NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti vs NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The data shows a decisive generational shift when the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti is placed against the NVIDIA RTX A5000 Mobile. In the two shared benchmark tests recorded in the database, the RTX A5000 Mobile wins both outright, and the margins are substantial. The GeForce GTX 980 Ti, a desktop card from the Maxwell 2.0 era, cannot keep pace with the mobile Ampere workstation GPU in raw compute workloads.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX A5000 Mobile scores 110,877, while the GTX 980 Ti manages 43,513. That is a delta of -60.8% from the perspective of the older card, meaning the RTX A5000 Mobile is roughly 2.5 times faster in this particular test. The gap is not a narrow one; it reflects fundamental differences in architecture, shader count, and memory subsystem design.

Geekbench Vulkan tells a similar story, though with a slightly narrower margin. The RTX A5000 Mobile posts 88,144 against the GTX 980 Ti’s 47,724. The delta here is -45.9%, placing the newer card about 85% ahead in raw Vulkan compute performance. While the percentage gap is smaller than in OpenCL, it remains a commanding lead for the Ampere part.

The average benchmark score across all recorded tests further illustrates the gap, but with a twist. The GTX 980 Ti has an average score of 28,020, while the RTX A5000 Mobile sits at 24,763. This is because the GTX 980 Ti’s average is drawn from a different, smaller set of tests (including 3DMark Steel Nomad and Geekbench Metal), while the RTX A5000 Mobile’s average includes several Passmark DirectX scores that are low in absolute terms. The head-to-head results, however, are unambiguous: in the two tests where both cards were measured with identical workloads, the RTX A5000 Mobile dominates.

The win count reflects this: the RTX A5000 Mobile takes 2 wins, and the GTX 980 Ti takes none. There is no benchmark in the shared pool where the older card comes out ahead. For users comparing these two on paper, the verdict is clear from the raw numbers alone.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX A5000 Mobile wins in every shared workload category. In Geekbench OpenCL, its 110,877 score against 43,513 represents a lead of more than 2.5x. This test is heavily influenced by raw FP32 throughput and memory bandwidth, both of which favor the Ampere card. The RTX A5000 Mobile offers 19.35 TFLOPS of FP32 performance versus 6.060 TFLOPS for the GTX 980 Ti, and it has 448.0 GB/s of memory bandwidth versus 336.6 GB/s. The combination of higher shader count (6144 vs 2816) and faster memory explains the magnitude of the OpenCL win.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the RTX A5000 Mobile’s 88,144 score beats the GTX 980 Ti’s 47,724 by 45.9%. Vulkan workloads often scale with driver efficiency and hardware feature support. The RTX A5000 Mobile supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), while the GTX 980 Ti is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1). The newer card also brings hardware ray tracing cores (48) and tensor cores (192), which can offload certain compute tasks even in non-graphics workloads. These architectural advantages contribute to the consistent victory.

Where does the GTX 980 Ti hold any ground? The database does not record a single shared benchmark win for it. However, its average score across its full benchmark suite (28,020) is higher than the RTX A5000 Mobile’s suite average (24,763). This is due to the inclusion of 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 (1,321) and Geekbench Metal (19,520) in its results, which are not part of the RTX A5000 Mobile’s recorded set. The GTX 980 Ti also occupies a higher percentile against all GPUs at 73, compared to 70 for the RTX A5000 Mobile. This suggests that in its own era and within its specific test set, the GTX 980 Ti was a stronger performer relative to its contemporaries than the RTX A5000 Mobile is today.

For use-case segmentation: the RTX A5000 Mobile is the clear choice for compute-heavy OpenCL workloads, Vulkan-based rendering, and any task that can leverage its hardware ray tracing or tensor cores. The GTX 980 Ti, despite its age, still shows respectable absolute performance in its recorded tests, particularly in Metal where it scores 19,520, but it is outclassed in the shared tests. The data does not support a scenario where the GTX 980 Ti wins in a direct comparison.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from entirely different architectural generations. The GeForce GTX 980 Ti is built on Maxwell 2.0, using the GM200 chip, fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC. The RTX A5000 Mobile uses the Ampere architecture, with the GA104 chip, built on an 8 nm process at Samsung. This process shrink is significant: the GTX 980 Ti packs 8,000 million transistors into a 601 mm² die, yielding a transistor density of 13.3 million per square millimeter. The RTX A5000 Mobile crams 17,400 million transistors into a much smaller 392 mm² die, achieving 44.4 million transistors per square millimeter. That is more than triple the density, which explains how the newer card fits far more compute resources into a mobile form factor.

The shader configuration differs dramatically. The GTX 980 Ti has 2,816 shading units, 176 texture mapping units, and 96 ROPs. The RTX A5000 Mobile doubles the shader count to 6,144, increases TMUs to 192, and keeps ROPs at 96. The RTX A5000 Mobile also adds 48 ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores, features that simply do not exist on the Maxwell-based GTX 980 Ti. These dedicated hardware blocks enable real-time ray tracing and AI-accelerated workloads, which are absent on the older card.

Clock speeds tell an interesting story. The GTX 980 Ti has a higher base clock at 1000 MHz versus 900 MHz, but the RTX A5000 Mobile boosts much higher at 1575 MHz versus 1076 MHz. The Ampere card’s boost clock is nearly 500 MHz higher, which, combined with the doubled shader count, produces its massive FP32 advantage: 19.35 TFLOPS versus 6.060 TFLOPS. The RTX A5000 Mobile also supports FP16 at a 1:1 ratio (19.35 TFLOPS), while the GTX 980 Ti has no recorded FP16 capability.

Memory architecture is another major divergence. The GTX 980 Ti uses 6 GB of GDDR5 on a 384-bit bus, with memory clocked at 1753 MHz (7 Gbps effective) for 336.6 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX A5000 Mobile uses 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, with memory at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective) for 448.0 GB/s bandwidth. The newer card has more capacity and higher bandwidth despite a narrower bus, thanks to the doubled effective data rate of GDDR6.

The bus interface also advances: the GTX 980 Ti uses PCIe 3.0 x16, while the RTX A5000 Mobile uses PCIe 4.0 x16, doubling the theoretical bandwidth available for data transfers between the GPU and host system.

Specification Differences

The table below highlights only the fields where the two cards differ. Several specifications are identical, including ROPs (96 on both), OpenGL support (4.6), and Vulkan support (1.4). The production status for both is end-of-life, but their release dates are nearly six years apart: June 2015 for the GTX 980 Ti and April 2021 for the RTX A5000 Mobile.

| Specification | GTX 980 Ti | RTX A5000 Mobile |

|---|---|---|

| Architecture | Maxwell 2.0 | Ampere |

| Chip | GM200 | GA104 |

| Process node | 28 nm | 8 nm |

| Foundry | TSMC | Samsung |

| Transistors | 8,000 million | 17,400 million |

| Die size | 601 mm² | 392 mm² |

| Transistor density | 13.3M / mm² | 44.4M / mm² |

| Base clock | 1000 MHz | 900 MHz |

| Boost clock | 1076 MHz | 1575 MHz |

| Memory size | 6 GB | 16 GB |

| Memory type | GDDR5 | GDDR6 |

| Memory bus width | 384 bit | 256 bit |

| Memory bandwidth | 336.6 GB/s | 448.0 GB/s |

| Shading units | 2816 | 6144 |

| TMUs | 176 | 192 |

| RT cores | None | 48 |

| Tensor cores | None | 192 |

| Pixel rate | 103.3 GPixel/s | 151.2 GPixel/s |

| Texture rate | 189.4 GTexel/s | 302.4 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 6.060 TFLOPS | 19.35 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | Not recorded | 19.35 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 250 W | 150 W |

| Slot width | Dual-slot | Not recorded |

| Power connectors | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin | None |

| Suggested PSU | 600 W | Not recorded |

| Bus interface | PCIe 3.0 x16 | PCIe 4.0 x16 |

| Display outputs | 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2 | Portable Device Dependent |

| DirectX support | 12 (12_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |

| Dimensions | 267 mm length, 111 mm height, 40 mm width | Not recorded |

| Release date | June 2015 | April 2021 |

| Predecessor | GeForce 700 | Quadro Turing-M |

| Successor | GeForce 10 | Ada-MW |

| Launch MSRP | 649 USD | Not recorded |

The power draw difference is notable: the GTX 980 Ti consumes 250 W, while the RTX A5000 Mobile is rated at 150 W. Despite the lower power envelope, the mobile card delivers more than three times the FP32 throughput, evidence of the efficiency gains from the 8 nm process and architectural improvements.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The RTX A5000 Mobile scores 110,877 versus 43,513 for the GTX 980 Ti, a delta of -60.8% from the older card’s perspective. The Ampere card is roughly 2.5 times faster in this workload.

Q: Does the GTX 980 Ti win any shared benchmark?

A: No. In the two head-to-head tests recorded (Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan), the RTX A5000 Mobile wins both. The GTX 980 Ti records 0 wins against 2 for the RTX A5000 Mobile.

Q: How does memory bandwidth compare between the two?

A: The RTX A5000 Mobile offers 448.0 GB/s, compared to 336.6 GB/s for the GTX 980 Ti. The newer card achieves this with a narrower 256-bit bus using GDDR6 at 14 Gbps effective, while the older card uses a 384-bit bus with GDDR5 at 7 Gbps effective.

Q: What is the transistor density difference?

A: The RTX A5000 Mobile has 44.4 million transistors per square millimeter, while the GTX 980 Ti has 13.3 million per square millimeter. This is more than a threefold increase, enabled by the move from TSMC’s 28 nm process to Samsung’s 8 nm process.

Q: Does the RTX A5000 Mobile support hardware ray tracing?

A: Yes. It has 48 ray tracing cores and 192 tensor cores. The GTX 980 Ti has neither, as it predates the addition of dedicated ray tracing hardware in NVIDIA’s lineup.

Q: What is the average benchmark score for each card?

A: The GTX 980 Ti has an average score of 28,020, and the RTX A5000 Mobile has an average of 24,763. The GTX 980 Ti’s average is influenced by its inclusion of 3DMark Steel Nomad and Geekbench Metal results, which are not recorded for the RTX A5000 Mobile.