NVIDIA GeForce MX550

The NVIDIA GeForce MX550 is a Turing-architecture mobile GPU built on TSMC's 12 nm process, featuring 1,024 shading units, 32 texture mapping units, and 16 raster output units. It is an end-of-life product with a 25 W TDP, designed for thin-and-light portable devices, and its benchmark data places it at the 77th percentile among all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 33,209.

How It Compares

The closest rival is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile, which posts an average score of 33,170. The MX550 is a mere 0.1% ahead of this part, indicating that the two are effectively performance twins in aggregate benchmark results. This is notable because the RTX 3050 Mobile typically carries a higher power envelope, yet the data shows no meaningful compute advantage for the larger GPU in these tests.

The NVIDIA T550 Mobile is nearly indistinguishable, with an average score of 33,161 and a delta of 0.1% in the MX550's favor. Both are professional-oriented variants of the same underlying silicon, and the benchmark results confirm that their compute performance is essentially identical. Users switching between these two parts should expect no measurable difference in raw throughput.

The AMD Radeon Pro 570 sits slightly ahead, with an average score of 33,258, meaning the MX550 trails by 0.1%. This is a negligible margin, well within run-to-run variance. The Radeon Pro 570 is an older discrete workstation GPU, and the data indicates that the MX550's modern architecture compensates for its lower power draw and smaller memory bus.

The NVIDIA RTX A5000, a high-end workstation GPU, leads the group with an average score of 33,294. The MX550 is 0.3% behind this flagship part, which is a remarkably small gap given the A5000's vastly different positioning. This suggests that the benchmark suite used here does not heavily tax memory bandwidth or ray tracing, where the A5000 would normally dominate, but rather favors sustained compute throughput that the MX550 delivers efficiently.

Ray Tracing and Feature Set

The MX550 is built on the Turing architecture, which is the generation that introduced dedicated ray tracing and tensor core hardware to NVIDIA's consumer lineup. However, this specific chip, designated TU117SB, does not include those specialized units. The fact pack lists no RT cores and no tensor cores for this GPU, meaning it lacks hardware-accelerated ray tracing and AI-based features like DLSS.

The absence of these cores is a critical differentiator. While the MX550's benchmark scores place it near the RTX 3050 Mobile in raw compute, that rival includes RT and tensor cores, which enable features the MX550 cannot replicate. The data shows that for traditional rasterized workloads, the MX550 holds its own, but for any ray-traced content or DLSS-enhanced titles, it will fall back to software or simply be unable to enable those modes.

API support is solid for the era: DirectX 12 with feature level 12_1, OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. These cover modern game engines and professional applications. The DirectX 12_1 feature level indicates support for conservative rasterization and rasterizer-ordered views, but not the higher-tier features like mesh shaders or variable rate shading that come with later DirectX 12 Ultimate parts.

Memory Subsystem

The MX550 comes equipped with 2 GB of GDDR6 memory, which is a modest capacity by modern standards. The memory operates at 1500 MHz with a 12 Gbps effective data rate, and the bus width is just 64 bits. This yields a total bandwidth of 96.00 GB/s, a figure that is constrained by both the narrow bus and the limited capacity.

For high-resolution gaming, this memory subsystem is the primary bottleneck. At 1080p, 2 GB of VRAM is sufficient for many esports titles and older games, but modern AAA releases often exceed this capacity, causing texture streaming or outright crashes. The 64-bit bus further limits the speed at which data can be fed to the GPU, which becomes more apparent at higher resolutions where larger frame buffers and higher texture detail demand more bandwidth.

The pixel rate is 21.12 GPixel/s and the texture rate is 42.24 GTexel/s, which are consistent with a low-end part. The memory bandwidth of 96.00 GB/s is roughly half of what a 128-bit bus configuration would provide, and this directly impacts performance in memory-bound scenarios. The data suggests that the MX550 is best suited for 1080p gaming with reduced settings, where the 2 GB capacity and 96.00 GB/s bandwidth are less likely to be exceeded.

Who Should Consider It

Based on the benchmark scores, the MX550 is a capable performer for 1080p gaming at medium to low settings, particularly for titles that are not VRAM-hungry. Its 77th percentile ranking indicates that it outperforms the majority of GPUs in the database, which includes integrated graphics and older discrete parts. For users with a portable device that has this GPU, the data supports using it for esports titles, indie games, and older AAA releases at 1080p.

At higher resolutions like 1440p or 4K, the 2 GB memory capacity becomes a hard limitation. The data does not support recommending this GPU for those resolutions, as the memory subsystem would be overwhelmed. Users should also avoid enabling high texture quality or anti-aliasing, as these directly increase VRAM usage and will likely exceed the 2 GB buffer.

For professional workloads that are compute-bound rather than memory-bound, the MX550's 2.703 TFLOPS of FP32 performance is respectable. The data shows it matches the RTX 3050 Mobile, which is a higher-tier part, so for tasks like basic CAD, photo editing, or light video encoding, the MX550 can handle these without issue. However, the lack of tensor cores means any AI-accelerated workflows will not benefit from hardware acceleration.

Benchmark Performance

The average benchmark score of 33,209 places the MX550 in a tight cluster with its nearest rivals, all of which fall within a 0.3% range. This is an extraordinary level of parity across different GPU architectures and market segments. The Geekbench OpenCL score is 34,198, while the Vulkan score is 32,220, showing that the GPU performs slightly better under OpenCL than Vulkan, a difference of roughly 6.1%.

Against the RTX 3050 Mobile, the MX550 is 0.1% faster, which is a statistical tie. This is surprising because the RTX 3050 Mobile typically has a higher TDP and more memory bandwidth, but the benchmark results indicate that for the specific tests run, those advantages do not translate into higher scores. The MX550's higher boost clock of 1320 MHz and lower overhead may contribute to this parity.

The AMD Radeon Pro 570 is 0.1% faster than the MX550, a margin so small it is effectively noise. The RTX A5000 is 0.3% faster, which, while still small, is the largest gap in the group. This suggests that the A5000's extra compute resources do provide a slight edge, but the MX550's efficiency in these workloads is remarkable for a 25 W part.

The FP32 and FP16 performance are both listed at 2.703 TFLOPS with a 1:1 ratio, meaning there is no half-precision acceleration boost. This is consistent with the lack of tensor cores, as those would typically provide much higher FP16 throughput. For mixed-precision workloads, the MX550 offers no advantage over its FP32 rate.

Power and Cooling

The MX550 has a TDP of 25 W, which is exceptionally low for a discrete GPU. This allows it to be integrated into ultra-thin laptops without elaborate cooling solutions. The slot width is listed as "IGP," indicating that the GPU is integrated into the motherboard rather than a removable card, and it requires no power connectors, drawing all power from the motherboard slot.

The absence of a suggested PSU rating in the data reflects its mobile nature, where the system's power delivery is managed by the laptop's internal power supply. The bus interface is PCIe 4.0 x8, which provides ample bandwidth for a GPU of this performance class. The 4,700 million transistors on a 200 mm² die yield a transistor density of 23.5M per mm², which is a moderate figure for the 12 nm process.

Given the 25 W TDP, cooling requirements are minimal. A basic heat pipe and fan solution is sufficient to keep the GPU within operating temperatures. The data shows no thermal throttling risks under normal loads, and the GPU should maintain its boost clock of 1320 MHz in sustained workloads. The display outputs are listed as "portable device dependent," meaning the GPU relies on the laptop's integrated display and external ports, with no fixed output configuration.