Radeon R9 M290X Mac Edition vs 550X Mobile
Contents
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | not rated | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Architecture | GCN 4.0 (2016−2020) | GCN 1.0 (2012−2020) |
| GPU code name | Polaris 23 | Pitcairn |
| Market segment | Laptop | Laptop |
| Release date | 11 April 2018 (8 years ago) | 23 November 2014 (11 years ago) |
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 | 640 | 1024 |
| Core clock speed | 1100 MHz | 850 MHz |
| Boost clock speed | 1287 MHz | 975 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 2,200 million | 2,800 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 14 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 50 Watt | 80 Watt |
| Texture fill rate | 51.48 | 62.40 |
| Floating-point processing power | 1.647 TFLOPS | 1.997 TFLOPS |
| ROPs | 16 | 32 |
| TMUs | 40 | 64 |
| L1 Cache | 160 KB | 256 KB |
| L2 Cache | 256 KB | 512 KB |
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 | PCIe 3.0 x8 | PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| Supplementary power connectors | no data | 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 | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 2 GB |
| Memory bus width | 64 Bit | 256 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 1500 MHz | 1365 MHz |
| Memory bandwidth | 48 GB/s | 174.7 GB/s |
Connectivity and outputs
This section shows the types and number of video connectors on each GPU. The data applies specifically to desktop reference models (for example, NVIDIA’s Founders Edition). OEM partners often modify both the number and types of ports. On notebook GPUs, video‐output options are determined by the laptop’s design rather than the graphics chip itself.
| Display Connectors | No outputs | No outputs |
API and SDK support
List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 12 (12_0) | 12 (11_1) |
| Shader Model | 6.4 | 5.1 |
| OpenGL | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| OpenCL | 2.0 | 1.2 |
| Vulkan | 1.2.131 | 1.2 |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 11 April 2018 | 23 November 2014 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 4 GB | 2 GB |
| Chip lithography | 14 nm | 28 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 50 Watt | 80 Watt |
550X Mobile has an age advantage of 3 years, a 100% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 100% more advanced lithography process, and 60% lower power consumption.
We couldn't decide between Radeon 550X Mobile and Radeon R9 M290X Mac Edition. We've got no test results to judge.
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