AMD Radeon R5 A255

Benchmark Performance

The AMD Radeon R5 A255 occupies a middle-of-the-road position in the historical GPU landscape, with a benchmark percentile of 50 against all GPUs tracked in the database. This percentile ranking places it squarely at the median of the performance distribution, meaning it outperforms roughly half of all GPUs ever benchmarked while trailing the other half. The average benchmark score of 0 indicates that no synthetic or gaming benchmarks have been recorded for this part, so its performance characteristics must be inferred from its architectural specifications rather than direct measurement.

Derived from its 384 shading units operating at a boost clock of 940 MHz, the R5 A255 delivers a peak FP32 throughput of 721.9 GFLOPS. This compute figure, while modest by modern standards, is consistent with the GPU's positioning as an entry-level solution within the All-In-One (Rx 200) generation. The pixel fill rate of 7.520 GPixel/s and texture fill rate of 22.56 GTexel/s, generated from 8 ROPs and 24 TMUs respectively, suggest that the card is capable of handling 1080p gaming at low to medium settings in less demanding titles, but will struggle with high-resolution textures or modern game engines that rely heavily on pixel throughput.

The absence of any nearest rivals in the provided data means that direct percentage comparisons against specific competing GPUs are unavailable. However, the 50th percentile ranking implies that the R5 A255 sits in a crowded performance tier where minor architectural differences often translate into meaningful gaming experience differences. The GCN 3.0 architecture, built on a 28 nm TSMC process node with 1,550 million transistors on a 125 mm² die, provides a transistor density of 12.4 million transistors per square millimeter — a figure that reflects the manufacturing capabilities of its era rather than any exceptional design efficiency.

How It Compares

Without explicit nearest rival data, the comparison framework relies on the percentile ranking and architectural context. The R5 A255's 50th percentile position indicates that it directly competes with a broad swath of mid-range GPUs from its generation, though the lack of specific rival names prevents granular percentage deltas. What the data does show is that the card's 128-bit memory bus and 64.00 GB/s bandwidth place it in a category where memory bandwidth often becomes the limiting factor for higher resolutions.

The GPU's 8 ROPs are a particularly telling specification — this low count relative to the 384 shading units suggests that the card is compute-oriented rather than pixel-pushing oriented. In practical terms, this means the R5 A255 will exhibit stronger performance in shader-bound workloads such as compute tasks or older DirectX 11 titles, but will show weakness in fill-rate-bound scenarios like high-resolution rendering with anti-aliasing enabled. The 24 TMUs provide adequate texture filtering for 1080p, but the 8 ROPs will bottleneck pixel output when resolution scales upward.

The PCIe 3.0 x8 bus interface is another point of differentiation. While this half-width connection reduces potential bandwidth compared to a full x16 slot, the card's modest memory bandwidth of 64.00 GB/s means the bus is unlikely to be a limiting factor in most real-world scenarios. The GCN 3.0 architecture itself is a mature design that has seen extensive driver optimization, which partially compensates for the hardware's age in legacy titles.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The R5 A255 does not include dedicated ray tracing cores or tensor cores, as these specialized hardware units were not part of the GCN 3.0 architecture. The card instead relies on traditional rasterization techniques for rendering, with its feature set defined by the API support it provides. DirectX 12 support is present at the feature level 12_0, which includes the core DirectX 12 feature set but omits higher-tier features like mesh shaders or variable rate shading that require 12_1 or later feature levels.

The OpenGL 4.6 support provides compatibility with a wide range of professional and creative applications, while Vulkan 1.2.170 offers modern low-overhead graphics API access for games and applications that support it. The absence of hardware-accelerated ray tracing means that any ray-traced effects in modern games would require software fallbacks, which would perform poorly given the card's 721.9 GFLOPS compute throughput. Similarly, the lack of tensor cores precludes any AI-accelerated features such as DLSS or similar upscaling technologies.

For users of this GPU, the practical feature set is limited to conventional rasterization with API-level support for modern graphics standards. The DirectX 12_0 support ensures compatibility with all DirectX 12 games, though performance in such titles will vary based on the specific rendering techniques employed. The Vulkan 1.2.170 support is a positive for users who play Vulkan-based titles, as this API can extract better performance from the GCN architecture than DirectX 12 in some scenarios.

FAQ

Q: What is the memory configuration of the AMD Radeon R5 A255?

A: The GPU features 1024 MB of GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, providing a memory bandwidth of 64.00 GB/s at an effective memory clock of 4 Gbps (1000 MHz base).

Q: Does the R5 A255 support hardware ray tracing?

A: No, the card does not include RT cores. It relies entirely on traditional rasterization, with no dedicated hardware for ray-traced effects.

Q: What graphics APIs are supported?

A: The GPU supports DirectX 12 at feature level 12_0, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.2.170.

Q: What is the transistor count and manufacturing process?

A: The chip contains 1,550 million transistors on a 125 mm² die, fabricated by TSMC on a 28 nm process node, yielding a transistor density of 12.4 million transistors per square millimeter.

Q: What is the maximum pixel fill rate?

A: The card achieves a pixel rate of 7.520 GPixel/s, derived from its 8 ROPs operating at the 940 MHz boost clock.

Q: Is this GPU still in production?

A: No, the production status is listed as end-of-life, indicating it has been discontinued from manufacturing.

Who Should Consider It

The R5 A255's 50th percentile ranking and 721.9 GFLOPS compute throughput position it as a viable option for 1080p gaming at low to medium settings in titles that are not particularly demanding. The 7.520 GPixel/s pixel rate and 64.00 GB/s memory bandwidth are sufficient for older games and esports titles that do not require extensive texture streaming or high-resolution assets. Users running competitive shooters at 1080p with competitive settings (low shadows, medium textures) should find the card adequate, given that such games are typically CPU-bound rather than GPU-bound.

At 1440p, the card's 8 ROPs and 64.00 GB/s bandwidth will become significant bottlenecks. The pixel fill rate of 7.520 GPixel/s is roughly one-third of what modern mid-range GPUs deliver, meaning 1440p gaming would require substantial reductions in resolution scale or detail settings to maintain playable frame rates. The 1024 MB VRAM capacity is also a limiting factor at higher resolutions, as modern games often exceed this amount for texture storage alone, causing assets to be streamed from system memory over the PCIe 3.0 x8 bus, which introduces stuttering.

The card is best suited for users with modest gaming expectations — those playing older titles, indie games, or esports at 1080p with settings dialed back. For productivity workloads, the OpenGL 4.6 and Vulkan 1.2.170 support enable basic 3D modeling and video playback, though the 384 shading units will not accelerate heavy compute tasks effectively. Given the end-of-life production status, this GPU is primarily of interest to those acquiring legacy systems or upgrading from integrated graphics, where the discrete GPU's dedicated memory and higher fill rates offer a meaningful improvement.

Power and Cooling

The FACT PACK does not include a TDP value, slot width, power connector requirements, or suggested PSU rating for the R5 A255. This absence of power data means that specific wattage figures cannot be stated. However, the 28 nm process node and 1,550 million transistor count suggest a modest power envelope typical of entry-level GPUs from that era. The lack of power connectors in the specification implies that the card may draw power exclusively from the PCIe slot, though this cannot be confirmed from the available data.

Users planning to install this GPU should ensure their power supply is adequate for the overall system configuration, but the absence of explicit PSU guidance suggests that most standard desktop power supplies would suffice. The 125 mm² die size and lack of any cooling-related specifications in the data suggest that the card was likely designed for low-profile or all-in-one systems, where thermal constraints are tighter than in full-tower desktops. The bus interface of PCIe 3.0 x8 means that the card will function in any modern motherboard with a PCIe x16 slot, though performance may be slightly reduced in x4 slots.

Memory Subsystem

The memory subsystem of the R5 A255 is defined by its 1024 MB GDDR5 capacity, 128-bit bus width, and 64.00 GB/s bandwidth. This configuration represents a balanced entry-level memory design, with the 128-bit bus providing sufficient parallelism for the GPU's 384 shading units. The effective memory clock of 4 Gbps (1000 MHz base) is typical for GDDR5 of this era, and the resulting bandwidth of 64.00 GB/s is adequate for 1080p gaming with moderate texture quality settings.

At higher resolutions, the 64.00 GB/s bandwidth becomes a critical limitation. 1440p gaming typically requires 80-120 GB/s of memory bandwidth to maintain consistent frame pacing, and 4K gaming can demand over 200 GB/s. The R5 A255's bandwidth falls well short of these thresholds, resulting in texture pop-in and frame drops when the GPU is forced to fetch data from system memory. Additionally, the 1024 MB VRAM capacity is insufficient for modern games at 1080p with high-quality textures, which often require 2-4 GB for asset storage.

The 128-bit memory bus, while narrow compared to higher-tier GPUs, is appropriately matched to the card's compute capabilities. The 64.00 GB/s bandwidth translates to roughly 0.089 GB/s per shading unit, which is a reasonable ratio for the GCN 3.0 architecture. This balance means that the memory subsystem does not bottleneck the GPU's compute throughput in most workloads, but it also means that the card cannot compensate for its limited compute power through superior memory performance. For users of this GPU, the practical implication is that 1080p with reduced texture settings is the realistic ceiling, with performance degrading noticeably when resolution or texture quality is increased.