AMD Radeon RX 550 vs AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT Comparison

The Verdict

The AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT is a current-generation, high-performance graphics card built on the RDNA 4.0 architecture, while the AMD Radeon RX 550 is an end-of-life, entry-level part from the GCN 4.0 era. The data shows a complete generational and performance-class separation. The RX 9070 XT wins all three recorded head-to-head benchmarks decisively, with an average benchmark score of 13543 compared to the RX 550's 11075.

The RX 9070 XT should be the choice for anyone building a modern gaming or content creation system that requires high frame rates, ray tracing support, and a large memory buffer. The RX 550, by contrast, is positioned for basic display output, legacy system upgrades, or very light 2D and older 3D workloads where its 50 W power draw and slot-powered design are sufficient. The RX 9070 XT's percentile rank of 55 among all GPUs in the database places it above the midpoint, while the RX 550 sits at the 50th percentile, meaning both outperform a significant portion of the field, but the RX 9070 XT does so with far more headroom in every measurable test. The RX 550's nearest rivals include the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER (0.3% ahead) and the AMD FirePro W4300 (1.3% behind), whereas the RX 9070 XT sits within 0.1% to 1% of cards like the AMD Radeon HD 7770M and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570, a comparison that reflects the RX 9070 XT's average score being pulled down by outlier sub-tests rather than its actual gaming capability. For practical purposes, the RX 9070 XT is the only one of the two that can be recommended for modern gaming, while the RX 550 is best treated as a legacy or display-only option.

Where Each One Wins

The RX 9070 XT wins in every recorded head-to-head benchmark. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 7260 against the RX 550's 127, a delta of 5616.5%. In Geekbench OpenCL, it scores 17428 versus 11063, a 57.5% advantage. In Geekbench Vulkan, it scores 65879 versus 12270, a 436.9% lead. Across its full benchmark suite, the RX 9070 XT also posts strong results in Passmark G3D (26795), Passmark GPU Compute (15864), and Passmark G2D (1328), while the RX 550's recorded tests are limited to 3DMark Steel Nomad, Geekbench Metal (20838), Geekbench OpenCL, and Geekbench Vulkan. The RX 550 does have a Geekbench Metal score, a test the RX 9070 XT does not have in the database, but that single result does not translate into a win in any shared test. The RX 9070 XT also holds a significant advantage in raw specification-driven workloads: it has 4096 shading units, 256 TMUs, and 128 ROPs, versus 512 shading units, 32 TMUs, and 16 ROPs on the RX 550. The RX 9070 XT's 16 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth, compared to 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus with 112.0 GB/s. The RX 9070 XT scores 17428 in Geekbench OpenCL, a 57.5% improvement over the RX 550's 11063, indicating substantially higher compute throughput for OpenCL-based applications. The RX 9070 XT also has a 64-core ray tracing unit, while the RX 550 has no dedicated RT cores, so any workload involving ray-traced effects will simply not run on the RX 550 at comparable quality or performance levels.

Architecture Differences

The RX 9070 XT is built on the Navi 48 chip using TSMC's 4 nm process, with 53,900 million transistors on a 357 mm² die, giving a transistor density of 151.0M per mm². The RX 550 uses the Lexa chip on GlobalFoundries' 14 nm process, with 2,200 million transistors on a 103 mm² die, for a density of 21.4M per mm². The RX 9070 XT belongs to the Navi IV (RX 9000) generation, while the RX 550 is from the Polaris (RX 500) generation. The RX 9070 XT supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), Vulkan 1.4, and OpenGL 4.6. The RX 550 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), Vulkan 1.3, and OpenGL 4.6. The RX 9070 XT uses a PCIe 5.0 x16 interface, while the RX 550 uses PCIe 3.0 x8. The RX 9070 XT's memory runs at 2518 MHz (20.1 Gbps effective) with 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus, while the RX 550's memory runs at 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective) with 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus. The RX 9070 XT has a base clock of 1660 MHz, a game clock of 2400 MHz, and a boost clock of 2970 MHz. The RX 550 has a base clock of 1100 MHz and a boost clock of 1183 MHz, with no game clock listed. The RX 9070 XT's FP32 throughput is 48.66 TFLOPS, and its FP16 throughput is also 48.66 TFLOPS (1:1). The RX 550's FP32 and FP16 throughput are both 1,211.4 GFLOPS (1:1). The RX 9070 XT has a pixel rate of 380.2 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 760.3 GTexel/s, while the RX 550 has a pixel rate of 18.93 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 37.86 GTexel/s. The RX 9070 XT supports 1x HDMI 2.1b and 3x DisplayPort 2.1a outputs, while the RX 550 offers 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0b, and 1x DisplayPort 1.4a. The RX 9070 XT requires a 700 W suggested PSU and uses 2x 8-pin power connectors, while the RX 550 has no power connectors and a 250 W suggested PSU. The RX 9070 XT is 304 W TDP and dual-slot, while the RX 550 is 50 W TDP and dual-slot, with a board length of 145 mm (5.7 inches). The RX 9070 XT was released on 2025-03-05, while the RX 550 was released on 2017-04-19. The RX 550's predecessor is Arctic Islands and its successor is Vega; the RX 9070 XT's predecessor is Navi III and it has no successor listed.

FAQ

Q: Which card is faster in DirectX 12 gaming?

A: The RX 9070 XT. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 7260 versus the RX 550's 127, a 5616.5% difference. The RX 550 has no recorded Passmark DirectX 12 score in the database, while the RX 9070 XT scores 78 in that test.

Q: Does the RX 550 support ray tracing?

A: No. The RX 550 has no RT cores listed, while the RX 9070 XT has 64 RT cores. The RX 9070 XT also supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which includes ray tracing features, while the RX 550 only supports DirectX 12 (12_0).

Q: How much memory bandwidth do these cards have?

A: The RX 9070 XT has 644.6 GB/s of bandwidth with 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus. The RX 550 has 112.0 GB/s with 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus. The RX 9070 XT's memory clock is 2518 MHz (20.1 Gbps effective), while the RX 550's is 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective).

Q: Which card requires a more powerful power supply?

A: The RX 9070 XT. It has a 304 W TDP and a suggested PSU of 700 W, with 2x 8-pin power connectors. The RX 550 has a 50 W TDP, a suggested PSU of 250 W, and requires no power connectors.

Q: Are these cards from the same architecture generation?

A: No. The RX 9070 XT uses the RDNA 4.0 architecture on a 4 nm TSMC process with the Navi 48 chip. The RX 550 uses the GCN 4.0 architecture on a 14 nm GlobalFoundries process with the Lexa chip. The RX 9070 XT is from the Navi IV (RX 9000) generation, while the RX 550 is from the Polaris (RX 500) generation.

Q: Which card has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The RX 9070 XT has an average benchmark score of 13543, while the RX 550 has an average of 11075. The RX 9070 XT's nearest rival by average score is the AMD Radeon HD 7770M (0.1% difference), while the RX 550's nearest rival is the NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000D Blackwell Max-Q (0.1% difference).

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The largest head-to-head win for the RX 9070 XT is in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, where it scores 7260 against the RX 550's 127, a 5616.5% advantage. This test is a modern DirectX 12 workload, and the gap reflects the fundamental difference in hardware capability: the RX 9070 XT has 4096 shading units, 256 TMUs, 128 ROPs, and 64 RT cores, while the RX 550 has 512 shading units, 32 TMUs, and 16 ROPs, with no RT cores. The RX 9070 XT's pixel rate of 380.2 GPixel/s and texture rate of 760.3 GTexel/s dwarf the RX 550's 18.93 GPixel/s and 37.86 GTexel/s, respectively. In Geekbench Vulkan, the RX 9070 XT scores 65879 versus 12270, a 436.9% lead. Vulkan is a low-level API, and the RX 9070 XT's newer architecture and higher clock speeds (boost up to 2970 MHz versus 1183 MHz) contribute to this result. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RX 9070 XT scores 17428 versus 11063, a 57.5% advantage, a smaller but still substantial margin that reflects the RX 550's relatively stronger compute efficiency per watt. The RX 550 does have a Geekbench Metal score of 20838, but the RX 9070 XT has no Metal score in the database, so no comparison is possible there. The RX 9070 XT's Passmark G3D score of 26795 and Passmark GPU Compute score of 15864 are not directly comparable to the RX 550, which has no Passmark scores recorded, but they place the RX 9070 XT well above the RX 550's average benchmark score of 11075. The RX 9070 XT also has a Passmark G2D score of 1328, indicating strong 2D performance, though the RX 550 has no G2D score in the database to compare against. The RX 9070 XT's 3DMark Steel Nomad score of 7260 is roughly 57 times higher than the RX 550's 127, a margin that no other test in the database approaches. The RX 9070 XT's Geekbench Vulkan score of 65879 is more than five times the RX 550's 12270, while its Geekbench OpenCL score of 17428 is about 1.6 times the RX 550's 11063. These three shared tests, taken together, show that the RX 9070 XT is faster in every measurable dimension, with the largest gaps appearing in geometry-heavy and ray-tracing-capable workloads.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ in nearly every specification category. The RX 9070 XT uses a 4 nm TSMC process with 53,900 million transistors on a 357 mm² die, while the RX 550 uses a 14 nm GlobalFoundries process with 2,200 million transistors on a 103 mm² die. Transistor density is 151.0M per mm² for the RX 9070 XT and 21.4M per mm² for the RX 550. The RX 9070 XT has 4096 shading units, 256 TMUs, 128 ROPs, and 64 RT cores, while the RX 550 has 512 shading units, 32 TMUs, 16 ROPs, and no RT cores. The RX 9070 XT's base clock is 1660 MHz, its game clock is 2400 MHz, and its boost clock is 2970 MHz, while the RX 550's base clock is 1100 MHz and its boost clock is 1183 MHz, with no game clock listed. Memory configuration differs significantly: the RX 9070 XT has 16 GB of GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus with 644.6 GB/s bandwidth and a memory clock of 2518 MHz (20.1 Gbps effective), while the RX 550 has 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 128-bit bus with 112.0 GB/s bandwidth and a memory clock of 1750 MHz (7 Gbps effective). The RX 9070 XT's FP32 and FP16 throughput are both 48.66 TFLOPS, while the RX 550's are both 1,211.4 GFLOPS. Pixel rate is 380.2 GPixel/s versus 18.93 GPixel/s, and texture rate is 760.3 GTexel/s versus 37.86 GTexel/s. The RX 9070 XT has a 304 W TDP, a 700 W suggested PSU, and 2x 8-pin power connectors, while the RX 550 has a 50 W TDP, a 250 W suggested PSU, and no power connectors. The RX 9070 XT uses a PCIe 5.0 x16 interface, while the RX 550 uses PCIe 3.0 x8. Display outputs differ: the RX 9070 XT has 1x HDMI 2.1b and 3x DisplayPort 2.1a, while the RX 550 has 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0b, and 1x DisplayPort 1.4a. The RX 9070 XT supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4, while the RX 550 supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3. The RX 9070 XT is 304 W TDP and dual-slot, while the RX 550 is 50 W TDP and dual-slot with a 145 mm (5.7 inches) board length. The RX 9070 XT was released on 2025-03-05 and is still in active production, while the RX 550 was released on 2017-04-19 and is end-of-life. The RX 9070 XT's predecessor is Navi III and its successor is not listed, while the RX 550's predecessor is Arctic Islands and its successor is Vega.