ATI Radeon HD 5970 vs RX 550

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon RX 550 and Radeon HD 5970, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

RX 550
2017
4 GB GDDR5, 50 Watt
6.08
+20.2%

RX 550 outperforms ATI HD 5970 by a significant 20% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking564605
Place by popularity25not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation2.920.31
Power efficiency9.671.37
ArchitectureGCN 4.0 (2016−2020)TeraScale 2 (2009−2015)
GPU code nameLexaHemlock
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Release date20 April 2017 (7 years ago)18 November 2009 (15 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$79 $699

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

The higher the performance-to-price ratio, the better. We use the manufacturer's recommended prices for comparison.

RX 550 has 842% better value for money than ATI HD 5970.

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 cores5121600 ×2
Core clock speed1100 MHz725 MHz
Boost clock speed1183 MHzno data
Number of transistors2,200 million2,154 million
Manufacturing process technology14 nm40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)50 Watt294 Watt
Texture fill rate37.8658.00 ×2
Floating-point processing power1.211 TFLOPS2.32 TFLOPS ×2
ROPs1632 ×2
TMUs3280 ×2

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).

InterfacePCIe 3.0 x8PCIe 2.0 x16
Length145 mm305 mm
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectorsNone1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin

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 amount4 GB1 GB ×2
Memory bus width128 Bit256 Bit ×2
Memory clock speed1750 MHz1000 MHz
Memory bandwidth112.0 GB/s128.0 GB/s ×2

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 DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort2x DVI, 1x mini-DisplayPort
HDMI+-

API and SDK compatibility

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

DirectX12 (12_0)11.2 (11_0)
Shader Model6.45.0
OpenGL4.64.4
OpenCL2.01.2
Vulkan1.2.131N/A

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.

RX 550 6.08
+20.2%
ATI HD 5970 5.06

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

RX 550 2717
+20.1%
ATI HD 5970 2263

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 6.08 5.06
Recency 20 April 2017 18 November 2009
Maximum RAM amount 4 GB 1 GB
Chip lithography 14 nm 40 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 50 Watt 294 Watt

RX 550 has a 20.2% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 7 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, a 185.7% more advanced lithography process, and 488% lower power consumption.

The Radeon RX 550 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 5970 in performance tests.

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AMD Radeon RX 550
Radeon RX 550
ATI Radeon HD 5970
Radeon HD 5970

Other comparisons

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


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