NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M vs AMD Radeon RX 550 Mobile

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Combined performance score

RX 550 Mobile
6.91

GeForce GTX 960M outperforms Radeon RX 550 Mobile by 27% in our combined benchmark results.

General info

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

Place in performance ranking520454
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Value for money5.171.41
ArchitecturePolaris (2016−2019)Maxwell (2014−2018)
GPU code namePolaris 12N16P-GX
Market segmentLaptopLaptop
Release date21 March 2017 (7 years old)12 March 2015 (9 years old)
Launch price (MSRP)$79.99 no data
Current price$294 (3.7x MSRP)$799
Value for money

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

RX 550 Mobile has 267% better value for money than GTX 960M.

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 cores640640
CUDA coresno data640
Core clock speed1287 MHz1096 MHz
Boost clock speed1476 MHz1202 MHz
Number of transistors2,200 million1,870 million
Manufacturing process technology14 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)50 Watt75 Watt
Texture fill rate51.4847.04
Floating-point performance1,647 gflops1,505 gflops

Size and compatibility

Information on Radeon RX 550 Mobile and GeForce GTX 960M 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 sizelargemedium sized
Bus supportno dataPCI Express 3.0
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x8MXM-B (3.0)
SLI optionsno 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 amount4 GB4 GB
Memory bus width128 Bit128 Bit
Memory clock speed6000 MHz2500 MHz
Memory bandwidth96 GB/s80 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
VGA аnalog display supportno data+
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) supportno data+
HDMIno data+

Technologies

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

FreeSync+no data
GameStreamno data+
GeForce ShadowPlayno data+
GPU Boostno data2.0
GameWorksno data+
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoderno data+
Optimusno data+
BatteryBoostno data+
Anselno data+

API support

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

DirectX12 (12_0)12 (11_0)
Shader Model6.45.1
OpenGL4.64.5
OpenCL2.01.2
Vulkan1.2.1311.1.126
CUDAno 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.

RX 550 Mobile 6.91
GTX 960M 8.77
+26.9%

GeForce GTX 960M outperforms Radeon RX 550 Mobile by 27% in our combined 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%

RX 550 Mobile 4559
GTX 960M 5278
+15.8%

GeForce GTX 960M outperforms Radeon RX 550 Mobile by 16% 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%

RX 550 Mobile 3645
GTX 960M 4318
+18.5%

GeForce GTX 960M outperforms Radeon RX 550 Mobile by 18% 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%

RX 550 Mobile 23050
GTX 960M 30086
+30.5%

GeForce GTX 960M outperforms Radeon RX 550 Mobile by 31% in 3DMark Cloud Gate GPU.

3DMark Ice Storm GPU

Ice Storm Graphics is an obsolete benchmark, part of 3DMark suite. Ice Storm was used to measure entry level laptops and Windows-based tablets performance. It utilizes DirectX 11 feature level 9 to display a battle between two space fleets near a frozen planet in 1280x720 resolution. Discontinued in January 2020, it is now superseded by 3DMark Night Raid.

Benchmark coverage: 8%

RX 550 Mobile 239256
+5.7%
GTX 960M 226308

Radeon RX 550 Mobile outperforms GeForce GTX 960M by 6% in 3DMark Ice Storm GPU.

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:

900p70−75
−35.7%
95
+35.7%
Full HD16
−125%
36
+125%
1440p10−12
−50%
15
+50%
4K10−12
−30%
13
+30%

Performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077 10
−40%
14−16
+40%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 14−16
−78.6%
25
+78.6%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 8
−62.5%
12−14
+62.5%
Battlefield 5 21−24
−72.7%
38
+72.7%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 20−22
−20%
24−27
+20%
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
−27.3%
14−16
+27.3%
Far Cry 5 18
−55.6%
28
+55.6%
Far Cry New Dawn 16−18
−58.8%
27
+58.8%
Forza Horizon 4 24−27
−45.8%
35
+45.8%
Hitman 3 14
−57.1%
21−24
+57.1%
Horizon Zero Dawn 9
−100%
18−20
+100%
Red Dead Redemption 2 12−14
−25%
14−16
+25%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 16−18
−50%
24
+50%
Watch Dogs: Legion 10
−50%
14−16
+50%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 14−16
−35.7%
19
+35.7%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 8
−62.5%
12−14
+62.5%
Battlefield 5 21−24
−40.9%
31
+40.9%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 20−22
−20%
24−27
+20%
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
−27.3%
14−16
+27.3%
Far Cry 5 15
−66.7%
25
+66.7%
Far Cry New Dawn 16−18
−47.1%
25
+47.1%
Forza Horizon 4 24−27
−29.2%
31
+29.2%
Hitman 3 10
−120%
21−24
+120%
Horizon Zero Dawn 14−16
−28.6%
18−20
+28.6%
Metro Exodus 4
−200%
12
+200%
Red Dead Redemption 2 12−14
−25%
14−16
+25%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 16−18
−18.8%
19
+18.8%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 17
−41.2%
24
+41.2%
Watch Dogs: Legion 8
−87.5%
14−16
+87.5%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 14−16
+27.3%
11
−27.3%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 9−10
−44.4%
12−14
+44.4%
Battlefield 5 21−24
−18.2%
26
+18.2%
Cyberpunk 2077 10−12
−27.3%
14−16
+27.3%
Far Cry 5 13
−76.9%
23
+76.9%
Far Cry New Dawn 16−18
−35.3%
23
+35.3%
Forza Horizon 4 24−27
−4.2%
25
+4.2%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 24
+71.4%
14
−71.4%
Watch Dogs: Legion 4
−275%
14−16
+275%

1440p
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 10−11
−30%
12−14
+30%
Hitman 3 10−12
−27.3%
14−16
+27.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn 12−14
−15.4%
14−16
+15.4%
Metro Exodus 5−6
−40%
7−8
+40%
Red Dead Redemption 2 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 10−11
−10%
11
+10%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 5−6
−60%
8
+60%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 2−3
−100%
4−5
+100%
Battlefield 5 7−8
−143%
17
+143%
Cyberpunk 2077 3−4
−33.3%
4−5
+33.3%
Far Cry 5 10−12
−36.4%
15
+36.4%
Far Cry New Dawn 9−10
−66.7%
15
+66.7%
Forza Horizon 4 10−12
−63.6%
18
+63.6%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 6−7
−33.3%
8−9
+33.3%
Watch Dogs: Legion 2−3
−100%
4−5
+100%

4K
High Preset

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 5−6
−20%
6−7
+20%
Hitman 3 6−7
−33.3%
8−9
+33.3%
Horizon Zero Dawn 8−9
+0%
8−9
+0%
Metro Exodus 1−2
−200%
3−4
+200%
Red Dead Redemption 2 4−5
−25%
5−6
+25%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 3−4
−33.3%
4−5
+33.3%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt 4−5
−150%
10
+150%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey 4−5
−25%
5−6
+25%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla 3−4
−33.3%
4−5
+33.3%
Battlefield 5 3−4
+0%
3
+0%
Cyberpunk 2077 1−2
+0%
1−2
+0%
Far Cry 5 6−7
−16.7%
7
+16.7%
Far Cry New Dawn 8−9
+33.3%
6
−33.3%
Forza Horizon 4 7−8
−42.9%
10−11
+42.9%
Watch Dogs: Legion 1−2
−100%
2−3
+100%

This is how RX 550 Mobile and GTX 960M compete in popular games:

900p resolution:

  • GTX 960M is 35.7% faster than RX 550 Mobile

1080p resolution:

  • GTX 960M is 125% faster than RX 550 Mobile

1440p resolution:

  • GTX 960M is 50% faster than RX 550 Mobile

4K resolution:

  • GTX 960M is 30% faster than RX 550 Mobile

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

  • in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RX 550 Mobile is 71.4% faster than the GTX 960M.
  • in Watch Dogs: Legion, with 1080p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the GTX 960M is 275% faster than the RX 550 Mobile.

All in all, in popular games:

  • RX 550 Mobile is ahead in 3 tests (4%)
  • GTX 960M is ahead in 62 tests (91%)
  • there's a draw in 3 tests (4%)

Advantages and disadvantages


Performance score 6.91 8.77
Recency 21 March 2017 12 March 2015
Chip lithography 14 nm 28 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 50 Watt 75 Watt

The GeForce GTX 960M is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon RX 550 Mobile in performance tests.


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

User ratings

Do you think we are right or mistaken in our choice? Vote by clicking "Like" button near your favorite graphics card.


AMD Radeon RX 550 Mobile
Radeon RX 550 Mobile
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
GeForce GTX 960M

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