AMD Radeon RX 550

You’ll find single connections for the aforementioned HDMI and DisplayPorts, as well as DVI-D, which is officially eradicated from AMD’s reference lineup but damned handy for older and entry-level monitors serving this price range. Got it? Good. Let’s see how this puppy handles.
– As reviewed by PCWorld on Apr 2017
GCN 4.0 (Polaris)
Architecture
Entry-level
Product Tier
512
Shader Cores
16
ROPs
32
TMUs
No RT
Ray Tracing
4 GB
Memory
GDDR5
Memory Type
112 GB/s
Bandwidth
50 W
TDP
GPU Snapshot
Release date:Apr 18, 2017Price at Launch:$79
Type:DesktopArchitecture:GCN 4.0 (Polaris)
Generation:RX 500 seriesProduct Tier:Entry-level
VRAM Capacity:4 GBTotal Board Power:50 W
Core Configuration
Shader Cores:512TMUs:32
ROPs:16L2 Cache:512 KB
Memory
VRAM Capacity:4 GBMemory Type:GDDR5
Memory Speed:7 GbpsMemory Bus:128-bit
Bandwidth:112 GB/s
Graphics Processing
Base Clock:1.1 GHzBoost Clock:1.18 GHz
FP32 Throughput:1.21 TFLOPsRay Tracing:No
Process Size:14nmProcess Name:GlobalFoundries 14LPP
Die Size:101 mm²
Power & Connectivity
Total Board Power:50 WPower Connectors:None
Bus Interface:PCIe 3.0 x8HDMI Support:HDMI 2.0b
DisplayPort Support:DP 1.4DSC:No
Max Displays:3
Media & Software Support
DirectX Support:12Shader Model:6.0
Vulkan Version:1.2OpenGL Version:4.6

Reviews and Ratings

82

Average Score

Based on 6 reviews

8.6

User Score

Based on 227 reviews

Reviewers Liked

  • Huge e-sports performance leap over integrated graphics
  • Future-Proof Features
  • No auxiliary power connector
  • Runs cool

Reviewers Didn't Like

  • No small form factor versions at launch
  • Notably slower than slightly more expensive Radeon RX 460

In the case of the RX 550, it's a seriously tough sell even at the $80 MSRP, let alone the $90 they are currently fetching. For just $30 more, the GTX 1050 is readily available and we recently saw that model delivering 90% more frames in Destiny 2 at 1080p, which works out to 33% more money for around 90% more performance.

By TechSpot on

Well I have to say that although I haven't had a chance to check out the multiplayer action yet, I was pleasantly surprised with what I found in the beta experience of Destiny 2. The game looks great, plays well and it's already significantly more...

By TechSpot on
95

The RX 460 is a much stronger video card than the RX 550 and it also doesn't require a PCIe power connector so people have no reason to go with the RX 550 when the RX 460 is much faster while costing the same. If AMD brings the price down to $70, this card will sell really well. AMD is going to have a hard time convincing people to get the RX 550 at $80. With all that being said, the Radeon RX 550 easily deserve our Gold Award.

By RelaxedTech on
95

The Radeon RX 550 offers excellent performance in many popular DX11 and DX12 titles and it certainly crushes Intel's HD 630 in all the games that I tested. It can achieve a well playable FPS in 720p with medium settings in most games. The Radeon RX 550...

By relaxedtech.com on
70

You’ll find single connections for the aforementioned HDMI and DisplayPorts, as well as DVI-D, which is officially eradicated from AMD’s reference lineup but damned handy for older and entry-level monitors serving this price range. Got it? Good. Let’s see how this puppy handles.

By PCWorld on

Far Cry 5 not only reuses many animations from earlier games in the series, but also the Dunia engine is used again by Ubisoft. This time, however, some compute functions have been added, which is due to their collaboration with AMD for this title. We...

By uk.hardware.info on

Earlier this week I posted a number of Radeon RX 550 Linux benchmarks making use of AMD's popular open-source driver stack. For those wondering how the open-source driver compares to the AMDGPU-PRO hybrid proprietary driver for this sub-$100 Polaris...

By Phoronix on

If you're the rare person with a tower PC, or you're a builder eager to create something cheap, then the RX 550 is a good choice. And if you buy it and don't like it — no big deal— it only cost $30 more than Mass Effect Andromeda.

By Gizmodo on

For nearly a decade, common sense has dictated that most people don't need a standalone graphics card in their computer. Gamers need them to make rich titles like Rise of the Tomb Raider hum, and some professionals, like video editors and 3D designers,...

By Gizmodo on

If you’re looking to build a low-budget gaming PC, then I would highly recommend you the AMD RX 550 over the older or refurbished GPUs. As of now, a gaming PC build with Intel Pentium G4560 and the AMD Radeon RX550 would be good to go. If you can wait for Ryzen 3 (Expected to release in 2H 2017), then you should definitely wait.

By TechNewsWithMe on

If you're coming from Intel's HD Graphics 530, any discrete graphics card is going to be exciting. Indeed, Radeon RX 550 looks like a great upgrade for folks limping along with CPU-based graphics. But AMD's own Radeon RX 460 2GB is quite a bit quicker than the RX 550 in demanding games, and it only costs about $10 more. If you can live with the 460's slight price premium and higher power consumption, that's the card we'd buy for $90.

By TomsHardware on

If you're coming from Intel's HD Graphics 530, any discrete graphics card is going to be exciting. Indeed, Radeon RX 550 looks like a great upgrade for folks limping along with CPU-based graphics. But AMD's own Radeon RX 460 2GB is quite a bit...

By Tom's Hardware on

Our readers are also looking into these GPUs...