GeForce GTX 980M 4GB Game Requirement Analysis

Overview
GeForce GTX 980M 4GB is a high-end Mobile Graphics Card based on the second revision of the Maxwell architecture.

Architecture
The Second variant of the Maxwell Architecture, despite being also manufactured with a 28nm technology, has an extremely large L2 Cache and features a Third Generation Delta Color Compression which allows NVIDIA to produce Graphics Cards with relatively small memory data transfer rates, without causing too much impact on the overall performance. Furthermore, the Shaders have been redesigned and are both more powerful and energy efficient.
The Second Revision of Maxwell also adds the VXGI (Voxel Global Illumination) Technology which makes scenes significantly more lifelike and believable as light interacts more realistically in the game environment and the MFAA Technology which provides the same effect as MSAA but at a much lower performance cost.

GPU
It equips a GPU codenamed GM204-N16E-GX-A2 which has 12 SM activated and thus offers 1536 Shader Processing Units, 96 TMUs and 64 ROPs. The central unit runs at 1038MHz and goes up to 1127MHz, in Turbo Mode.

Memory
The GPU accesses a 4GB frame buffer of fast GDDR5, through a 256-bit memory interface. The memory clock operates at 1253MHz. The size of the frame buffer is exaggerated and in no way adds extra performance.

Features
DirectX 12.0 Support (11.2 Hardware Default) and support for SLI, GameStream, G-SYNC, GPU Boost 2.0, GeForce Experience, PhysX and other technologies.

Power Consumption
With a rated board TDP of 100W, it will only be equipped in very large notebooks.

Performance
Benchmarks indicate its performance is over 30% faster than GeForce GTX 880M. Therefore, it should even surpass GeForce GTX 770 and be around as fast as desktop GeForce GTX 780.
GeForce GTX 980M is therefore the fastest mobile Graphics Card as of October 2014 and AMD's Radeon R9 M290X is beaten in over 40%.

System Suggestions
We recommend a very strong processor (Intel Core i7 Mobile Quad Core) and 8GB of RAM for a notebook with GeForce GTX 980M 8GB.