Radeon RX 550X Mobile vs GeForce GTX 870M

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Aggregated performance score

GTX 870M
2014
6 GB GDDR5
8.91
+46.5%

GeForce GTX 870M outperforms Radeon RX 550X Mobile by 47% based on our aggregated benchmark results.

General info

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in performance ranking453549
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Value for money2.938.66
ArchitectureKepler (2012−2018)Polaris (2016−2019)
GPU code nameN15P-GTPolaris 12
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date12 March 2014 (10 years old)10 January 2019 (5 years old)
Current price$403 $299

Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RX 550X Mobile has 196% better value for money than GTX 870M.

Technical specs

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 cores1344640
CUDA cores1344no data
Core clock speed941 MHz1176 MHz
Boost clock speed967 MHz1287 MHz
Number of transistors3,540 million2,200 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)100 Watt50 Watt
Texture fill rate108.351.48
Floating-point performance2,599 gflopsno data

Size and compatibility

Information on GeForce GTX 870M and Radeon RX 550X Mobile 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 sizelargelarge
Bus supportPCI Express 2.0, PCI Express 3.0no data
InterfaceMXM-B (3.0)PCIe 3.0 x8
Supplementary power connectorsNoneno data
SLI options+no data

Memory

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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount6 GB4 GB
Standard memory configurationGDDR5no data
Memory bus width192 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speedUp to 2500 MHz7000 MHz
Memory bandwidth120.0 GB/s96 GB/s
Shared memory--

Video outputs and ports

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 ConnectorsNo outputsNo outputs
eDP 1.2 signal supportUp to 3840x2160no data
LVDS signal supportUp to 1920x1200no data
VGA аnalog display supportUp to 2048x1536no data
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) supportUp to 3840x2160no 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

Technologies

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

FreeSyncno data+
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder+no data
Optimus+no data

API support

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

DirectX12 (11_0)12 (12_0)
Shader Model5.16.4
OpenGL4.54.6
OpenCL1.12.0
Vulkan1.1.1261.2.131
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.

GTX 870M 8.91
+46.5%
RX 550X Mobile 6.08

GeForce GTX 870M outperforms Radeon RX 550X Mobile by 47% 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%

GTX 870M 24035
+65.5%
RX 550X Mobile 14520

GeForce GTX 870M outperforms Radeon RX 550X Mobile by 66% 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%

GTX 870M 7156
+33.9%
RX 550X Mobile 5345

GeForce GTX 870M outperforms Radeon RX 550X Mobile by 34% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

GTX 870M 4694
+27.3%
RX 550X Mobile 3688

GeForce GTX 870M outperforms Radeon RX 550X Mobile by 27% in 3DMark Fire Strike Graphics.

3DMark Cloud Gate GPU

Cloud Gate is an outdated DirectX 11 feature level 10 benchmark that was used for home PCs and basic notebooks. It displays a few scenes of some weird space teleportation device launching spaceships into unknown, using fixed resolution of 1280x720. Just like Ice Storm benchmark, it has been discontinued in January 2020 and replaced by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 14%

GTX 870M 31322
+56.3%
RX 550X Mobile 20039

GeForce GTX 870M outperforms Radeon RX 550X Mobile by 56% in 3DMark Cloud Gate 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%

GTX 870M 65
+84.9%
RX 550X Mobile 35

GeForce GTX 870M outperforms Radeon RX 550X Mobile by 85% 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 HD46
+76.9%
26
−76.9%
4K19
+58.3%
12−14
−58.3%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 14−16
+40%
10−11
−40%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 18−20
+50%
12−14
−50%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 12−14
+85.7%
7−8
−85.7%
Battlefield 5 30−33
+57.9%
18−20
−57.9%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 24−27
+33.3%
18−20
−33.3%
Cyberpunk 2077 14−16
+40%
10−11
−40%
Far Cry 5 21−24
+4.8%
21
−4.8%
Far Cry New Dawn 21−24
+64.3%
14−16
−64.3%
Forza Horizon 4 30−35
+55%
20−22
−55%
Hitman 3 21−24
+57.1%
14−16
−57.1%
Horizon Zero Dawn 18−20
+50%
12−14
−50%
Red Dead Redemption 2 14−16
+36.4%
10−12
−36.4%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 18−20
+35.7%
14−16
−35.7%
Watch Dogs: Legion 14−16
+66.7%
9−10
−66.7%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 18−20
+50%
12−14
−50%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 12−14
+85.7%
7−8
−85.7%
Battlefield 5 30−33
+57.9%
18−20
−57.9%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 24−27
+33.3%
18−20
−33.3%
Cyberpunk 2077 14−16
+40%
10−11
−40%
Far Cry 5 21−24
+22.2%
18
−22.2%
Far Cry New Dawn 21−24
+64.3%
14−16
−64.3%
Forza Horizon 4 30−35
+55%
20−22
−55%
Hitman 3 21−24
+57.1%
14−16
−57.1%
Horizon Zero Dawn 18−20
+50%
12−14
−50%
Metro Exodus 12−14
+44.4%
9−10
−44.4%
Red Dead Redemption 2 14−16
+36.4%
10−12
−36.4%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 18−20
+35.7%
14−16
−35.7%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 28
+40%
20
−40%
Watch Dogs: Legion 14−16
+66.7%
9−10
−66.7%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 18−20
+50%
12−14
−50%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 12−14
+85.7%
7−8
−85.7%
Battlefield 5 30−33
+57.9%
18−20
−57.9%
Cyberpunk 2077 14−16
+40%
10−11
−40%
Far Cry 5 21−24
+46.7%
15
−46.7%
Far Cry New Dawn 21−24
+64.3%
14−16
−64.3%
Forza Horizon 4 30−35
+55%
20−22
−55%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 15
+15.4%
13
−15.4%
Watch Dogs: Legion 14−16
+66.7%
9−10
−66.7%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 12−14
+44.4%
9−10
−44.4%
Hitman 3 14−16
+40%
10−11
−40%
Horizon Zero Dawn 14−16
+25%
12−14
−25%
Metro Exodus 7−8
+75%
4−5
−75%
Red Dead Redemption 2 6−7
+50%
4−5
−50%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 12−14
+33.3%
9−10
−33.3%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 8−9
+100%
4−5
−100%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 4−5
+300%
1−2
−300%
Battlefield 5 12−14
+225%
4−5
−225%
Cyberpunk 2077 4−5
+33.3%
3−4
−33.3%
Far Cry 5 14−16
+55.6%
9−10
−55.6%
Far Cry New Dawn 14−16
+100%
7−8
−100%
Forza Horizon 4 16−18
+77.8%
9−10
−77.8%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 8−9
+33.3%
6−7
−33.3%
Watch Dogs: Legion 4−5
+300%
1−2
−300%

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 6−7
+50%
4−5
−50%
Hitman 3 8−9
+33.3%
6−7
−33.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
Metro Exodus 3−4 0−1
Red Dead Redemption 2 5−6
+66.7%
3−4
−66.7%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 4−5
+100%
2−3
−100%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 6−7
+100%
3−4
−100%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 5−6
+66.7%
3−4
−66.7%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 4−5
+100%
2−3
−100%
Battlefield 5 6−7
+200%
2−3
−200%
Cyberpunk 2077 1−2 0−1
Far Cry 5 7−8
+16.7%
6−7
−16.7%
Far Cry New Dawn 10−11
+25%
8−9
−25%
Forza Horizon 4 10−12
+120%
5−6
−120%
Watch Dogs: Legion 2−3
+100%
1−2
−100%

This is how GTX 870M and RX 550X Mobile compete in popular games:

  • GTX 870M is 76.9% faster than RX 550X Mobile in 1080p
  • GTX 870M is 58.3% faster than RX 550X Mobile in 4K

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

  • in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, with 1440p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the GTX 870M is 300% faster than the RX 550X Mobile.

All in all, in popular games:

  • GTX 870M is ahead in 65 tests (98%)
  • there's a draw in 1 test (2%)

Advantages and disadvantages


Performance score 8.91 6.08
Recency 12 March 2014 10 January 2019
Maximum RAM amount 6 GB 4 GB
Chip lithography 28 nm 14 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 100 Watt 50 Watt

The GeForce GTX 870M is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon RX 550X Mobile in performance tests.


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

Vote

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M
GeForce GTX 870M
AMD Radeon RX 550X Mobile
Radeon RX 550X Mobile

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User Ratings

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