores, neither of which exist on the GTX 980 Ti. Pixel and texture rates differ: the RTX 5070 Mobile has 68.40 GPixel/s and 205.2 GTexel/s, while the GTX 980 Ti has 103.3 GPixel/s and 189.4 GTexel/s. FP32 performance is 13.13 TFLOPS for the RTX 5070 Mobile versus 6.060 TFLOPS for the GTX 980 Ti; the RTX 5070 Mobile also lists FP16 at 13.13 TFLOPS (1:1), while the GTX 980 Ti has no FP16 data.

Power and physical specs diverge completely. The RTX 5070 Mobile has a 50 W TDP, IGP slot width, no power connectors, and no suggested PSU. The GTX 980 Ti has a 250 W TDP, dual-slot width, 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin power connectors, and a suggested PSU of 600 W. The RTX 5070 Mobile uses PCIe 5.0 x16, while the GTX 980 Ti uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Display outputs are "Portable Device Dependent" for the RTX 5070 Mobile, while the GTX 980 Ti has 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, and 3x DisplayPort 1.2. The GTX 980 Ti also has physical dimensions of 267 mm length, 111 mm height, and 40 mm width, while the RTX 5070 Mobile has no listed dimensions. API support shows the RTX 5070 Mobile supporting DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2) versus the GTX 980 Ti's DirectX 12 (12_1); both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. Release dates are 2025-04-14 for the RTX 5070 Mobile and 2015-06-01 for the GTX 980 Ti.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The head-to-head data contains two benchmark comparisons, and the RTX 5070 Mobile wins both decisively. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 5070 Mobile scores 122,238 against the GTX 980 Ti's 43,513. This represents a 180.9% performance advantage, meaning the RTX 5070 Mobile is nearly three times faster in this compute-oriented test. This massive gap is attributable to the RTX 5070 Mobile's higher FP32 throughput (13.13 TFLOPS vs 6.060 TFLOPS) and significantly more shading units (4,608 vs 2,816).

In Geekbench Vulkan, the RTX 5070 Mobile again dominates with a score of 116,960 versus 47,724 for the GTX 980 Ti. The 145.1% delta highlights the modern architecture's superiority in low-level graphics APIs. The RTX 5070 Mobile's support for DirectX 12 Ultimate and newer Vulkan features gives it an inherent advantage in modern game engines that leverage these APIs.

The overall win count is 2-0 in favor of the RTX 5070 Mobile. When looking at the average benchmark scores, the RTX 5070 Mobile's 29,928 average is 6.8% higher than the GTX 980 Ti's 28,020. However, the GTX 980 Ti is not without merit; its percentile ranking of 73 shows it remains competitive against modern mid-range parts. Its nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 7800M (0.5% behind) and the AMD Radeon Pro Vega 20 (0.7% ahead), indicating it still trades blows with contemporary GPUs. The RTX 5070 Mobile, by contrast, sits within 0.1% of the RTX 3070 Ti and 0.5% of the RTX 2080 Ti, positioning it as a high-end mobile solution. In direct comparisons, the RTX 5070 Mobile's victory margins in OpenCL and Vulkan are so large that they overshadow any legacy strengths of the GTX 980 Ti, such as its higher pixel rate or wider memory bus.