AMD Radeon 550X vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950A Comparison

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains one direct benchmark comparison between the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950A and the AMD Radeon 550X, and it is a decisive result. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the GTX 950A scores 10,273 points against the Radeon 550X's 8,866 points, a delta of 15.9% in favor of the NVIDIA part. This is not a marginal gap; it is a substantial performance advantage that places the two cards in different tiers of OpenCL compute capability.

Putting that score in context, the GTX 950A sits at the 48th percentile of all GPUs in the database, while the Radeon 550X sits at the 45th percentile. The absolute difference of 1,407 points between their averages is larger than the entire spread between the Radeon 550X and its nearest rival, the AMD Radeon R9 M265X, which trails by just 0.8%. In other words, the distance between these two cards is roughly equivalent to the distance between the Radeon 550X and an entire GPU generation below it.

For the GTX 950A, the nearest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 6500M, which scores 10,362 points, a mere 0.9% ahead. The NVIDIA card also edges out the AMD Radeon R9 M375 by 2% and trails the NVIDIA Tesla C2075 by just 1.2%. These are tight margins, indicating that the GTX 950A is competitively placed within its immediate peer group. The Radeon 550X, by contrast, is sandwiched between the AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 at 8,863 points (0.6% behind) and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 at 9,022 points (1.2% ahead of the AMD card). The data shows that the Radeon 550X is not merely slower than the GTX 950A; it is also less competitive within its own weight class.

The recorded head-to-head result shows only one benchmark test, and the GTX 950A wins that test outright. There are no countervailing tests where the Radeon 550X recovers ground. The wins tally is 1-0 in favor of NVIDIA. This is a clean sweep in the available data, though it is worth remembering the Radeon 550X has an additional recorded Vulkan score of 8,970, which is not part of the direct comparison but does suggest its OpenCL and Vulkan performance are broadly similar. The GTX 950A has no recorded Vulkan score, so no cross-API comparison can be made from the database.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score in the database?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950A has an average benchmark score of 10,273, while the AMD Radeon 550X averages 8,918. The GTX 950A leads by 15.9% in the Geekbench OpenCL test.

Q: How does each card compare to its nearest rivals?

A: The GTX 950A is 0.9% behind the AMD Radeon RX 6500M, 1.2% behind the NVIDIA Tesla C2075, and 2% ahead of the AMD Radeon R9 M375. The Radeon 550X is 0.6% ahead of the AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100, 0.8% ahead of the AMD Radeon R9 M265X, and 1.2% to 1.3% behind the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 and NVIDIA TITAN V CEO Edition.

Q: What is the percentile ranking of each GPU?

A: The GTX 950A is at the 48th percentile of all GPUs, while the Radeon 550X is at the 45th percentile. This places the NVIDIA card slightly higher in the overall performance distribution.

Q: Which card has the higher boost clock?

A: The AMD Radeon 550X has a boost clock of 1,218 MHz, compared to the GTX 950A's boost clock of 1,124 MHz. However, the GTX 950A still delivers higher benchmark scores despite the lower clock frequency.

Q: How do the memory subsystems differ?

A: The GTX 950A uses 2 GB of DDR3 memory on a 128-bit bus with 32.03 GB/s of bandwidth. The Radeon 550X uses 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on the same 128-bit bus but with 112.0 GB/s of bandwidth, which is 3.5 times higher.

Q: Which card supports a newer DirectX version?

A: The AMD Radeon 550X supports DirectX 12 (12_0), while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950A supports DirectX 12 (11_0). Both cards support OpenGL 4.6, but the Radeon 550X supports Vulkan 1.3 versus Vulkan 1.4 for the GTX 950A.

The Verdict

The benchmark data is unambiguous: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950A is the faster GPU of the two. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, it outperforms the AMD Radeon 550X by 15.9%, a margin that is significant in real-world compute workloads. The GTX 950A also holds a higher percentile ranking, 48th versus 45th, and its average score of 10,273 is substantially above the Radeon 550X's 8,918.

Who should pick the GTX 950A? Anyone prioritizing raw compute performance in OpenCL-based applications. The data shows it competes favorably with newer and more expensive parts like the AMD Radeon RX 6500M, which it trails by less than 1%. It also beats the AMD Radeon R9 M375 by 2%, indicating that it is not merely fast for its age but genuinely competitive within its peer group.

Who should pick the Radeon 550X? The case is less about performance and more about other characteristics. The Radeon 550X draws less power, with a 50 W TDP versus 75 W for the GTX 950A. It also supports a newer DirectX feature level (12_0 versus 11_0), has higher memory bandwidth at 112.0 GB/s versus 32.03 GB/s, and offers a Vulkan 1.3 API. If the workload is memory-bandwidth sensitive or relies on newer API features, the Radeon 550X has a rationale despite its lower raw compute score. However, for pure benchmark performance, the database clearly favors the NVIDIA card.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ across several core specifications, and these differences help explain the benchmark results. The GTX 950A has 640 shading units, 40 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 16 ROPs. The Radeon 550X has fewer shading units at 512, fewer TMUs at 32, but the same 16 ROPs. Despite having fewer processing units, the Radeon 550X runs at higher clocks: a base of 1,082 MHz versus 993 MHz, and a boost of 1,218 MHz versus 1,124 MHz.

The memory subsystems present a stark contrast. The GTX 950A uses 2 GB of DDR3 memory with a bandwidth of 32.03 GB/s, while the Radeon 550X uses 2 GB of GDDR5 memory with a bandwidth of 112.0 GB/s. Both use a 128-bit bus, but the GDDR5 memory on the AMD card delivers 3.5 times the bandwidth. The memory clock also differs: the GTX 950A runs at 1001 MHz (2 Gbps effective), while the Radeon 550X runs at 1,750 MHz (7 Gbps effective).

Pixel and texture rates reflect these differences. The GTX 950A achieves a pixel rate of 17.98 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 44.96 GTexel/s. The Radeon 550X achieves a higher pixel rate of 19.49 GPixel/s but a lower texture rate of 38.98 GTexel/s. FP32 compute is another point of divergence: the GTX 950A delivers 1,438.7 GFLOPS, while the Radeon 550X delivers 1,247.2 GFLOPS. The Radeon 550X also supports FP16 at 1,247.2 GFLOPS (1:1), while the GTX 950A has no recorded FP16 capability.

Power and physical specifications also differ. The GTX 950A has a TDP of 75 W, uses an MXM Module slot width, and has no power connectors. The Radeon 550X has a lower TDP of 50 W, is a dual-slot card, and also has no power connectors, but it lists a suggested PSU of 250 W. The bus interface differs: the GTX 950A uses MXM-B (3.0), while the Radeon 550X uses PCIe 3.0 x8. The Radeon 550X has a length of 145 mm (5.7 inches) and display outputs of 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0b, and 1x DisplayPort 1.4a, while the GTX 950A's display outputs are listed as "Portable Device Dependent."

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from different architectural generations and foundries. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950A is built on the Maxwell architecture, using the GM107 chip manufactured on TSMC's 28 nm process. The die size is 148 mm² with 1,870 million transistors, yielding a transistor density of 12.6 million per mm². The Radeon 550X uses the GCN 4.0 architecture with the Lexa chip, manufactured on GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process. The die is smaller at 103 mm² but packs more transistors at 2,200 million, giving a transistor density of 21.4 million per mm². The Radeon 550X is the denser chip by a wide margin, nearly double the density of the NVIDIA part.

The Radeon 550X belongs to the Polaris (RX 500X) generation, with a release date of March 26, 2019, and a successor listed as Vega. The GTX 950A belongs to the GeForce 900A generation, released earlier on March 12, 2015, with a predecessor of GeForce 800A. Both are marked end-of-life in the database. The Radeon 550X lists a predecessor of Polaris, suggesting it is a refinement within that family, while the GTX 950A's predecessor is a prior NVIDIA mobile generation.

Architecturally, the Radeon 550X supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3, while the GTX 950A supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and Vulkan 1.4. The higher DirectX feature level on the AMD card is notable for applications that leverage DX12 features beyond level 11_0. Both support OpenGL 4.6. The Radeon 550X also has FP16 support at a 1:1 ratio with FP32, which can be advantageous in workloads that use half-precision arithmetic. The GTX 950A has no FP16 data recorded.

The manufacturing differences are also reflected in power efficiency. The Radeon 550X achieves its lower 50 W TDP on a 14 nm process, while the GTX 950A draws 75 W on a 28 nm process. The Radeon 550X has a suggested PSU of 250 W, while the GTX 950A has no suggested PSU listed. The combination of smaller die, denser transistors, and lower power suggests the AMD part is the more modern implementation, even though it loses in raw compute benchmarks. The GTX 950A compensates with higher FP32 throughput and more shading units, which likely explains its OpenCL advantage despite the older architecture and slower memory.