NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 vs ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2

Comparative analysis of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 and ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2 videocards for all known characteristics in the following categories: Essentials, Technical info, Video outputs and ports, Compatibility, dimensions and requirements, API support, Memory, Technologies. Benchmark videocards performance analysis: PassMark - G3D Mark, PassMark - G2D Mark, Geekbench - OpenCL, CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Face Detection (mPixels/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Ocean Surface Simulation (Frames/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Video Composition (Frames/s), CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Bitcoin Mining (mHash/s), GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames), GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps), GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps), GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps), 3DMark Fire Strike - Graphics Score.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980

ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2

Differences

Reasons to consider the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980

Videocard is newer: launch date 6 year(s) 5 month(s) later
3.2x more pipelines: 2048 vs 2x 320
5.8x better floating-point performance: 4,981 gflops vs 2x 428.2 gflops
A newer manufacturing process allows for a more powerful, yet cooler running videocard: 28 nm vs 55 nm
4x more maximum memory size: 4 GB vs 2x 512 MB
13.5x better performance in PassMark - G3D Mark: 11112 vs 822
Around 87% better performance in PassMark - G2D Mark: 791 vs 422

Specifications (specs)
Launch date	19 September 2014 vs 4 April 2008
Pipelines	2048 vs 2x 320
Floating-point performance	4,981 gflops vs 2x 428.2 gflops
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm vs 55 nm
Maximum memory size	4 GB vs 2x 512 MB
Benchmarks
PassMark - G3D Mark	11112 vs 822
PassMark - G2D Mark	791 vs 422

Reasons to consider the ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2

Around 46% higher texture fill rate: 2x 10.7 GTexel / s billion / sec vs 144 billion / sec
Around 18% lower typical power consumption: 140 Watt vs 165 Watt
236.6x more memory clock speed: 1656 MHz vs 7.0 GB/s

Texture fill rate	2x 10.7 GTexel / s billion / sec vs 144 billion / sec
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	140 Watt vs 165 Watt
Memory clock speed	1656 MHz vs 7.0 GB/s

Compare benchmarks

GPU 1: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
GPU 2: ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2

PassMark - G3D Mark

GPU 1

GPU 2

11112

822

PassMark - G2D Mark

GPU 1

GPU 2

791

422

Name	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980	ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2
PassMark - G3D Mark	11112	822
PassMark - G2D Mark	791	422
Geekbench - OpenCL	34898
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Face Detection (mPixels/s)	110.006
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Ocean Surface Simulation (Frames/s)	1348.307
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - T-Rex (Frames/s)	9.194
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Video Composition (Frames/s)	37.443
CompuBench 1.5 Desktop - Bitcoin Mining (mHash/s)	477.015
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Frames)	9566
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Frames)	3690
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Frames)	3335
GFXBench 4.0 - Car Chase Offscreen (Fps)	9566
GFXBench 4.0 - Manhattan (Fps)	3690
GFXBench 4.0 - T-Rex (Fps)	3335
3DMark Fire Strike - Graphics Score	474

Compare specifications (specs)

	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980	ATI Radeon HD 3850 X2
Essentials
Architecture	Maxwell 2.0	TeraScale
Code name	GM204	RV670
Launch date	19 September 2014	4 April 2008
Launch price (MSRP)	$549	$349
Place in performance rating	379	381
Price now	$605.06
Type	Desktop	Desktop
Value for money (0-100)	21.18
Technical info
Boost clock speed	1216 MHz
CUDA cores	2048
Floating-point performance	4,981 gflops	2x 428.2 gflops
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	55 nm
Pipelines	2048	2x 320
Texture fill rate	144 billion / sec	2x 10.7 GTexel / s billion / sec
Thermal Design Power (TDP)	165 Watt	140 Watt
Transistor count	5,200 million	666 million
Core clock speed		669 MHz
Video outputs and ports
Audio input for HDMI	Internal
Display Connectors	1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort, Dual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2	2x DVI, 1x S-Video
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support	1
G-SYNC support
HDCP
HDMI
Maximum VGA resolution	2048x1536
Multi monitor support
VGA аnalog display support	1
Compatibility, dimensions and requirements
Bus support	PCI Express 3.0
Height	4.376" (11.1 cm)
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x16	PCIe 2.0 x16
Length	10.5" (26.7 cm)	267 mm
Recommended system power (PSU)	500 Watt
SLI options	1
Supplementary power connectors	2x 6-pins
API support
DirectX	12.0 (12_1)	10.0
OpenCL	1.2
OpenGL	4.5	3.3
Memory
Maximum RAM amount	4 GB	2x 512 MB
Memory bandwidth	224 GB / s	2x 53.0 GB / s
Memory bus width	256 Bit	2x 256 Bit
Memory clock speed	7.0 GB/s	1656 MHz
Memory type	GDDR5	GDDR3
Shared memory	0
Technologies
3D Vision
Adaptive Vertical Sync
BatteryBoost
CUDA
GameStream
GameWorks
GeForce Experience
GeForce ShadowPlay
GPU Boost
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder
Optimus
SLI
Surround