Radeon HD 8550M vs GeForce GT 720M

Place in performance ranking	1017	953
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.03	0.06
Architecture	Fermi (2010−2014)	GCN (2011−2017)
GPU code name	N14M-GE	Sun
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	1 April 2013 (11 years ago)	16 November 2012 (11 years ago)
Current price	$499	$338

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

HD 8550M has 100% better value for money than GT 720M.

Detailed specifications

General performance parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. These parameters indirectly speak of performance, but for precise assessment you have to consider their benchmark and gaming test results. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores	96	384
Core clock speed	625 MHz	700 MHz
Boost clock speed	938 MHz	850 MHz
Number of transistors	915 million	690 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	33 Watt	no data
Texture fill rate	12.13	17.00
Floating-point performance	240.0 gflops	544.0 gflops

Form factor & compatibility

Information on GeForce GT 720M and Radeon HD 8550M compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For notebook video cards it's notebook size, connection slot and bus, if the video card is inserted into a slot instead of being soldered to the notebook motherboard.

Laptop size	medium sized	medium sized
Bus support	PCI Express 2.0	no data
Interface	PCIe 2.0 x8	PCIe 3.0 x8

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	DDR3	DDR3
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	1 GB
Standard memory configuration	DDR3	no data
Memory bus width	64 Bit	64 Bit
Memory clock speed	1800 - 2000 MHz	1800 MHz
Memory bandwidth	12.8 GB/s	14.4 GB/s
Shared memory	-	-

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	No outputs	No outputs
eDP 1.2 signal support	Up to 2560x1600	no data
LVDS signal support	Up to 1920x1200	no data
VGA аnalog display support	Up to 2048x1536	no data
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support	Up to 2560x1600	no data
HDMI	+	no data
HDCP content protection	+	no data
7.1 channel HD audio on HDMI	+	no data
TrueHD and DTS-HD audio bitstreaming	+	no data

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

Blu-Ray 3D Support	+	no data
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder	+	no data
Optimus	+	no data

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 API	12 (11_1)
Shader Model	5.1	5.1
OpenGL	4.5	4.6
OpenCL	1.1	1.2
Vulkan	1.1.126	1.2.131
CUDA	+	no data

Synthetic benchmark performance

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

Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark performance 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.

GT 720M 1.19

HD 8550M 1.42
+19.3%

Radeon HD 8550M outperforms GeForce GT 720M by 19% based on our aggregated benchmark results.

3DMark Vantage Performance

3DMark Vantage is an outdated DirectX 10 benchmark using 1280x1024 screen resolution. It taxes the graphics card with two scenes, one depicting a girl escaping some militarized base located within a sea cave, the other displaying a space fleet attack on a defenseless planet. It was discontinued in April 2017, and Time Spy benchmark is now recommended to be used instead.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

GT 720M 4585
+23.7%

HD 8550M 3705

GeForce GT 720M outperforms Radeon HD 8550M by 24% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

3DMark 11 Performance GPU

3DMark 11 is an obsolete DirectX 11 benchmark by Futuremark. It used four tests based on two scenes, one being few submarines exploring the submerged wreck of a sunken ship, the other is an abandoned temple deep in the jungle. All the tests are heavy with volumetric lighting and tessellation, and despite being done in 1280x720 resolution, are relatively taxing. Discontinued in January 2020, 3DMark 11 is now superseded by Time Spy.

Benchmark coverage: 17%

GT 720M 1213

HD 8550M 1307
+7.7%

Radeon HD 8550M outperforms GeForce GT 720M by 8% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

Unigine Heaven 3.0

This is an old DirectX 11 benchmark using Unigine, a 3D game engine by eponymous Russian company. It displays a fantasy medieval town sprawling over several flying islands. Version 3.0 was released in 2012, and in 2013 it was superseded by Heaven 4.0, which introduced several slight improvements, including a newer version of Unigine.

Benchmark coverage: 4%

GT 720M 12
+3.6%

HD 8550M 11

GeForce GT 720M outperforms Radeon HD 8550M by 4% in Unigine Heaven 3.0.

Gaming performance

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

Average FPS across all PC games

Here are the average frames per second in a large set of popular games across different resolutions:

Full HD

−14.3%

16−18
+14.3%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

3−4

−33.3%

4−5
+33.3%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	9−10 −11.1%	10−11 +11.1%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −33.3%	4−5 +33.3%
Forza Horizon 4	0−1	1−2
Hitman 3	1−2 −100%	2−3 +100%
Horizon Zero Dawn	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	3−4 −33.3%	4−5 +33.3%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	4 −75%	7−8 +75%

Full HD
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	9−10 −11.1%	10−11 +11.1%
Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −33.3%	4−5 +33.3%
Forza Horizon 4	0−1	1−2
Hitman 3	1−2 −100%	2−3 +100%
Horizon Zero Dawn	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Metro Exodus	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	3−4 −33.3%	4−5 +33.3%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	5 +25%	4−5 −25%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077	3−4 −33.3%	4−5 +33.3%
Forza Horizon 4	0−1	1−2
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Hitman 3	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	8−9 +0%	8−9 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry 5	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	1−2 −100%	2−3 +100%

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 −100%	2−3 +100%
Hitman 3	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Red Dead Redemption 2	0−1	0−1

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	0−1	0−1
Far Cry 5	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%

This is how GT 720M and HD 8550M compete in popular games:

HD 8550M is 14% faster in 1080p

Here's the range of performance differences observed across popular games:

in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 1080p resolution and the High Preset, the GT 720M is 25% faster than the HD 8550M.
in Hitman 3, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the HD 8550M is 100% faster than the GT 720M.

All in all, in popular games: