GPU Comparison

The NVIDIA GeForce MX550 and NVIDIA T550 Mobile are both Turing-based mobile graphics solutions aimed at different segments, yet they land remarkably close in overall benchmark averages. The data shows an average benchmark score of 33209 for the MX550 and 33161 for the T550 Mobile, a difference of just 0.1% in favor of the MX550. In the head-to-head benchmarks, each card takes one win, with the T550 Mobile leading in Geekbench OpenCL by 3.7% (35521 vs 34198) and the MX550 countering with a 4.6% advantage in Geekbench Vulkan (32220 vs 30801). This near-parity in overall scores masks substantial differences in their underlying specifications, which this analysis will unpack across architecture, memory configuration, and compute capabilities.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The two available benchmark results tell a story of split dominance. In Geekbench OpenCL, the NVIDIA T550 Mobile posts a score of 35521, which is 3.7% higher than the MX550’s 34198. This is the larger margin of victory in either test, and it aligns with the T550 Mobile’s higher boost clock and doubled texture mapping units and render output units. OpenCL workloads often scale with raw throughput, and the T550 Mobile’s 3.410 TFLOPS of FP32 performance versus the MX550’s 2.703 TFLOPS gives it a theoretical advantage of roughly 26%. The actual benchmark delta of 3.7% is far smaller, suggesting that memory bandwidth or driver overhead limits the T550 Mobile in this particular test, but the win is still clear.

In Geekbench Vulkan, the tables turn. The NVIDIA GeForce MX550 scores 32220, which is 4.6% higher than the T550 Mobile’s 30801. Vulkan is a lower-overhead API that can expose differences in driver efficiency and memory latency more directly. The MX550’s PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, compared to the T550 Mobile’s PCIe 3.0 x16, may contribute here, as PCIe 4.0 offers higher per-lane bandwidth, which can benefit certain data-transfer patterns in Vulkan workloads. The MX550 also has a smaller memory footprint at 2 GB, but for this specific test, the combination of interface speed and driver optimization appears to favor it.

Looking at the average benchmark scores, the two cards are effectively tied. The MX550’s average of 33209 places it 0.1% ahead of the T550 Mobile’s 33161. Both cards sit near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile, which averages 33170. The deltaPct values in the nearestRivals data confirm this clustering: the MX550 is 0.1% above the RTX 3050 Mobile, while the T550 Mobile is exactly level with it. The AMD Radeon Pro 570 is slightly ahead at 33258, and the NVIDIA RTX A5000 leads this group at 33294. The percentile rankings reinforce the picture: the MX550 sits at the 77th percentile of all GPUs, while the T550 Mobile is at the 76th. These are adjacent positions, meaning that in a broad field of graphics processors, the two are indistinguishable in aggregate performance.

The per-test margins are more informative than the averages. The T550 Mobile’s OpenCL win is driven by its higher peak throughput, while the MX550’s Vulkan win suggests better efficiency in certain API paths. No single benchmark decisively favors one card, and the head-to-head record is 1-1.

Where Each One Wins

The NVIDIA T550 Mobile wins in Geekbench OpenCL, a test that often reflects general compute and render workloads. Its advantage here comes from a boost clock of 1665 MHz versus the MX550’s 1320 MHz, along with 64 texture mapping units and 32 render output units, double the MX550’s 32 and 16 respectively. This configuration allows the T550 Mobile to reach a pixel rate of 53.28 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 106.6 GTexel/s, compared to the MX550’s 21.12 GPixel/s and 42.24 GTexel/s. For tasks that are fill-rate limited, such as certain image processing or compositing operations, the T550 Mobile holds a clear theoretical edge, and the OpenCL result confirms that this translates into practice.

The NVIDIA GeForce MX550 wins in Geekbench Vulkan, which is more representative of modern gaming and real-time graphics APIs. The MX550’s 4.6% margin is notable given its lower raw specs. The MX550 features a PCIe 4.0 x8 bus interface, while the T550 Mobile uses PCIe 3.0 x16. Although the T550 Mobile has twice the lanes, PCIe 4.0’s higher data rate per lane can reduce transfer bottlenecks for smaller payloads. The MX550 also has a lower boost clock at 1320 MHz, but its FP16 performance is 2.703 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio, whereas the T550 Mobile’s FP16 is 6.820 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio. This difference in FP16 handling could influence Vulkan shader paths that use half-precision arithmetic, though the benchmark result alone does not isolate that variable.

In terms of memory, both cards use GDDR6 with a 64-bit bus and 96.00 GB/s bandwidth, so memory throughput is identical. The T550 Mobile doubles the capacity to 4 GB, which is a win for workloads that exceed 2 GB of frame buffer, but the MX550’s lower capacity does not appear to hurt it in the Vulkan test. The production status for both is end-of-life, so neither has a roadmap advantage.

Architecture Differences

Both GPUs are built on the Turing architecture and manufactured by TSMC on a 12 nm process. The die size is identical at 200 mm² and the transistor count is the same at 4,700 million, yielding a transistor density of 23.5 million per square millimeter. The core chips differ in designation: the MX550 uses the TU117SB, while the T550 Mobile uses the TU117. This is a minor variant, but the specification differences suggest that the T550 Mobile’s TU117 is configured with more active resources.

The shading unit count is identical at 1024 for both cards, which means the core compute width is the same. However, the T550 Mobile doubles the texture mapping units to 64 and the render output units to 32, compared to the MX550’s 32 TMUs and 16 ROPs. This is a significant architectural divergence: the T550 Mobile can process twice as many texels and pixels per clock, which explains its higher pixel rate of 53.28 GPixel/s versus 21.12 GPixel/s and texture rate of 106.6 GTexel/s versus 42.24 GTexel/s. The MX550’s lower rates are consistent with a design that prioritizes power efficiency over peak fill-rate.

Neither card has ray tracing cores or tensor cores, so both rely on traditional rasterization and compute paths. The FP32 performance differs: the T550 Mobile reaches 3.410 TFLOPS, while the MX550 is at 2.703 TFLOPS. The FP16 performance is more distinct: the T550 Mobile provides 6.820 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio, while the MX550 offers 2.703 TFLOPS at a 1:1 ratio. This means the T550 Mobile can execute FP16 instructions at twice the rate of FP32, while the MX550 treats FP16 and FP32 equally. For mixed-precision workloads, the T550 Mobile has a hardware advantage, but the MX550’s 1:1 ratio can be simpler for drivers to schedule.

The memory architecture is shared: both use GDDR6 with a 64-bit bus and 96.00 GB/s bandwidth. The T550 Mobile doubles capacity to 4 GB, but the bus width and speed are unchanged. The bus interface differs, with the MX550 using PCIe 4.0 x8 and the T550 Mobile using PCIe 3.0 x16. In practice, PCIe 4.0 x8 offers the same total bandwidth as PCIe 3.0 x16, so this is not a performance differentiator, but it affects platform compatibility and power management.

Specification Differences

The specification table shows several fields where the two cards diverge. The boost clock is the most obvious: the T550 Mobile runs at 1665 MHz, while the MX550 is at 1320 MHz, a 26% difference. The base clock is the same at 1065 MHz. The T550 Mobile has 64 TMUs and 32 ROPs, while the MX550 has 32 TMUs and 16 ROPs. The pixel rate is 53.28 GPixel/s for the T550 Mobile versus 21.12 GPixel/s for the MX550, and the texture rate is 106.6 GTexel/s versus 42.24 GTexel/s.

FP32 performance is 3.410 TFLOPS for the T550 Mobile and 2.703 TFLOPS for the MX550. FP16 performance is 6.820 TFLOPS (2:1) for the T550 Mobile and 2.703 TFLOPS (1:1) for the MX550. The TDP is 23 W for the T550 Mobile and 25 W for the MX550, which is counterintuitive given the T550 Mobile’s higher clock speeds, the data does not explain this discrepancy, but it is a listed difference. Memory size is 4 GB for the T550 Mobile and 2 GB for the MX550, both GDDR6 at 96.00 GB/s. The bus interface is PCIe 3.0 x16 for the T550 Mobile and PCIe 4.0 x8 for the MX550.

The chip names differ (TU117 vs TU117SB), and the generations are listed as Quadro Turing-M (Tx000) for the T550 Mobile and GeForce MX (5xx) for the MX550. The T550 Mobile has a predecessor of Quadro Pascal-M and a successor of Ampere-MW, while the MX550 has no predecessor or successor listed. Both have no power connectors and a slot width of IGP. Display outputs are portable device dependent for both. The MX550 has a release date of 2021-12-16, while the T550 Mobile has no release date listed. No launch MSRP is available for either.

FAQ

Q: Which GPU has a higher average benchmark score?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce MX550 has an average benchmark score of 33209, which is 0.1% higher than the NVIDIA T550 Mobile’s 33161. The difference is within rounding, and both cards sit near the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile at 33170.

Q: How do the two cards compare in Geekbench OpenCL?

A: The NVIDIA T550 Mobile wins Geekbench OpenCL with a score of 35521, which is 3.7% higher than the MX550’s 34198. This aligns with the T550 Mobile’s higher boost clock and doubled TMU/ROP counts.

Q: How do the two cards compare in Geekbench Vulkan?

A: The NVIDIA GeForce MX550 wins Geekbench Vulkan with a score of 32220, which is 4.6% higher than the T550 Mobile’s 30801. The MX550’s PCIe 4.0 x8 interface may contribute to this result.

Q: What is the memory configuration difference?

A: The T550 Mobile has 4 GB of GDDR6 memory, while the MX550 has 2 GB. Both use a 64-bit bus and have identical bandwidth of 96.00 GB/s.

Q: Which GPU has higher FP32 performance?

A: The T550 Mobile has FP32 performance of 3.410 TFLOPS, compared to the MX550’s 2.703 TFLOPS. The T550 Mobile also has FP16 performance of 6.820 TFLOPS at a 2:1 ratio, while the MX550 is at 2.703 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio.

Q: Are the power requirements different?

A: The T550 Mobile has a TDP of 23 W, while the MX550 has a TDP of 25 W. Neither card requires power connectors, and both have a slot width of IGP.

The Verdict

The data supports a nuanced choice. The NVIDIA T550 Mobile is the better option for workloads that favor OpenCL compute and high fill rates. Its boost clock of 1665 MHz, double the TMUs and ROPs, and FP32 throughput of 3.410 TFLOPS give it a clear theoretical edge in pixel and texture processing, as reflected in its 3.7% OpenCL win. The 4 GB memory capacity also makes it more suitable for datasets that exceed 2 GB, which the MX550 cannot handle without spilling to system memory.

The NVIDIA GeForce MX550 is the better option for Vulkan-based applications, where it wins by 4.6%. Its PCIe 4.0 x8 interface and 1:1 FP16 ratio may explain this advantage, and its lower TDP of 25 W versus 23 W is a marginal difference. However, the MX550’s 2 GB memory is a hard limitation for modern workloads, and its fill rates are half those of the T550 Mobile.

For a buyer who prioritizes compute density and memory capacity, the T550 Mobile is the data-backed choice. For a buyer who targets Vulkan gaming or real-time graphics, the MX550’s benchmark win is meaningful, but the memory constraint is a risk. The average scores are within 0.1%, so the decision should hinge