Radeon RX 550 512SP vs RX 480

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking245not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation15.64no data
Power efficiency10.35no data
ArchitectureGCN 4.0 (2016−2020)GCN 4.0 (2016−2020)
GPU code nameEllesmereBaffin
GCN generation4th Genno data
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Designreferenceno data
Release date29 June 2016 (8 years ago)13 October 2017 (7 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$229 $79

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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 cores2304512
Compute units36no data
Core clock speed1120 MHz1019 MHz
Boost clock speed1266 MHz1071 MHz
Number of transistors5,700 million3,000 million
Manufacturing process technology14 nm14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)150 Watt50 Watt
Texture fill rate182.334.27
Floating-point processing power5.834 TFLOPS1.097 TFLOPS
ROPs3216
TMUs14432

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).

Bus supportn/ano data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x8
Length241 mm145 mm
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors1x 6-pinNone
Bridgeless CrossFire+-

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 typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount8 GB2 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed8000 MHz1500 MHz
Memory bandwidth224 GB/s96 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 Connectors1x HDMI, 3x DisplayPort1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
Eyefinity+-
HDMI2.0+
DisplayPort support1.4HDR-

Supported technologies

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

AppAccelerationn/a-
CrossFire+-
Enduron/a-
FRTC+-
FreeSync+-
HD3Dn/a-
LiquidVR+-
PowerTune+-
TressFX+-
TrueAudion/a-
ZeroCore+-
UVD+-
VCE+-

API compatibility

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

DirectXDirectX® 1212 (12_0)
Shader Model6.46.4
OpenGL4.54.6
OpenCL2.02.0
Vulkan+1.2
Mantlen/a-

Pros & cons summary


Recency 29 June 2016 13 October 2017
Maximum RAM amount 8 GB 2 GB
Power consumption (TDP) 150 Watt 50 Watt

RX 480 has a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount.

RX 550 512SP, on the other hand, has an age advantage of 1 year, and 200% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between Radeon RX 480 and Radeon RX 550 512SP. We've got no test results to judge.


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

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AMD Radeon RX 480
Radeon RX 480
AMD Radeon RX 550 512SP
Radeon RX 550 512SP

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Community ratings

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4.2 1789 votes

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Questions & comments

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