AMD Radeon RX 550X vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Comparison

AMD Radeon RX 550X and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 sit at opposite ends of the GPU spectrum, and the benchmark data reflects that chasm clearly. The RX 550X, a 14nm Polaris chip with a 50 W TDP, is designed for low-power, entry-level tasks, while the GTX 1070, a 16nm Pascal part with a 150 W TDP, targets high-performance gaming and compute. The head-to-head results show a dominant NVIDIA victory in every shared test, but the RX 550X’s smaller footprint and lower power draw hint at entirely different use cases.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two cards share only two direct benchmark comparisons, and NVIDIA wins both by substantial margins. In Geekbench OpenCL, the GTX 1070 scores 44,700 against the RX 550X’s 9,662, a delta of -78.4% for the AMD card. That means the GTX 1070 delivers roughly 4.6 times the raw compute performance in this general-purpose GPU test, a gap that underscores the 1920 shading units versus 512, the 256-bit memory bus versus 128-bit, and the 256.3 GB/s bandwidth versus 96.00 GB/s. The Vulkan test narrows the gap slightly but still favors NVIDIA heavily: 22,121 versus 11,299, a -48.9% delta. Here, the GTX 1070 is about 96% faster, which is less lopsided than OpenCL but still a commanding lead in a modern graphics API.

Looking at the broader benchmark averages, the picture becomes more nuanced. The RX 550X has an average benchmark score of 10,481 across its two tests, while the GTX 1070 averages 9,780 across eleven tests. The NVIDIA card’s average is dragged down by low scores in legacy DirectX tests—Passmark DirectX 9 (197), DirectX 10 (82), and DirectX 11 (100)—whereas its modern scores are far higher, such as Passmark G3D at 13,498 and Geekbench OpenCL at 44,700. The RX 550X, with only OpenCL and Vulkan scores, posts a higher average but lacks the breadth of testing. This discrepancy highlights that averages can mislead when test suites differ; the GTX 1070 clearly excels in compute and modern APIs, while the RX 550X’s limited data set flatters its relative position.

Percentile rankings reinforce the separation. The RX 550X sits at the 49th percentile of all GPUs, placing it squarely in the middle of the pack, while the GTX 1070 ranks at the 47th percentile despite its superior raw performance in head-to-head tests. That counterintuitive result stems from the GTX 1070’s older age and the inclusion of many newer, faster GPUs in the database. The RX 550X’s nearest rivals include the AMD Radeon RX 6500M (avg 10,362, +1.2%), NVIDIA Tesla C2075 (avg 10,400, +0.8%), and AMD Radeon R9 M275X (avg 10,582, -1%), all within a tight 2.4% band, indicating it competes in a crowded mid-range mobile and entry-level desktop segment. The GTX 1070’s nearest rivals—AMD FirePro W5000 (avg 9,803, -0.2%), NVIDIA Quadro M2000M (avg 9,832, -0.5%), and NVIDIA Tesla M10 (avg 9,724, +0.6%)—are similarly clustered, but at a lower average score, reflecting that its benchmark portfolio includes more legacy tests that pull the mean down.

Where Each One Wins

The GTX 1070 wins decisively in every shared benchmark, but the RX 550X has its own territory. In Geekbench Vulkan, the RX 550X scores 11,299, which is higher than its OpenCL score of 9,662, suggesting it handles Vulkan workloads relatively better than OpenCL. However, that still trails the GTX 1070’s Vulkan score by nearly half. The GTX 1070’s strength is raw throughput: its 6.463 TFLOPS FP32 compute dwarfs the RX 550X’s 1,211.4 GFLOPS, and its 202.0 GTexel/s texture rate versus 37.86 GTexel/s makes it far more suited to texture-heavy 3D rendering. The pixel rate difference—107.7 GPixel/s versus 18.93 GPixel/s—similarly favors NVIDIA for high-resolution framebuffer fills.

For use-case analysis, the RX 550X’s advantages are not in performance but in physical characteristics. It consumes only 50 W TDP versus 150 W, requires no external power connectors (the GTX 1070 needs one 8-pin), and fits in a 145 mm length versus 267 mm. That makes the RX 550X viable for small form-factor or legacy systems with weak power supplies, where a 250 W suggested PSU suffices versus the GTX 1070’s 450 W recommendation. The GTX 1070, conversely, wins on memory capacity (8 GB versus 4 GB), bus width (256-bit versus 128-bit), and bandwidth (256.3 GB/s versus 96.00 GB/s), which directly impacts high-resolution textures and multi-tasking. The GTX 1070 also supports DirectX 12_1, while the RX 550X only reaches 12_0, and NVIDIA’s Vulkan 1.4 support edges out AMD’s 1.3, giving the GTX 1070 a slight API feature advantage.

The Verdict

The data is unambiguous for anyone needing performance: the GTX 1070 is the clear choice, winning both head-to-head tests by 48.9% and 78.4%. Its 8 GB memory, 256-bit bus, and 6.463 TFLOPS compute make it a far more capable card for gaming, rendering, or compute workloads. The RX 550X, with its 4 GB memory and 128-bit bus, would struggle with modern game textures or large datasets, and its FP32 output is roughly one-fifth of the NVIDIA card’s. The GTX 1070’s launch MSRP of 379 USD reflects its higher positioning, though that figure is historical and not a current price.

However, the RX 550X wins on efficiency and simplicity. Its 50 W TDP means it can run in systems without auxiliary power connectors, and its dual-slot, 145 mm length fits in compact cases. The GTX 1070, at 150 W and 267 mm, requires more robust cooling and power delivery. For a user with a pre-built office PC or a low-wattage PSU, the RX 550X is the only viable option despite its performance deficit. The GTX 1070’s higher average benchmark score (9,780) versus the RX 550X (10,481) is misleading due to test set differences, but in the two tests where both are measured, NVIDIA wins outright. The verdict: pick the GTX 1070 for any performance-sensitive task, and the RX 550X only for power-constrained, low-demand environments.

FAQ

Q: Which card has a higher Geekbench OpenCL score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 scores 44,700, while the AMD Radeon RX 550X scores 9,662, a delta of -78.4% for the AMD card.

Q: How much faster is the GTX 1070 in Vulkan?

A: The GTX 1070 scores 22,121 in Geekbench Vulkan versus the RX 550X’s 11,299, making it approximately 96% faster (a -48.9% delta for the RX 550X).

Q: What is the memory bandwidth difference?

A: The GTX 1070 has a bandwidth of 256.3 GB/s, while the RX 550X has 96.00 GB/s, a difference of about 2.7 times in NVIDIA’s favor.

Q: Does the RX 550X require a power connector?

A: No, the RX 550X has no power connectors and a 50 W TDP, whereas the GTX 1070 needs one 8-pin connector and has a 150 W TDP.

Q: Which card has better API support?

A: The GTX 1070 supports DirectX 12_1 and Vulkan 1.4, while the RX 550X supports DirectX 12_0 and Vulkan 1.3, giving NVIDIA a slight edge.

Q: What is the average benchmark score for each card?

A: The RX 550X has an average score of 10,481 across two tests, while the GTX 1070 averages 9,780 across eleven tests, though the GTX 1070’s average is lowered by legacy DirectX tests.

Architecture Differences

The two cards come from different architectural generations and foundries. The RX 550X uses the Lexa chip on GCN 4.0 architecture, built on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries, with 2,200 million transistors on a 103 mm² die. The GTX 1070 uses the GP104 chip on Pascal architecture, manufactured on a 16 nm process at TSMC, with 7,200 million transistors on a 314 mm² die. The transistor density is similar—21.4M per mm² for AMD versus 22.9M per mm² for NVIDIA—but the GTX 1070 has over three times the transistor count and nearly triple the die area, reflecting its larger compute core.

Core configs diverge sharply: the RX 550X has 512 shading units, 32 TMUs, and 16 ROPs, while the GTX 1070 has 1920 shading units, 120 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. That translates to a 3.75x difference in shading units and a 4x difference in ROPs, directly explaining the pixel rate gap (18.93 GPixel/s versus 107.7 GPixel/s). Clock speeds also favor NVIDIA: the GTX 1070 boosts to 1683 MHz versus the RX 550X’s 1183 MHz, though the AMD card’s lower power draw (50 W versus 150 W) allows for simpler cooling. Memory architecture is another key split: the RX 550X uses a 128-bit bus with 4 GB GDDR5 at 1500 MHz (6 Gbps effective), while the GTX 1070 uses a 256-bit bus with 8 GB GDDR5 at 2002 MHz (8 Gbps effective), yielding 2.67x more bandwidth. The RX 550X has no RT or tensor cores, and neither does the GTX 1070, but the GTX 1070’s FP16 performance is a mere 101.0 GFLOPS (1:64 ratio), whereas the RX 550X achieves 1,211.4 GFLOPS (1:1), making the AMD card better for FP16 compute despite its overall lower FP32.

Specification Differences

The two cards differ on nearly every specification field. The RX 550X has a base clock of 1100 MHz and boost of 1183 MHz, while the GTX 1070 starts at 1506 MHz and boosts to 1683 MHz. Memory size is 4 GB versus 8 GB, bus width is 128-bit versus 256-bit, and bandwidth is 96.00 GB/s versus 256.3 GB/s. The RX 550X’s FP32 output is 1,211.4 GFLOPS, while the GTX 1070 reaches 6.463 TFLOPS—a 5.3x difference. Shading units (512 vs 1920), TMUs (32 vs 120), and ROPs (16 vs 64) all favor NVIDIA. Power consumption is a major differentiator: 50 W TDP with no power connectors versus 150 W TDP with one 8-pin, and the suggested PSU is 250 W versus 450 W. The RX 550X uses a PCIe 3.0 x8 interface, while the GTX 1070 uses x16. Display outputs are similar (1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort for AMD; 1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort for NVIDIA), but the RX 550X’s HDMI is 2.0b versus 2.0 on the GTX 1070. Card dimensions also differ: the RX 550X is 145 mm long, while the GTX 1070 is 267 mm long, 112 mm tall, and 40 mm wide. The GTX 1070 supports DirectX 12_1 and Vulkan 1.4, whereas the RX 550X is capped at DirectX 12_0 and Vulkan 1.3. Release dates are 2018-12-15 for the RX 550X and 2016-06-09 for the GTX 1070, with both marked end-of-life. The GTX 1070 has a launch MSRP of 379 USD, while the RX 550X has no listed MSRP.