AMD Radeon 550X vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M and AMD Radeon 550X are both end-of-life mobile graphics solutions, but they represent very different eras and design philosophies. The 960M, a Maxwell-based part from the GeForce 900M generation, targets a specific legacy workload, while the 550X, a GCN 4.0 Polaris refresh, is a more modern, power-efficient chip. Benchmark data shows a split decision: NVIDIA wins the OpenCL test by a wide margin, while AMD takes the Vulkan test, making the choice entirely dependent on the software environment.

Where Each One Wins

The data presents a clear, binary use-case split. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M is the decisive winner in OpenCL compute workloads. Its Geekbench OpenCL score of 11045 is significantly higher than the AMD Radeon 550X’s 8866, a 24.6% advantage. This suggests the 960M is the stronger option for applications that leverage OpenCL for general-purpose GPU computing, such as older video encoding, rendering, or scientific simulation tasks that rely on this API.

Conversely, the AMD Radeon 550X wins the Vulkan graphics workload. Its Geekbench Vulkan score of 8970 beats the GTX 960M’s 8245, an 8.1% lead. This is the more relevant metric for modern gaming, as Vulkan is a contemporary graphics API used in many recent titles. If your primary concern is playing games that utilize Vulkan, the Radeon 550X is the superior choice, despite being the overall slower card in the OpenCL test.

The overall average benchmark scores reflect this split. The GTX 960M has a higher average benchmark score of 9645, placing it in the 46th percentile of all GPUs. The Radeon 550X sits at an average of 8918, in the 45th percentile. While the 960M holds a numerical average lead, the percentile difference is marginal, confirming that neither card is a dominant force; instead, they are specialized for different API environments.

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs are built on fundamentally different architectures and manufacturing processes. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M uses the GM107 chip, based on the Maxwell architecture, and is fabricated on a 28 nm process at TSMC. This is an older, less dense process, which is reflected in its transistor density of 12.6M / mm² and a die size of 148 mm², housing 1,870 million transistors.

The AMD Radeon 550X, in contrast, uses the Lexa chip, based on the GCN 4.0 architecture, and is built on a more modern 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries. This allows for a significantly higher transistor density of 21.4M / mm² on a smaller 103 mm² die, which contains 2,200 million transistors. This newer process is a primary reason for the 550X’s lower power consumption and higher memory clock speeds.

Architecturally, the GTX 960M features 640 shading units, 40 texture mapping units (TMUs), and 16 raster operations pipelines (ROPs). The Radeon 550X has fewer shading units (512) and TMUs (32), but matches the 16 ROPs. Despite having fewer cores, the 550X achieves a higher boost clock of 1218 MHz compared to the 960M’s 1176 MHz, and it compensates with a faster memory subsystem. The 550X’s memory runs at 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective) versus the 960M’s 1253 MHz (5 Gbps effective), resulting in a significant bandwidth advantage for AMD: 112.0 GB/s versus 80.19 GB/s.

Finally, the feature sets differ in API support. The GTX 960M supports DirectX 12 (11_0) and Vulkan 1.4, while the Radeon 550X supports DirectX 12 (12_0) and Vulkan 1.3. The Radeon’s higher DirectX 12 feature level and lower Vulkan version are a direct result of its newer GCN architecture, which was designed with modern APIs in mind.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two available benchmark results provide a complete picture of the performance dynamic. In the Geekbench OpenCL test, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M scores 11045, while the AMD Radeon 550X scores 8866. This is a 24.6% victory for NVIDIA. This substantial margin suggests the 960M’s Maxwell architecture is particularly efficient at executing the types of compute workloads found in this test, despite its older process node and lower memory bandwidth. It is a clear, unambiguous win for the NVIDIA card.

The tables are turned in the Geekbench Vulkan test. Here, the AMD Radeon 550X scores 8970, defeating the GTX 960M’s 8245. This 8.1% lead for AMD is notable because it is a modern graphics API. The result indicates that the GCN 4.0 architecture in the 550X is better optimized for the low-level, multi-threaded nature of Vulkan, which can more effectively utilize its hardware. This is the more important result for gamers, as Vulkan is increasingly common in new game releases.

These results highlight a key architectural reality. The NVIDIA card’s strengths lie in raw compute throughput, as evidenced by its high FP32 rating of 1.505 TFLOPS and texture rate of 47.04 GTexel/s. However, the AMD card’s advantage in Vulkan shows that its modern feature set and higher memory bandwidth (112.0 GB/s) can overcome a raw compute deficit in API-specific scenarios. The GTX 960M wins one benchmark decisively, and the Radeon 550X wins the other, making a blanket "better" card impossible to declare.

The Verdict

Based strictly on the data, the choice between these two GPUs is determined by your application. If your workload is centered on OpenCL compute, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M is the clear pick. Its 24.6% lead in that benchmark is substantial and makes it the superior tool for any legacy or niche application that relies on that API. It also holds a higher average benchmark score (9645 vs 8918), making it the more powerful card in general terms.

However, if your priority is modern gaming, specifically titles that use the Vulkan API, the AMD Radeon 550X is the better choice. Its 8.1% win in the Vulkan benchmark is directly relevant to this use case. Furthermore, its lower TDP of 50 W (versus 75 W for the 960M) and its PCIe 3.0 x8 interface, which is more standard than the MXM-B (3.0) bus of the NVIDIA card, make it a more practical and efficient option for a modern, thin-and-light laptop. The 550X also offers modern display outputs including HDMI 2.0b and DisplayPort 1.4a, whereas the 960M is listed as "Portable Device Dependent."

Ultimately, the GTX 960M is a compute-oriented part from a previous generation, while the Radeon 550X is a more modern, efficient chip with better support for contemporary graphics APIs. The data does not support a single winner. It supports a clear conclusion: pick the GTX 960M for OpenCL-heavy tasks, and the Radeon 550X for Vulkan-based gaming and general modern use.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M has a higher average benchmark score of 9645, compared to the AMD Radeon 550X's 8918.

Q: How much faster is the NVIDIA card in the OpenCL test?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M scores 11045 in Geekbench OpenCL, which is 24.6% higher than the AMD Radeon 550X's score of 8866.

Q: Which GPU performs better in Vulkan graphics workloads?

A: The AMD Radeon 550X is the winner in the Geekbench Vulkan test, scoring 8970 against the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M's 8245, an 8.1% lead.

Q: What is the difference in memory bandwidth between the two cards?

A: The AMD Radeon 550X has a memory bandwidth of 112.0 GB/s, which is significantly higher than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M's 80.19 GB/s.

Q: What are the power consumption differences?

A: The AMD Radeon 550X has a TDP of 50 W, which is lower than the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M's 75 W.

Q: Do they support the same version of DirectX?

A: No, the AMD Radeon 550X supports DirectX 12 (12_0), while the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M supports DirectX 12 (11_0).

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M | AMD Radeon 550X |

| :--- | :--- | :--- |

| Architecture | Maxwell | GCN 4.0 |

| Process Node | 28 nm | 14 nm |

| Transistors | 1,870 million | 2,200 million |

| Die Size | 148 mm² | 103 mm² |

| Base Clock | 1097 MHz | 1082 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1176 MHz | 1218 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1253 MHz (5 Gbps effective) | 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective) |

| Memory Size | 4 GB | 2 GB |

| Memory Bandwidth | 80.19 GB/s | 112.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 640 | 512 |

| TMUs | 40 | 32 |

| Pixel Rate | 18.82 GPixel/s | 19.49 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 47.04 GTexel/s | 38.98 GTexel/s |

| FP32 Performance | 1.505 TFLOPS | 1,247.2 GFLOPS |

| TDP | 75 W | 50 W |

| Bus Interface | MXM-B (3.0) | PCIe 3.0 x8 |

| DirectX | 12 (11_0) | 12 (12_0) |

| Vulkan | 1.4 | 1.3 |

| Release Date | 2015-03-12 | 2019-03-26 |