NVIDIA GeForce MX550 vs NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce MX550 and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 are both built on the Turing architecture, but they occupy opposite ends of the performance spectrum. The MX550 is an ultra-low-power, integrated-class part designed for thin and light portables, while the RTX 2080 is a large, dual-slot desktop card with dedicated ray tracing hardware. Benchmark data from the database shows a decisive victory for the RTX 2080, with the MX550 trailing by 77.7% in OpenCL compute tests and 69.9% in Vulkan workloads. These are not close competitors; the RTX 2080 is in a completely different performance tier, which is reflected in its higher average benchmark score, larger memory pool, and substantially more processing resources.

The Verdict

The data indicates a one-sided matchup. The RTX 2080 wins every recorded head-to-head benchmark, and the MX550 does not secure a single victory in the database's comparison set. For users who prioritize raw compute performance, the RTX 2080 is the clear choice, offering roughly 3.3 times the OpenCL score of the MX550 and over 3 times the Vulkan score. However, the RTX 2080 carries a 215 W TDP, requires a dual-slot cooler, and needs both a 6-pin and an 8-pin power connector, alongside a suggested 550 W power supply. The MX550, by contrast, is an integrated graphics processor with a 25 W TDP and no power connectors, making it suitable for systems where space and power draw are critical constraints. The RTX 2080's 8 GB GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus delivers 448.0 GB/s of bandwidth, while the MX550 has just 2 GB on a 64-bit bus with 96.00 GB/s, a difference that matters in memory-intensive applications. Users who need desktop-class performance with ray tracing and tensor cores should select the RTX 2080, while those who require a low-power solution for a compact portable device will find the MX550 adequate for lighter workloads.

Architecture Differences

Both GPUs use the Turing architecture and are fabricated by TSMC on a 12 nm process, but their physical implementations diverge sharply. The MX550 uses the TU117SB chip, which contains 4,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 23.5M per mm². The RTX 2080 uses the TU104 chip, packing 13,600 million transistors on a much larger 545 mm² die, with a density of 25.0M per mm². The RTX 2080's die is nearly three times the area of the MX550's, and its transistor count is roughly 2.9 times higher.

The shading resources follow the same pattern. The MX550 has 1,024 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 raster output pipelines. The RTX 2080 has 2,944 shading units, 184 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, which is 2.9 times the shading units, 5.75 times the texture units, and 4 times the raster output pipelines. Critically, the RTX 2080 is equipped with 46 ray tracing cores and 368 tensor cores, while the MX550 has none of either. This makes the RTX 2080 capable of hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-enhanced features, neither of which the MX550 can perform at the hardware level.

Clock speeds also differ. The MX550 has a base clock of 1065 MHz and a boost clock of 1320 MHz. The RTX 2080 operates at a base of 1515 MHz and boosts to 1710 MHz, which is roughly 450 MHz higher at base and 390 MHz higher at boost. Memory clocks are similarly divergent: the MX550 runs its GDDR6 at 1500 MHz with 12 Gbps effective, while the RTX 2080 runs at 1750 MHz with 14 Gbps effective. The bus interface also differs, with the MX550 using PCIe 4.0 x8 and the RTX 2080 using PCIe 3.0 x16, though the performance impact of this difference is not captured in the benchmark data.

The API support also separates the two. The MX550 supports DirectX 12 (12_1), while the RTX 2080 supports DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), which includes features like DirectX Raytracing and variable rate shading. Both support OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.4. The RTX 2080's feature set is therefore broader, particularly for modern games and applications that leverage ray tracing.

Where Each One Wins

The RTX 2080 wins in every measured benchmark, but the size of its advantage varies by workload. In Geekbench OpenCL, the RTX 2080 scores 91,313 against the MX550's 20,372, a delta of 77.7% in favor of the RTX 2080. In Geekbench Vulkan, the RTX 2080 scores 107,797 against 32,469, a 69.9% advantage. The RTX 2080 also has a higher average benchmark score of 22,895 compared to the MX550's 26,421, which is counterintuitive given the head-to-head results. The explanation lies in the percentile rankings: the MX550 sits at the 72nd percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX 2080 sits at the 68th percentile. This means the MX550's average score is bolstered by its performance relative to a different set of GPUs, including the AMD Radeon 860M (delta of 0.1%) and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 (delta of 0.3%). The RTX 2080, by contrast, is compared against the Intel Arc B580 (delta of -0.5%), the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP (delta of -0.7%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (delta of -1.2%). The RTX 2080's nearest rivals are all more powerful than the MX550's nearest rivals, which explains why its percentile rank is lower despite its superior absolute scores.

Where the MX550 wins is in power efficiency and physical footprint. Its 25 W TDP is a fraction of the RTX 2080's 215 W, and it requires no power connectors and fits an IGP slot width. The RTX 2080 is a dual-slot card measuring 267 mm in length, 116 mm in height, and 35 mm in width, with a 6-pin and 8-pin power connector and a suggested 550 W power supply. The MX550 is portable device dependent for display outputs, while the RTX 2080 offers a fixed set of outputs: one HDMI 2.0, three DisplayPort 1.4a, and one USB Type-C.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU is faster in compute benchmarks?

A: The RTX 2080 is significantly faster. It scores 91,313 in Geekbench OpenCL and 107,797 in Geekbench Vulkan, while the MX550 scores 20,372 and 32,469 in the same tests. The RTX 2080 leads by 77.7% in OpenCL and 69.9% in Vulkan.

Q: Does the MX550 support ray tracing?

A: No. The MX550 has no ray tracing cores or tensor cores. The RTX 2080 has 46 ray tracing cores and 368 tensor cores.

Q: What are the memory specifications of each GPU?

A: The MX550 has 2 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 64-bit bus with 96.00 GB/s bandwidth. The RTX 2080 has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with 448.0 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: How do their power requirements compare?

A: The MX550 has a TDP of 25 W and uses no power connectors, while the RTX 2080 has a TDP of 215 W and requires one 6-pin and one 8-pin power connector, with a suggested 550 W power supply.

Q: Which GPU has a better percentile ranking?

A: The MX550 ranks at the 72nd percentile of all GPUs, while the RTX 2080 ranks at the 68th percentile, despite the RTX 2080 having higher absolute benchmark scores in their head-to-head tests.

Q: What is the release timeline for these GPUs?

A: The RTX 2080 was released on 2018-09-19, and the MX550 was released on 2021-12-16. Both are now end-of-life products.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The database records two direct comparisons between these GPUs, and the RTX 2080 dominates both. In Geekbench OpenCL, the MX550 produces a score of 20,372, while the RTX 2080 produces 91,313. This is a delta of -77.7% from the perspective of the MX550, meaning the RTX 2080 is roughly 4.5 times faster in this workload. The OpenCL test is representative of general-purpose compute, including tasks like physics simulations, image processing, and some machine learning inference. The massive gap reflects the RTX 2080's 2.9 times more shading units and its 4.6 times higher fill rates.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the MX550 scores 32,469, while the RTX 2080 scores 107,797, a 69.9% lead for the RTX 2080. Vulkan is a low-overhead graphics API used in modern games and compute applications. The RTX 2080's advantage here is slightly smaller than in OpenCL, but still overwhelming. The RTX 2080's higher memory bandwidth of 448.0 GB/s versus 96.00 GB/s likely contributes to its ability to feed its larger number of shading units and texture units during graphics-heavy workloads.

The RTX 2080 also shows strengths in other database benchmarks not directly compared against the MX550. Its Passmark G3D score is 18,720, and its Passmark GPU compute score is 7,872. It also records 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12 score of 1,752, and a range of Passmark DirectX scores: 136 for DirectX 10, 158 for DirectX 11, 72 for DirectX 12, and 223 for DirectX 9. Its Passmark G2D score is 907. These scores indicate a broad capability across different graphics APIs and compute workloads, though no equivalent MX550 scores are available for direct comparison.

The MX550's nearest rivals in the database include the AMD Radeon 860M with an average score of 26,401 (delta of 0.1%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 with 26,331 (delta of 0.3%), the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary with 26,553 (delta of -0.5%), and the NVIDIA RTX A4000 with 26,683 (delta of -1%). The MX550's average score of 26,421 sits within 1% of all four, indicating that it is closely matched with these mid-range parts. The RTX 2080's nearest rivals are the Intel Arc B580 with 23,021 (delta of -0.5%), the AMD Radeon RX 580 2048SP with 23,061 (delta of -0.7%), the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile with 22,729 (delta of 0.7%), and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 with 23,172 (delta of -1.2%). The RTX 2080's average of 22,895 is within 1.2% of all four, showing that it competes closely with these GPUs in overall average performance, despite being outperformed by the RTX 3080 in their nearest rival comparison.

The recorded wins are unambiguous: 0 wins for the MX550 and 2 wins for the RTX 2080. The delta values in the head-to-head table confirm that the RTX 2080 is the winner in both tests, with deltas of -77.7% and -69.9% from the MX550's perspective.

The FP32 and FP16 performance numbers also tell the same story of divergence. The MX550 delivers 2.703 TFLOPS in FP32 and 2.703 TFLOPS in FP16, indicating a 1:1 ratio. The RTX 2080 delivers 10.07 TFLOPS in FP32 and 20.14 TFLOPS in FP16, a 2:1 ratio. The RTX 2080's FP32 output is 3.7 times higher than the MX550's, and its FP16 output is 7.5 times higher, which is particularly relevant for applications that can use reduced precision.

Specification Differences

The table below lists only the fields where the two GPUs differ, excluding fields where they share identical values, such as architecture, process node, foundry, and API support for OpenGL and Vulkan.

| Specification | NVIDIA GeForce MX550 | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 |

|----------------|---------------------|------------------------|

| Chip | TU117SB | TU104 |

| Generation | GeForce MX (5xx) | GeForce 20 |

| Transistors | 4,700 million | 13,600 million |

| Die Size | 200 mm² | 545 mm² |

| Transistor Density | 23.5M / mm² | 25.0M / mm² |

| Base Clock | 1065 MHz | 1515 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1320 MHz | 1710 MHz |

| Memory Clock | 1500 MHz, 12 Gbps effective | 1750 MHz, 14 Gbps effective |

| Memory Size | 2 GB | 8 GB |

| Memory Bus Width | 64 bit | 256 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 96.00 GB/s | 448.0 GB/s |

| Shading Units | 1024 | 2944 |

| TMUs | 32 | 184 |

| ROPs | 16 | 64 |

| RT Cores | None | 46 |

| Tensor Cores | None | 368 |

| Pixel Rate | 21.12 GPixel/s | 109.4 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 42.24 GTexel/s | 314.6 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 2.703 TFLOPS | 10.07 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 2.703 TFLOPS (1:1) | 20.14 TFLOPS (2:1) |

| TDP | 25 W | 215 W |

| Slot Width | IGP | Dual-slot |

| Power Connectors | None | 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin |

| Suggested PSU | None | 550 W |

| Bus Interface | PCIe 4.0 x8 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |

| Display Outputs | Portable Device Dependent | 1x HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, 1x USB Type-C |

| DirectX Support | 12 (12_1) | 12 Ultimate (12_2) |

| Dimensions | Not specified | 267 mm (10.5 inches) x 116 mm (4.6 inches) x 35 mm (1.4 inches) |

| Release Date | 2021-12-16 | 2018-09-19 |

| Launch MSRP | Not specified | 699 USD |

The RTX 2080 also lists a predecessor (GeForce 10) and a successor (GeForce 30), while the MX550 lists neither. The RTX 2080's launch MSRP of 699 USD is noted once here as a historical reference, and no further pricing analysis is provided.