GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile vs GT 550M

Place in performance ranking	940	104
Place by popularity	not in top-100	75
Cost-effectiveness evaluation	0.27	no data
Architecture	Fermi (2010−2014)	Ada Lovelace
GPU code name	N12P-GT	GN21-X2
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	6 January 2011 (13 years ago)	3 January 2023 (1 year ago)

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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	96	2560
Core clock speed	740 MHz	no data
Boost clock speed	no data	2370 MHz
Number of transistors	585 million	no data
Manufacturing process technology	40 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	35 Watt	115 Watt (35 - 115 Watt TGP)
Texture fill rate	11.84	140.4
Floating-point performance	284.16 gflops	no data

Form factor & compatibility

Information on GeForce GT 550M and GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile 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	large	large
Interface	PCIe 2.0 x16	PCIe 4.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors	None	no data

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	GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount	1536 MB	6 GB
Memory bus width	128 Bit	96 Bit
Memory clock speed	900 MHz	16000 GB/s
Memory bandwidth	28.8 GB/s	192.0 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

Portable Device Dependent

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (11_0)	12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model	5.1	6.7
OpenGL	4.6	4.6
OpenCL	1.1	3.0
Vulkan	N/A	1.3
CUDA	2.1	8.9

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.

GT 550M 1.48

RTX 4050 Mobile 39.05
+2539%

RTX 4050 Mobile outperforms GT 550M by 2539% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

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%

GT 550M 4782

RTX 4050 Mobile 85660
+1691%

RTX 4050 Mobile outperforms GT 550M by 1691% in 3DMark Vantage Performance.

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%

GT 550M 974

RTX 4050 Mobile 30514
+3034%

RTX 4050 Mobile outperforms GT 550M by 3034% in 3DMark 11 Performance 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:

900p	15 −2233%	350−400 +2233%
Full HD	21 −352%	95 +352%
1440p	1−2 −4800%	49 +4800%
4K	1−2 −3100%	32 +3100%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

4−5

−2475%

103
+2475%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 −1280%	65−70 +1280%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 −1875%	75−80 +1875%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −1975%	83 +1975%
Far Cry 5	2−3 −4150%	85−90 +4150%
Far Cry New Dawn	4−5 −2325%	95−100 +2325%
Forza Horizon 4	3−4 −4900%	150−160 +4900%
Hitman 3	4−5 −1900%	80−85 +1900%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−12 −1327%	150−160 +1327%
Red Dead Redemption 2	2−3 −4600%	90−95 +4600%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	7−8 −2029%	140−150 +2029%
Watch Dogs: Legion	12−14 −700%	95−100 +700%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 −1280%	65−70 +1280%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 −1875%	75−80 +1875%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −1675%	71 +1675%
Far Cry 5	2−3 −4150%	85−90 +4150%
Far Cry New Dawn	4−5 −2325%	95−100 +2325%
Forza Horizon 4	3−4 −4900%	150−160 +4900%
Hitman 3	4−5 −1900%	80−85 +1900%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−12 −1327%	150−160 +1327%
Red Dead Redemption 2	2−3 −4600%	90−95 +4600%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	7−8 −2300%	168 +2300%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	5−6 −1840%	95−100 +1840%
Watch Dogs: Legion	12−14 −700%	95−100 +700%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	5−6 −1280%	65−70 +1280%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 −1875%	75−80 +1875%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 −1525%	65 +1525%
Far Cry 5	2−3 −4150%	85−90 +4150%
Forza Horizon 4	3−4 −4900%	150−160 +4900%
Horizon Zero Dawn	10−12 −1327%	150−160 +1327%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	7−8 −1971%	145 +1971%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	5−6 −1500%	80 +1500%
Watch Dogs: Legion	12−14 −333%	52 +333%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

2−3

−4600%

90−95
+4600%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	2−3 −3650%	75−80 +3650%
Far Cry New Dawn	5−6 −1680%	85−90 +1680%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	1−2 −4100%	40−45 +4100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	4−5 −1375%	55−60 +1375%
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 −3500%	36 +3500%
Hitman 3	7−8 −629%	50−55 +629%
Horizon Zero Dawn	5−6 −1600%	85−90 +1600%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	1−2 −5800%	59 +5800%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5

−1575%

65−70
+1575%

4K
High Preset

Far Cry New Dawn	1−2 −3200%	30−35 +3200%
Horizon Zero Dawn	4−5 −1150%	50−55 +1150%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	1−2 −2500%	24−27 +2500%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 −2300%	24−27 +2300%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	0−1	24−27
Far Cry 5	0−1	21−24
Horizon Zero Dawn	4−5 −2400%	100−105 +2400%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

3−4

−1067%

35−40
+1067%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	117 +0%	117 +0%
Battlefield 5	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Metro Exodus	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	92 +0%	92 +0%
Battlefield 5	120−130 +0%	120−130 +0%
Metro Exodus	110−120 +0%	110−120 +0%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	70 +0%	70 +0%
Hitman 3	80−85 +0%	80−85 +0%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	40−45 +0%	40−45 +0%
Far Cry 5	70−75 +0%	70−75 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	80−85 +0%	80−85 +0%
Metro Exodus	70−75 +0%	70−75 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	84 +0%	84 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	30−35 +0%	30−35 +0%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	35−40 +0%	35−40 +0%
Hitman 3	30−35 +0%	30−35 +0%
Metro Exodus	40−45 +0%	40−45 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	47 +0%	47 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077	18 +0%	18 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	50−55 +0%	50−55 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	53 +0%	53 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	26 +0%	26 +0%

This is how GT 550M and RTX 4050 Mobile compete in popular games:

RTX 4050 Mobile is 2233% faster in 900p
RTX 4050 Mobile is 352% faster in 1080p
RTX 4050 Mobile is 4800% faster in 1440p
RTX 4050 Mobile is 3100% faster in 4K

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

in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, with 1440p resolution and the Ultra Preset, the RTX 4050 Mobile is 5800% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

RTX 4050 Mobile is ahead in 48 tests (69%)
there's a draw in 22 tests (31%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	1.48	39.05
Recency	6 January 2011	3 January 2023
Maximum RAM amount	1536 MB	6 GB
Chip lithography	40 nm	5 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	35 Watt	115 Watt

GT 550M has 228.6% lower power consumption.

RTX 4050 Mobile, on the other hand, has a 2538.5% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 11 years, a 300% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 700% more advanced lithography process.

The GeForce RTX 4050 Mobile is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GT 550M in performance tests.

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