Radeon 540X vs HD 8550M

Place in performance ranking	955	671
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.06	4.00
Architecture	GCN (2011−2017)	GCN 4.0 (2016−2020)
GPU code name	Sun	Lexa
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	16 November 2012 (11 years ago)	12 August 2019 (4 years ago)
Current price	$338	$421

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

Radeon 540X has 6567% better value for money than HD 8550M.

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	384	512
Core clock speed	700 MHz	no data
Boost clock speed	850 MHz	1219 MHz
Number of transistors	690 million	2,200 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	no data	50 Watt
Texture fill rate	17.00	33.47
Floating-point performance	544.0 gflops	no data

Form factor & compatibility

Information on Radeon HD 8550M and Radeon 540X 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	no data
Interface	PCIe 3.0 x8	PCIe 3.0 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	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	1 GB	2 GB
Memory bus width	64 Bit	64 Bit
Memory clock speed	1800 MHz	6000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	14.4 GB/s	112.0 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	1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
HDMI	no data	+

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (11_1)	12 (12_0)
Shader Model	5.1	6.4
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	1.2	2.0
Vulkan	1.2.131	1.2.131

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.

HD 8550M 1.42

Radeon 540X 3.70
+161%

540X outperforms HD 8550M by 161% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

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%

HD 8550M 1307

Radeon 540X 4097
+213%

540X outperforms HD 8550M by 213% in 3DMark 11 Performance GPU.

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%

HD 8550M 3705

Radeon 540X 11545
+212%

540X outperforms HD 8550M by 212% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

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%

HD 8550M 11

Radeon 540X 30
+169%

540X outperforms HD 8550M by 169% 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

8−9

−163%

21
+163%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

4−5

no data

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5	no data
Far Cry 5	2−3	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	3−4	no data
Forza Horizon 4	4−5	no data
Hitman 3	3−4	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	14−16	no data
Red Dead Redemption 2	2−3	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	9−10	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	12−14	no data

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5	no data
Far Cry 5	2−3	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	3−4	no data
Forza Horizon 4	4−5	no data
Hitman 3	3−4	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	14−16	no data
Red Dead Redemption 2	2−3	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	9−10	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	5−6	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	12−14	no data

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5	no data
Far Cry 5	2−3	no data
Forza Horizon 4	4−5	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	14−16	no data
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	9−10	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	5−6	no data
Watch Dogs: Legion	12−14	no data

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

2−3

no data

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	2−3	no data
Far Cry New Dawn	1−2	no data

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	1−2	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5	no data
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2	no data
Far Cry 5	2−3	no data
Forza Horizon 4	1−2	no data
Hitman 3	7−8	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	5−6	no data
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	1−2	no data

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5

no data

4K
High Preset

Far Cry New Dawn	1−2	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	1−2	no data

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3	no data
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	0−1	no data
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	0−1	no data
Far Cry 5	0−1	no data
Horizon Zero Dawn	1−2	no data
Metro Exodus	4−5	no data