NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti vs NVIDIA GRID M60-1Q Comparison

The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti dominates the single shared benchmark in this comparison, but the GRID M60-1Q’s position as a specialized compute card makes this a study in contrasting design goals rather than a simple one-sided victory. The data reveals a 76.5% deficit for the GRID M60-1Q in the Geekbench Vulkan test, a massive gap that underscores the generational and architectural chasm between these two NVIDIA offerings. However, the GRID M60-1Q’s benchmark percentile (76th) is actually higher than the RTX 2080 Ti’s (75th), hinting that its niche performance profile still holds relevance in specific workloads.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The only direct comparison available is the geekbench_vulkan test, where the results are stark. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti scores 132,930, while the NVIDIA GRID M60-1Q manages just 31,220. This translates to a -76.5% delta, meaning the RTX 2080 Ti is approximately 4.26 times faster in this specific API workload. This is not a marginal victory; it is a categorical one. The Vulkan test stresses modern graphics pipeline features, ray tracing, and compute shaders—areas where the Turing architecture’s dedicated hardware gives it an insurmountable lead.

Looking at the broader benchmark landscape, the RTX 2080 Ti has a much richer dataset. It scores 21,548 in Passmark G3D, 10,056 in Passmark GPU Compute, and 128,171 in Geekbench OpenCL. These figures are not directly comparable to the GRID M60-1Q (which only has the Vulkan result), but they paint a picture of a card that excels across a wide range of compute and rasterization tasks. The GRID M60-1Q’s single score of 31,220 places it near the NVIDIA Quadro M5000 (31,206) and slightly ahead of the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER (31,087) in the nearest rivals list. This suggests that in pure Vulkan throughput, the older Maxwell card is competitive with much newer consumer hardware, a surprising outcome that points to its optimized driver stack for virtualized environments.

The RTX 2080 Ti’s nearest rivals include the RTX 3070 Ti (29,945) and AMD RX 6800 (30,095), both of which it beats by about 0.5% and 1%, respectively. This indicates the 2080 Ti is still a top-tier performer even against newer generations. The GRID M60-1Q, by contrast, is ranked near the TITAN RTX (31,676) and RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell (31,532), showing that its Vulkan score is not an outlier but a consistent result for its class. The data implies that the GRID card’s weakness is not raw compute power but rather the lack of modern features like dedicated RT and tensor cores, which the Vulkan test on the 2080 Ti likely leverages heavily.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti has a higher average benchmark score of 29,783, compared to the GRID M60-1Q’s average of 31,220. This is counterintuitive given the head-to-head result, but the averages are computed over different test suites.

Q: How does the GRID M60-1Q compare to the RTX 2080 Ti in Vulkan performance?

A: The RTX 2080 Ti is dramatically faster, scoring 132,930 versus 31,220 in the Geekbench Vulkan test, a -76.5% difference. This is the only shared benchmark.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference?

A: The GRID M60-1Q has 1,024 MB of GDDR5 memory on a 256-bit bus, while the RTX 2080 Ti has 11 GB of GDDR6 on a 352-bit bus. The RTX 2080 Ti’s memory bandwidth is 616.0 GB/s, which is significantly higher than the GRID’s 160.4 GB/s.

Q: Do both cards support the same DirectX version?

A: No. The GRID M60-1Q supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the RTX 2080 Ti supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2). This reflects the Turing card’s newer feature set, including hardware ray tracing.

Q: Which card has a higher transistor density?

A: The RTX 2080 Ti has a transistor density of 24.7M / mm², compared to the GRID M60-1Q’s 13.1M / mm². This is due to the newer 12nm process node versus the older 28nm node.

Q: What are the TDP and power connector requirements?

A: The GRID M60-1Q has a TDP of 225 W and requires a single 8-pin connector, while the RTX 2080 Ti has a TDP of 250 W and requires two 8-pin connectors. The suggested PSU is 550 W for the GRID and 600 W for the RTX 2080 Ti.

Architecture Differences

The architectural gulf between these two GPUs is immense. The GRID M60-1Q is built on Maxwell 2.0 using the GM204 chip, fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC. It packs 5,200 million transistors on a 398 mm² die. In contrast, the RTX 2080 Ti uses the TU102 chip based on Turing architecture, built on a 12 nm process, also at TSMC. It contains 18,600 million transistors on a vastly larger 754 mm² die. The transistor density tells the story: 13.1M / mm² for Maxwell versus 24.7M / mm² for Turing, a 88% increase in packing efficiency.

The compute resources diverge sharply. The GRID M60-1Q has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The RTX 2080 Ti more than doubles this with 4,352 shading units, 272 TMUs, and 88 ROPs. Critically, the RTX 2080 Ti introduces 68 RT cores and 544 tensor cores, which are entirely absent from the Maxwell design. These dedicated units enable hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-based DLSS, features that the GRID M60-1Q simply cannot process in hardware. The FP32 throughput reflects this: the RTX 2080 Ti delivers 13.45 TFLOPS versus the GRID’s 4.825 TFLOPS. Furthermore, the RTX 2080 Ti supports FP16 at 26.90 TFLOPS (2:1), a capability the GRID M60-1Q lacks entirely.

The memory architecture is also generations apart. The GRID uses 1 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus, yielding 160.4 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 2080 Ti uses 11 GB of GDDR6 on a 352-bit bus, providing 616.0 GB/s. This nearly 4x bandwidth advantage is crucial for modern high-resolution textures and compute workloads. The clock speeds also differ, with the GRID running at a base of 557 MHz and boost of 1178 MHz, while the RTX 2080 Ti runs at 1350 MHz base and 1545 MHz boost. The RTX 2080 Ti’s memory runs at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective), far exceeding the GRID’s 1253 MHz (5 Gbps effective).

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every quantifiable specification. The GRID M60-1Q has a 256-bit memory bus versus the RTX 2080 Ti’s 352-bit bus. Memory size is a massive differentiator: 1,024 MB versus 11 GB. The GRID M60-1Q has 2,048 shading units, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, while the RTX 2080 Ti has 4,352 shading units, 272 TMUs, and 88 ROPs. The RTX 2080 Ti has 68 RT cores and 544 tensor cores; the GRID has none. Pixel rate is 75.39 GPixel/s for the GRID and 136.0 GPixel/s for the RTX 2080 Ti. Texture rate is 150.8 GTexel/s versus 420.2 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is 4.825 TFLOPS versus 13.45 TFLOPS. TDP is 225 W versus 250 W. The power connectors are 1x 8-pin versus 2x 8-pin. The suggested PSU is 550 W versus 600 W.

The GRID M60-1Q has no display outputs, while the RTX 2080 Ti has 1x HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, and 1x USB Type-C. The GRID is 267 mm long, and the RTX 2080 Ti is also 267 mm long but adds height (116 mm) and width (35 mm) dimensions. The GRID supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the RTX 2080 Ti supports 12 Ultimate (12_2). Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The release dates are August 2015 for the GRID and September 2018 for the RTX 2080 Ti. The GRID uses a Maxwell 2.0 architecture, while the RTX 2080 Ti uses Turing. The process nodes are 28 nm versus 12 nm. The RTX 2080 Ti has a launch MSRP of 999 USD; the GRID has no listed MSRP.

The Verdict

The data is unequivocal: the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is the superior performer for any task that involves the Geekbench Vulkan workload, which is the only shared test. Its 132,930 score dwarfs the GRID M60-1Q’s 31,220, representing a -76.5% deficit for the older card. This is not a close race. The RTX 2080 Ti also offers 11x more memory, 4x more bandwidth, and over 2.7x the FP32 compute. It has dedicated RT and tensor cores, making it a modern GPU capable of handling next-generation graphics features. The GRID M60-1Q, however, is a virtualized workstation card with no display outputs, designed for cloud GPU workloads. Its 76th percentile ranking versus the RTX 2080 Ti’s 75th percentile suggests that in its specific niche, it performs admirably, but that niche is not consumer gaming or general-purpose desktop compute.

For a user building a gaming rig or a workstation for content creation, the RTX 2080 Ti is the only logical choice from this comparison. Its Vulkan score alone is proof of its capability. For a data center deploying virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), the GRID M60-1Q might still have a purpose, given its competitive Vulkan score against modern cards like the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER (31,087). The choice is therefore not about which is "better" in absolute terms, but which hardware matches the intended use case. The RTX 2080 Ti is a general-purpose powerhouse; the GRID M60-1Q is a specialized tool.

Where Each One Wins

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti wins in every head-to-head metric available. It wins the sole benchmark, the Geekbench Vulkan test, with a score of 132,930 versus 31,220. It wins on memory capacity (11 GB vs 1,024 MB), memory bandwidth (616.0 GB/s vs 160.4 GB/s), shading units (4,352 vs 2,048), TMUs (272 vs 128), ROPs (88 vs 64), and FP32 compute (13.45 TFLOPS vs 4.825 TFLOPS). It has higher pixel and texture rates. It has RT cores and tensor cores, which the GRID lacks entirely. It supports DirectX 12 Ultimate, while the GRID is limited to DirectX 12 (12_1). It has display outputs, making it usable for direct desktop connection. It also has a higher boost clock (1545 MHz vs 1178 MHz).

NVIDIA GRID M60-1Q wins in a few narrow specification categories. It has a lower TDP of 225 W versus 250 W, making it more power-efficient in absolute terms. It requires only one 8-pin power connector versus two, and a 550 W PSU versus 600 W. It is also slightly denser in transistor packing, but that is a process artifact. Its average benchmark score of 31,220 is actually higher than the RTX 2080 Ti’s average of 29,783, but this is misleading because the averages are computed over different test suites. In its nearest rivals list, it sits close to the NVIDIA TITAN RTX (31,676) and NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell (31,532), indicating that its Vulkan performance is competitive with high-end cards from 2018 and 2024. The GRID M60-1Q wins in the "no display output" category, which is a feature for server deployments where headless operation is required. Ultimately, the GRID’s wins are about power draw and server integration, not performance.