Radeon RX 5500M vs HD 6550M

Place in the ranking	1009	357
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	3.62	11.75
Architecture	TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)	RDNA 1.0 (2019−2020)
GPU code name	Lexington	Navi 14
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	26 November 2010 (13 years ago)	7 October 2019 (5 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	400	1408
Core clock speed	600 MHz	1375 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1645 MHz
Number of transistors	2,154 million	6,400 million
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	26 Watt	85 Watt
Texture fill rate	12.00	144.8
Floating-point processing power	0.48 TFLOPS	4.632 TFLOPS
ROPs	8	32
TMUs	20	88

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).

Laptop size	medium sized	medium sized
Interface	MXM-II	PCIe 4.0 x8
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	DDR3	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	4 GB
Memory bus width	128 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	900 MHz	1750 MHz
Memory bandwidth	28.8 GB/s	224.0 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

API compatibility

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

DirectX	11.2 (11_0)	12 (12_1)
Shader Model	5.0	6.5
OpenGL	4.4	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	2.0
Vulkan	N/A	1.2.131

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.

HD 6550M 1.36

RX 5500M 14.42
+960%

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.

HD 6550M 993

RX 5500M 16476
+1559%

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:

900p	14 −900%	140−150 +900%
Full HD	18 −217%	57 +217%
1440p	5−6 −1020%	56 +1020%
4K	2−3 −1450%	31 +1450%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

4−5

−1275%

55
+1275%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	6−7 −617%	43 +617%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 −1225%	53 +1225%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −975%	43 +975%
Far Cry 5	1−2 −3200%	30−35 +3200%
Far Cry New Dawn	3−4 −1200%	35−40 +1200%
Forza Horizon 4	2−3 −4550%	90−95 +4550%
Hitman 3	6−7 −867%	58 +867%
Horizon Zero Dawn	14−16 −943%	146 +943%
Red Dead Redemption 2	2−3 −2750%	57 +2750%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	8−9 −475%	45−50 +475%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 −412%	169 +412%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	6−7 −450%	30−35 +450%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 −1100%	48 +1100%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −725%	33 +725%
Far Cry 5	1−2 −3200%	30−35 +3200%
Far Cry New Dawn	3−4 −1200%	35−40 +1200%
Forza Horizon 4	2−3 −4550%	90−95 +4550%
Hitman 3	6−7 −867%	58 +867%
Horizon Zero Dawn	14−16 −929%	144 +929%
Red Dead Redemption 2	2−3 −2500%	52 +2500%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	8−9 −925%	82 +925%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−12 −209%	30−35 +209%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 −409%	168 +409%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	6−7 −417%	31 +417%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 −550%	26 +550%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −650%	30 +650%
Far Cry 5	1−2 −3200%	30−35 +3200%
Forza Horizon 4	2−3 −4550%	90−95 +4550%
Hitman 3	6−7 −733%	50 +733%
Horizon Zero Dawn	14−16 −393%	69 +393%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	8−9 −800%	72 +800%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	10−12 −309%	45 +309%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 +50%	22 −50%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

2−3

−2600%

54
+2600%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	1−2 −5300%	54 +5300%
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3 −1000%	21−24 +1000%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	1−2 −1300%	14−16 +1300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	0−1	14−16
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 −600%	7−8 +600%
Far Cry 5	1−2 −1500%	16−18 +1500%
Hitman 3	7−8 −371%	33 +371%
Horizon Zero Dawn	5−6 −1000%	55 +1000%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	1−2 −1400%	14−16 +1400%
Watch Dogs: Legion	6−7 −2617%	163 +2617%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5

−900%

40
+900%

4K
High Preset

Far Cry New Dawn

0−1

10−11

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	1−2 −700%	8−9 +700%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 −600%	7−8 +600%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	0−1	7−8
Far Cry 5	0−1	8−9

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

3−4

−567%

20
+567%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	56 +0%	56 +0%
Battlefield 5	45−50 +0%	45−50 +0%
Metro Exodus	45−50 +0%	45−50 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	26 +0%	26 +0%
Battlefield 5	34 +0%	34 +0%
Metro Exodus	36 +0%	36 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla

+0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	10 +0%	10 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	70−75 +0%	70−75 +0%
Metro Exodus	47 +0%	47 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	24−27 +0%	24−27 +0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	29 +0%	29 +0%
Hitman 3	9 +0%	9 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	65 +0%	65 +0%
Metro Exodus	28 +0%	28 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 +0%	12−14 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%

This is how HD 6550M and RX 5500M compete in popular games:

RX 5500M is 900% faster in 900p
RX 5500M is 217% faster in 1080p
RX 5500M is 1020% faster in 1440p
RX 5500M is 1450% faster in 4K

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

in Watch Dogs: Legion, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the HD 6550M is 50% faster.
in Battlefield 5, with 1440p resolution and the High Preset, the RX 5500M is 5300% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

HD 6550M is ahead in 1 test (1%)
RX 5500M is ahead in 47 tests (69%)
there's a draw in 20 tests (29%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	1.36	14.42
Recency	26 November 2010	7 October 2019
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	4 GB
Chip lithography	40 nm	7 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	26 Watt	85 Watt

HD 6550M has 226.9% lower power consumption.

RX 5500M, on the other hand, has a 960.3% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 8 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 471.4% more advanced lithography process.

The Radeon RX 5500M is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 6550M in performance tests.

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