ATI Radeon HD 5550 vs GeForce FX 5600 Ultra

Place in the ranking	1481	1115
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	no data	1.72
Architecture	Rankine (2003−2005)	TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)
GPU code name	NV31	Redwood
Market segment	Desktop	Desktop
Release date	17 March 2003 (21 year ago)	9 February 2010 (14 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)	$199	no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	no data	320
Core clock speed	400 MHz	550 MHz
Number of transistors	80 million	627 million
Manufacturing process technology	130 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	no data	39 Watt
Texture fill rate	1.600	8.800
Floating-point processing power	no data	0.352 TFLOPS
ROPs	4	8
TMUs	4	16

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Interface	AGP 8x	PCIe 2.0 x16
Length	191 mm	165 mm
Width	1-slot	1-slot
Supplementary power connectors	1x Molex	None

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory type	DDR	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	128 MB	2 GB
Memory bus width	128 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	400 MHz	800 MHz
Memory bandwidth	12.8 GB/s	51.2 GB/s

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors	1x DVI, 1x VGA, 1x S-Video	1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x VGA
HDMI	-	+

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX	9.0a	11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model	no data	5.0
OpenGL	1.5 (2.1)	4.4
OpenCL	N/A	1.2
Vulkan	N/A	N/A

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

FX 5600 Ultra 0.04

ATI HD 5550 0.98
+2350%

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

FX 5600 Ultra 17

ATI HD 5550 376
+2112%

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	0.04	0.98
Recency	17 March 2003	9 February 2010
Maximum RAM amount	128 MB	2 GB
Chip lithography	130 nm	40 nm

ATI HD 5550 has a 2350% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 6 years, a 1500% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 225% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon HD 5550 is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce FX 5600 Ultra in performance tests.

Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.