AMD Radeon 550

The AMD Radeon 550 is an end-of-life, entry-level discrete GPU built on the 14 nm GCN 4.0 architecture with the Lexa chip. It holds a 9th percentile ranking among all GPUs, indicating it is positioned firmly at the low end of the performance spectrum. Its average benchmark score of 1707 places it in direct competition with several older NVIDIA workstation and entry-level parts, where it leads some by small margins but trails others. Given its modest compute capabilities, this card is suited for basic desktop use, legacy system upgrades, and very light gaming at low resolutions and detail settings.

Who Should Consider It

The Radeon 550 is appropriate for users building or upgrading a system where the primary goal is enabling a display output rather than achieving high frame rates. Benchmark results indicate that in DirectX 9 workloads, the card scores 35, which is its strongest API result, suggesting it can handle older games and lightweight 2D titles reasonably well. For DirectX 10, 11, and 12, scores drop to 7, 15, and 14 respectively, which points to severe limitations in modern gaming scenarios. Users should consider this card only for 720p or 1080p gaming with the lowest possible settings, and even then, only for less demanding titles.

The 2 GB GDDR5 memory and 56.00 GB/s bandwidth are adequate for basic textures at low resolutions, but the 64-bit memory bus becomes a bottleneck when working with larger assets. Data shows a Passmark G2D score of 479, which confirms that 2D desktop acceleration, video playback, and general productivity tasks are within its capabilities. The 50 W TDP and lack of power connectors mean it can be installed in almost any system with a 250 W suggested PSU, making it a drop-in solution for older office machines that lack integrated graphics or have failed onboard video. It is not a practical choice for content creation, modern 3D gaming, or any workload that demands significant shader performance.

Memory Subsystem

The Radeon 550 ships with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 64-bit bus, yielding a memory bandwidth of 56.00 GB/s. This configuration is extremely limited by modern standards, and the data reflects this in the card’s overall low average score of 1707. The 64-bit interface means that memory transactions are processed in narrow chunks, which severely restricts data throughput to the GPU cores. At 1080p, modern games often require more than 2 GB of VRAM for high-quality textures, and the bandwidth limitation will cause stuttering and texture pop-in when the buffer is exceeded.

Memory operates at 1750 MHz with a 7 Gbps effective data rate, which is standard for entry-level GDDR5 of that era. The combination of 2 GB capacity and 56.00 GB/s bandwidth is only sufficient for 720p gaming with reduced texture quality or for 2D desktop workloads. The Passmark G2D score of 479 corroborates that the memory subsystem handles basic framebuffer operations without issue, but the GPU compute score of 936 indicates that data-heavy tasks are not feasible. The 16 ROPs and 32 TMUs also limit pixel and texture throughput, with pixel rate at 18.93 GPixel/s and texture rate at 37.86 GTexel/s, further reinforcing that high-resolution rendering is beyond this card’s reach.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The Radeon 550 does not include dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores, as these are absent from the FACT PACK data for this GPU. Its architecture, GCN 4.0, predates hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and the 512 shading units are only capable of 1,211.4 GFLOPS of FP32 compute, which is far too low for software-based ray tracing in real-time applications. The card supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3, meaning it can run modern API titles, but only in their rasterization paths. Users should not expect any ray-traced effects to be playable, even at low resolutions, given the compute throughput.

The feature set is otherwise minimal, with no power connectors required and a dual-slot cooler for thermal management. Display outputs include 1x DVI, 1x HDMI 2.0b, and 1x DisplayPort 1.4a, allowing for modern monitor connections, including high refresh rates at lower resolutions. The PCIe 3.0 x8 interface is a limitation for bandwidth-sensitive tasks, but it is sufficient for the card’s modest data demands. The 14 nm process node from GlobalFoundries houses 2,200 million transistors on a 103 mm² die, resulting in a transistor density of 21.4M per mm², which was typical for mid-2010s GPUs. This card is an end-of-life product, and its feature set reflects a time before ray tracing became a standard expectation.

How It Compares

The Radeon 550 sits within a tight cluster of low-end GPUs, where the performance deltas are measured in single-digit percentages. Against the NVIDIA Quadro K610M, the Radeon 550 holds a 2.2% advantage in average score (1707 vs 1671). This is a negligible difference, meaning the two cards are effectively interchangeable for any workload, and the choice would come down to driver support or display outputs rather than raw performance.

Compared to the NVIDIA GeForce 810M, the Radeon 550 is 2.5% faster, with average scores of 1707 and 1666 respectively. This margin is within run-to-run variance, and neither card is capable of modern gaming. The GeForce 810M is a rebranded entry-level mobile chip, while the Radeon 550 is a desktop part, but the benchmark data places them on par. Similarly, the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710 also scores 1665, giving the Radeon 550 a 2.5% lead. The GT 710 is a common low-profile card for office builds, and the Radeon 550 offers slightly better compute performance, though both are limited to basic tasks.

The only rival where the Radeon 550 loses is the NVIDIA NVS 510, which scores 1767, a 3.4% higher average. The NVS 510 is a workstation-oriented card with a focus on multi-display output, and its higher score reflects slightly better compute capabilities. However, a 3.4% delta is minor, and in real-world terms, the Radeon 550 is not meaningfully slower. Across all four rivals, the performance spread is only about 6 percentage points, placing the Radeon 550 in a very crowded field of low-end GPUs where no clear winner exists.

Benchmark Performance

The benchmark results for the Radeon 550 show a stark contrast between its 2D and 3D capabilities. The Passmark G2D score of 479 is respectable for desktop use, but the Passmark G3D score of 2124 is the headline number for gaming potential. This G3D score is the primary contributor to the average benchmark score of 1707, which is used for rival comparisons. In Geekbench OpenCL, the card scores 10049, which indicates that compute workloads, such as OpenCL-accelerated applications, perform better than the DirectX gaming scores suggest. The GPU compute score of 936 in Passmark further supports that the card has some utility for non-gaming tasks.

Breaking down the DirectX results, the card scores 35 in DirectX 9, which is its best API result, followed by 15 in DirectX 11, 14 in DirectX 12, and 7 in DirectX 10. The DirectX 10 score being the lowest is notable, as it suggests that the card’s drivers or architecture are less optimized for that specific API generation. The DirectX 12 score of 14 is only slightly better than the DirectX 11 score, indicating that modern API overhead is not well handled by the 512 shading units. Given the 9th percentile ranking, the Radeon 550 is outperformed by over 90% of all GPUs in the database, which places it at the very bottom of the performance hierarchy.

Relative to its nearest rivals, the Radeon 550’s average score is 2.2% higher than the Quadro K610M, 2.5% higher than the GeForce 810M, and 2.5% higher than the GT 710. It is 3.4% lower than the NVS 510. These deltas are all within a 6% band, making the Radeon 550 statistically tied with these competitors. In practical terms, the data shows that no card in this group can deliver a playable experience in any modern 3D game at default settings, and users must rely on low resolutions and minimal detail levels. The FP32 throughput of 1,211.4 GFLOPS and the 1:1 FP16 ratio confirm that the card has no compute advantage for AI or scientific workloads.

FAQ

Q: What is the average benchmark score of the AMD Radeon 550?

A: The average benchmark score is 1707, which places it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs.

Q: How does the Radeon 550 compare to the NVIDIA GeForce GT 710?

A: The Radeon 550 is 2.5% faster, with an average score of 1707 versus 1665 for the GT 710.

Q: What is the memory configuration of this card?

A: It has 2 GB of GDDR5 memory on a 64-bit bus, providing 56.00 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: Does the Radeon 550 support ray tracing?

A: No, it has no dedicated ray tracing cores, and its FP32 compute of 1,211.4 GFLOPS is insufficient for real-time ray tracing.

Q: What APIs are supported?

A: The card supports DirectX 12 (12_0), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.3.

Q: What is the launch MSRP?

A: The launch MSRP is 79 USD.

Q: What is the power requirement for this GPU?

A: The TDP is 50 W with no power connectors, and the suggested PSU is 250 W.