GPU Comparison

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has the higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA T550 Mobile has a higher average benchmark score of 33,161 compared to the AMD Radeon RX 470's 28,996. The T550 Mobile also sits in the 77th percentile of all GPUs, while the RX 470 sits in the 74th percentile.

Q: How do the two GPUs compare in OpenCL performance?

A: The NVIDIA T550 Mobile wins the Geekbench OpenCL test with a score of 35,521 against the RX 470's 33,568. This gives the T550 Mobile a 5.8% advantage in that specific workload.

Q: Which GPU wins in Vulkan performance, and by how much?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 470 wins the Geekbench Vulkan test decisively, scoring 39,884 against the T550 Mobile's 30,801. The RX 470 leads by 22.8% in this benchmark.

Q: What are the closest rivals to each GPU based on average score?

A: The T550 Mobile's nearest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile, which scores 33,170 with a 0% delta. The RX 470's nearest rival is the AMD Radeon RX 6800M, which scores 28,874 with a 0.4% delta.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference between these two cards?

A: Both cards have 4 GB of memory, but the T550 Mobile uses GDDR6 on a 64-bit bus with 96.00 GB/s bandwidth, while the RX 470 uses GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus with 211.2 GB/s bandwidth.

Q: Which GPU has a higher transistor count and larger die size?

A: The AMD Radeon RX 470 has 5,700 million transistors on a 232 mm² die, while the NVIDIA T550 Mobile has 4,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die. The RX 470 also has a slightly higher transistor density at 24.6M per mm² versus 23.5M per mm².

Architecture Differences

The two GPUs come from entirely different architectural lineages. The NVIDIA T550 Mobile is built on the Turing architecture, specifically the TU117 chip, and belongs to the Quadro Turing-M generation. It is fabricated on a 12 nm process at TSMC. The AMD Radeon RX 470 uses the GCN 4.0 architecture with the Ellesmere chip, part of the Arctic Islands generation, and is manufactured on a 14 nm process at GlobalFoundries.

The compute resource allocation differs substantially. The RX 470 packs 2,048 shading units, 128 texture mapping units, and 32 raster operation pipelines. The T550 Mobile has 1,024 shading units, 64 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. Despite having half the shader count, the T550 Mobile achieves a higher pixel rate of 53.28 GPixel/s versus 38.59 GPixel/s for the RX 470, because of its higher boost clock. However, the RX 470 has the edge in texture rate at 154.4 GTexel/s versus 106.6 GTexel/s.

Clock speeds tell part of the story. The T550 Mobile runs at a 1,065 MHz base and 1,665 MHz boost, while the RX 470 runs at 926 MHz base and 1,206 MHz boost. The higher clocks help the smaller NVIDIA chip compete in certain workloads. In raw FP32 throughput, the RX 470 outputs 4.940 TFLOPS, ahead of the T550 Mobile's 3.410 TFLOPS. The FP16 picture differs: the T550 Mobile reaches 6.820 TFLOPS with a 2:1 ratio, while the RX 470 stays at 4.940 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio.

Memory architecture is another major divergence. The RX 470 uses a 256-bit bus with GDDR5 memory running at 6.6 Gbps effective, yielding 211.2 GB/s of bandwidth. The T550 Mobile uses a 64-bit bus with GDDR6 at 12 Gbps effective, delivering only 96.00 GB/s. The RX 470 has over twice the memory bandwidth, which matters for texture-heavy and large-data workloads.

Power and physical design differ sharply. The T550 Mobile is an integrated graphics package (IGP) with a 23 W TDP and no power connectors, designed for portable devices. The RX 470 is a dual-slot card with a 120 W TDP, one 6-pin power connector, and a suggested 300 W power supply. The RX 470 measures 240 mm in length, 95 mm in height, and 35 mm in width. API support shows the T550 Mobile supports DirectX 12_1 and Vulkan 1.4, while the RX 470 supports DirectX 12_0 and Vulkan 1.3. Both support OpenGL 4.6.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data includes two direct comparisons: Geekbench OpenCL and Geekbench Vulkan. Each GPU wins one test, making the head-to-head split even at one win apiece.

In Geekbench OpenCL, the NVIDIA T550 Mobile scores 35,521 against the AMD Radeon RX 470's 33,568. That is a 5.8% lead for the NVIDIA part. This result is notable because the RX 470 has twice the shading units and more than double the memory bandwidth. The T550 Mobile's higher boost clock and Turing architecture appear to compensate in this compute workload. The delta is modest, but it shows that the smaller, lower-power NVIDIA chip can hold its own in OpenCL tasks.

Geekbench Vulkan tells a different story. The AMD Radeon RX 470 scores 39,884, which is 22.8% higher than the T550 Mobile's 30,801. This is a substantial margin. The RX 470's advantage in raw shader count and memory bandwidth likely drives this result. Vulkan workloads tend to scale with parallel compute resources, and the RX 470 has double the shading units and over double the bandwidth. The 22.8% gap is the largest difference between the two cards in any recorded benchmark.

Looking at the broader context, the T550 Mobile's average benchmark score of 33,161 places it near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile (33,170), the AMD Radeon Pro 570 (33,207), the NVIDIA P104-100 (32,982), and the NVIDIA T600 Mobile (32,849). The RX 470's average score of 28,996 puts it near the AMD Radeon RX 6800M (28,874), Intel Arc A370M (29,175), AMD Radeon RX Vega M GH (29,197), and AMD FirePro W8000 (29,211). The T550 Mobile's rivals are clustered within 1% of its score, indicating a tightly competitive field. The RX 470's rivals are similarly close, all within 0.7%.

The Verdict

The data presents a clear split based on workload type and physical constraints. The NVIDIA T550 Mobile is the better choice for OpenCL compute tasks and for systems where power and space are limited. Its 23 W TDP and IGP form factor make it suitable for portable devices, and it still outperforms the RX 470 in OpenCL by 5.8%. The T550 Mobile also has a higher average benchmark score (33,161 versus 28,996) and a better percentile ranking (77th versus 74th).

The AMD Radeon RX 470 is the stronger option for Vulkan-based workloads, where it leads by 22.8%. Its 4.940 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, 211.2 GB/s memory bandwidth, and 2,048 shading units give it a clear edge in graphics-heavy applications that leverage the Vulkan API. The RX 470 also supports a wider range of display outputs, including 1x HDMI 2.0b and 3x DisplayPort 1.4a, whereas the T550 Mobile's outputs are portable device dependent.

For anyone choosing between these two, the decision hinges on the target application and platform. If the requirement is a low-power, integrated solution for OpenCL compute with a decent average score, the T550 Mobile wins. If the requirement is a discrete, dual-slot card with high memory bandwidth and Vulkan performance, the RX 470 wins. Neither GPU dominates across all metrics, and the one-win-one-loss head-to-head record confirms that.

Specification Differences

| Specification | NVIDIA T550 Mobile | AMD Radeon RX 470 |

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

| Architecture | Turing | GCN 4.0 |

| Process Node | 12 nm | 14 nm |

| Foundry | TSMC | GlobalFoundries |

| Transistors | 4,700 million | 5,700 million |

| Die Size | 200 mm² | 232 mm² |

| Base Clock | 1065 MHz | 926 MHz |

| Boost Clock | 1665 MHz | 1206 MHz |

| Memory Type | GDDR6 | GDDR5 |

| Memory Bus Width | 64 bit | 256 bit |

| Memory Bandwidth | 96.00 GB/s | 211.2 GB/s |

| Memory Clock | 1500 MHz (12 Gbps effective) | 1650 MHz (6.6 Gbps effective) |

| Shading Units | 1024 | 2048 |

| TMUs | 64 | 128 |

| Pixel Rate | 53.28 GPixel/s | 38.59 GPixel/s |

| Texture Rate | 106.6 GTexel/s | 154.4 GTexel/s |

| FP32 | 3.410 TFLOPS | 4.940 TFLOPS |

| FP16 | 6.820 TFLOPS (2:1) | 4.940 TFLOPS (1:1) |

| TDP | 23 W | 120 W |

| Slot Width | IGP | Dual-slot |

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

| Suggested PSU | None | 300 W |

| Display Outputs | Portable Device Dependent | 1x HDMI 2.0b, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a |

| DirectX Support | 12 (12_1) | 12 (12_0) |

| Vulkan Support | 1.4 | 1.3 |

| Dimensions | N/A | 240 mm x 95 mm x 35 mm |

| Release Date | N/A | 2016-08-03 |

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA T550 Mobile wins in scenarios that favor efficiency and specific compute APIs. Its OpenCL score of 35,521 beats the RX 470 by 5.8%, making it the better pick for OpenCL-based applications such as certain scientific computing, image processing, or machine learning inference tasks. The T550 Mobile also wins on power consumption with a 23 W TDP versus 120 W, making it the only option for systems without discrete power connectors or space for a dual-slot card. Its higher pixel rate of 53.28 GPixel/s and superior FP16 throughput of 6.820 TFLOPS give it advantages in workloads that use half-precision arithmetic or require fast pixel fill. The T550 Mobile also supports Vulkan 1.4, a newer API revision than the RX 470's Vulkan 1.3.

The AMD Radeon RX 470 wins in scenarios that demand raw parallel throughput and memory bandwidth. Its Vulkan score of 39,884 dwarfs the T550 Mobile's 30,801 by 22.8%, making it the clear choice for Vulkan-based games and graphics applications. The RX 470's 4.940 TFLOPS of FP32 performance and 211.2 GB/s memory bandwidth are more than double the T550 Mobile's respective figures, which matters for texture streaming, large framebuffers, and compute shaders that spill data to memory. The RX 470 also has a higher texture rate of 154.4 GTexel/s, benefiting texture-heavy rendering. Its 2,048 shading units provide more headroom for shader complexity. The RX 470's discrete form factor with dedicated display outputs (1x HDMI 2.0b, 3x DisplayPort 1.4a) makes it suitable for multi-monitor desktop setups, while the T550 Mobile is tied to portable device outputs.