AMD Radeon R5 M430 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti Comparison

FAQ

Q: How do the GeForce GTX 550 Ti and Radeon R5 M430 compare in raw compute performance?

A: The GeForce GTX 550 Ti scores 5,731 in Geekbench OpenCL, while the Radeon R5 M430 scores 5,152. The GTX 550 Ti leads by 11.2%, which is a substantial margin for a single benchmark comparison.

Q: What is the performance percentile of each card relative to all GPUs?

A: The GTX 550 Ti sits at the 33rd percentile, while the R5 M430 sits at the 30th percentile. This places both cards in the lower-middle range of the database, but the GTX 550 Ti maintains a slight edge in overall standing.

Q: Which card has better memory bandwidth?

A: The GTX 550 Ti has significantly higher memory bandwidth at 98.50 GB/s, using a 192-bit bus with GDDR5 memory. The R5 M430 offers only 16 GB/s due to its 64-bit DDR3 interface. This is a massive difference that impacts texture-heavy workloads.

Q: What API support differences exist between the two?

A: The R5 M430 supports DirectX 12 (11_1) and Vulkan 1.2.170, while the GTX 550 Ti only supports DirectX 12 (11_0) with no Vulkan support. Both support OpenGL 4.6. This gives the AMD card a feature advantage for modern APIs.

Q: Which card has more shading units and what does that mean?

A: The R5 M430 has 320 shading units, nearly double the GTX 550 Ti's 192 units. However, the GTX 550 Ti compensates with higher memory bandwidth, pixel rate, and texture rate, which explains its higher benchmark score.

Q: What are the power requirements for each card?

A: The GTX 550 Ti has a TDP of 116 W and requires a 300 W power supply with a single 6-pin connector. The R5 M430 has no listed TDP, no power connectors, and is classified as an IGP (integrated graphics processor), meaning it draws power from the motherboard.

The Verdict

The data favors the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti in raw performance. It wins the only head-to-head benchmark with an 11.2% lead over the AMD Radeon R5 M430. The GTX 550 Ti also has a higher average benchmark score (5731 vs. 5018) and a better percentile ranking (33rd vs. 30th). If pure compute throughput is the sole criterion, the GTX 550 Ti is the pick.

However, the Radeon R5 M430 is not without its merits. It has a 4 GB memory capacity, which is four times larger than the GTX 550 Ti's 1 GB. It also supports Vulkan 1.2.170, a modern API the GTX 550 Ti lacks entirely. For users running applications that can leverage Vulkan, the R5 M430 may be the only viable option.

The GTX 550 Ti is a dedicated, dual-slot card. The R5 M430 is an IGP, meaning it is soldered into a portable device. If you are assembling a desktop system with a PCIe slot, the GTX 550 Ti is the obvious choice. If you are evaluating a notebook and cannot upgrade the GPU, the R5 M430 is what you have.

In summary: the GTX 550 Ti wins on performance and memory bandwidth. The R5 M430 wins on memory capacity, API support, and integration.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database contains one head-to-head benchmark: Geekbench OpenCL. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti scores 5731, and the AMD Radeon R5 M430 scores 5152. The GTX 550 Ti wins by 11.2%. This is a substantial margin that indicates a real performance gap, not a tie or a marginal difference.

The GTX 550 Ti is also within 1.9% of the AMD Radeon R7 M465 (score 5841) and 0.2% of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670MX (score 5721). The R5 M430 trails the AMD FirePro W4170M by 0.3% (score 5034) and is only 0.4% ahead of the AMD Radeon R7 Graphics (score 4998). This positioning shows that the GTX 550 Ti is competitive with a slightly higher tier of GPUs, while the R5 M430 is firmly in the lower tier.

The 11.2% lead is consistent with the other specifications. The GTX 550 Ti has more than six times the memory bandwidth, a 192-bit bus versus 64-bit, and GDDR5 versus DDR3. These factors translate directly into higher frame rates in memory-bound scenes.

The R5 M430 has no wins in the head-to-head suite. Its only benchmark victory is a non-competition: it has a Vulkan score of 4884, which the GTX 550 Ti cannot produce because it lacks Vulkan support. For OpenCL, the GTX 550 Ti is the clear winner.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in almost every measurable specification. The GTX 550 Ti uses a 40 nm process node, the R5 M430 uses a 28 nm node. The GTX 550 Ti has 1,170 million transistors on a 238 mm² die, while the R5 M430 has 690 million on a 56 mm² die. This means the R5 M430 has a higher transistor density (12.3M / mm²) but a much smaller physical footprint.

Memory: the GTX 550 Ti has 1024 MB of GDDR5 with a 192-bit bus and 98.5 GB/s bandwidth. The R5 M430 has 4096 MB of DDR3 with a 64-bit bus and 16 GB/s bandwidth. The GTX 550 Ti has 24 ROPs, the R5 M430 has 8. The GTX 550 Ti has 32 TMUs, the R5 M430 has 20.

Clock speeds: the GTX 550 Ti's memory runs at 1026 MHz (4.1 Gbps effective), while the R5 M430 has a base clock of 780 MHz and a boost clock of 855 MHz. The GTX 550 Ti has no base/boost clock listed. The GTX 550 Ti's pixel rate is 7.2 GPixel/s and texture rate is 28.8 GTexel/s. The R5 M430's pixel rate is 6.84 GPixel/s and texture rate is 17.1 GTexel/s. The GTX 550 Ti has 691.2 GFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the R5 M430 has 547.2 GFLOPS.

Form factor: the GTX 550 Ti is dual-slot with a power connector and a 300 W suggested PSU. The R5 M430 is an IGP with no power connector and no PSU requirement. The GTX 550 Ti uses PCIe 2.0 x16, while the R5 M430 uses PCIe 3.0 x8. The GTX 550 Ti has 2x DVI and mini-HDMI outputs; the R5 M430's outputs are portable-device dependent.

Architecture Differences

The GTX 550 Ti is built on NVIDIA's Fermi 2.0 architecture, using the GF116 chip. The R5 M430 is built on AMD's GCN 1.0 architecture, using the Jet chip. Fermi 2.0 is an older architecture that lacks hardware Vulkan support, which is why the GTX 550 Ti only supports DirectX 12 (11_0). GCN 1.0 is a newer architecture that supports Vulkan 1.2.170.

The GTX 550 Ti has 192 shading units, while the R5 M430 has 320. However, the GTX 550 Ti has more TMUs (32 vs. 20) and more ROPs (24 vs. 8). This means the GTX 550 Ti is better at texturing and pixel output, which matters more in traditional rasterization workloads. The R5 M430's shading unit advantage is not enough to overcome its lower memory bandwidth.

The R5 M430's GCN architecture also supports a more recent DirectX version (11_1) and Vulkan. The GTX 550 Ti's Fermi architecture is end-of-life, with no further driver support for modern APIs. The R5 M430 also has a higher clock boost behavior (855 MHz) compared to its base (780 MHz), which is a power-management feature the GTX 550 Ti does not list.

Where Each One Wins

The GTX 550 Ti wins in every benchmark it participates in. Its 11.2% OpenCL lead and its higher average score (5731 vs. 5018) make it the better performer for any compute-heavy task. It also wins on memory bandwidth (98.5 GB/s vs. 16 GB/s), pixel rate, texture rate, and FP32 throughput. If you need to process large textures, high-resolution frame buffers, or run OpenCL workloads, the GTX 550 Ti is the superior card.

The Radeon R5 M430 wins in three specific areas. First, memory capacity: 4 GB is four times larger than 1 GB. In games or applications that need more than 1 GB of video memory, the R5 M430 will not hit a memory ceiling. Second, API support: it supports Vulkan 1.2.170 and DirectX 12 (1_1), which the GTX 550 Ti cannot match. Third, integration: as an IGP, it consumes no extra power, requires no external power connector, and is designed for portable devices. The GTX 550 Ti needs a 300 W PSU and a 6-pin connector.

If your workload is modern and API-bound, the R5 M430 is the better choice. If your workload is bandwidth-bound or compute-bound, the GTX 550 Ti wins. The database shows only one win for the GTX 550 Ti and zero for the R5 M430 in direct benchmarks, but the R5 M430's feature set gives it a distinct use case in portable, low-power environments.