Radeon RX 550X Mobile vs GeForce GTX 260M SLI

Place in the ranking	737	581
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	1.52	8.38
Architecture	G9x (2007−2010)	GCN 4.0 (2016−2020)
GPU code name	NB9E-GTX	Polaris 23
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	2 March 2009 (15 years ago)	11 April 2018 (6 years ago)

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 cores	224	640
Core clock speed	550 MHz	1100 MHz
Boost clock speed	no data	1287 MHz
Number of transistors	1508 Million	2,200 million
Manufacturing process technology	55 nm	14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	150 Watt	50 Watt
Texture fill rate	no data	51.48
Floating-point processing power	no data	1.647 TFLOPS
ROPs	no data	16
TMUs	no data	40

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).

Laptop size	large	large
Interface	no data	PCIe 3.0 x8

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	GDDR3	GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount	2 GB	2 GB
Memory bus width	256 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	950 MHz	1500 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	96 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 data

No outputs

Supported technologies

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

FreeSync

API compatibility

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

DirectX	10	12 (12_0)
Shader Model	no data	6.4
OpenGL	no data	4.6
OpenCL	no data	2.0
Vulkan	-	1.2.131
CUDA	+	-

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. 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.

GTX 260M SLI 3.29

RX 550X Mobile 6.06
+84.2%

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.

GTX 260M SLI 8959

RX 550X Mobile 14520
+62.1%

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:

Full HD

14−16

−85.7%

26
+85.7%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

6−7

−66.7%

10−11
+66.7%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 −60%	16−18 +60%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 −600%	7−8 +600%
Battlefield 5	6−7 −183%	16−18 +183%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	7−8 −85.7%	12−14 +85.7%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −66.7%	10−11 +66.7%
Far Cry 5	6−7 −117%	12−14 +117%
Far Cry New Dawn	9−10 −88.9%	16−18 +88.9%
Forza Horizon 4	16−18 −135%	40−45 +135%
Hitman 3	8−9 −50%	12−14 +50%
Horizon Zero Dawn	21−24 −60.9%	35−40 +60.9%
Metro Exodus	4−5 −300%	16−18 +300%
Red Dead Redemption 2	8−9 −113%	16−18 +113%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 −100%	26 +100%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −25%	50−55 +25%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 −60%	16−18 +60%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 −600%	7−8 +600%
Battlefield 5	6−7 −183%	16−18 +183%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	7−8 −85.7%	12−14 +85.7%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −66.7%	10−11 +66.7%
Far Cry 5	6−7 −117%	12−14 +117%
Far Cry New Dawn	9−10 −88.9%	16−18 +88.9%
Forza Horizon 4	16−18 −135%	40−45 +135%
Hitman 3	8−9 −50%	12−14 +50%
Horizon Zero Dawn	21−24 −60.9%	35−40 +60.9%
Metro Exodus	4−5 −300%	16−18 +300%
Red Dead Redemption 2	8−9 −113%	16−18 +113%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 −61.5%	21−24 +61.5%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 −42.9%	20−22 +42.9%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −25%	50−55 +25%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	10−11 −60%	16−18 +60%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 −600%	7−8 +600%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	7−8 −85.7%	12−14 +85.7%
Cyberpunk 2077	6−7 −66.7%	10−11 +66.7%
Far Cry 5	6−7 −117%	12−14 +117%
Forza Horizon 4	16−18 −135%	40−45 +135%
Hitman 3	8−9 −50%	12−14 +50%
Horizon Zero Dawn	21−24 −60.9%	35−40 +60.9%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	12−14 −61.5%	21−24 +61.5%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	14−16 +7.7%	13 −7.7%
Watch Dogs: Legion	40−45 −25%	50−55 +25%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

8−9

−113%

16−18
+113%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	5−6 −140%	12−14 +140%
Far Cry New Dawn	5−6 −80%	9−10 +80%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	3−4 −100%	6−7 +100%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	2−3 −200%	6−7 +200%
Cyberpunk 2077	2−3 −50%	3−4 +50%
Far Cry 5	4−5 −75%	7−8 +75%
Hitman 3	8−9 −25%	10−11 +25%
Horizon Zero Dawn	8−9 −62.5%	12−14 +62.5%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	2−3 −150%	5−6 +150%
Watch Dogs: Legion	18−20 −105%	35−40 +105%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

7−8

−57.1%

10−12
+57.1%

4K
High Preset

Battlefield 5	1−2 −400%	5−6 +400%
Far Cry New Dawn	2−3 −100%	4−5 +100%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 −100%	4−5 +100%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 −200%	3−4 +200%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2 −100%	2−3 +100%
Far Cry 5	1−2 −200%	3−4 +200%
Forza Horizon 4	1−2 −500%	6−7 +500%
Watch Dogs: Legion	1−2 −100%	2−3 +100%

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5

−50%

6−7
+50%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Forza Horizon 4	18−20 +0%	18−20 +0%
Metro Exodus	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%

4K
High Preset

Hitman 3	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	14−16 +0%	14−16 +0%
Metro Exodus	3−4 +0%	3−4 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Cyberpunk 2077	0−1	0−1
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	0−1	0−1

This is how GTX 260M SLI and RX 550X Mobile compete in popular games:

RX 550X Mobile is 86% faster in 1080p

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 GTX 260M SLI is 8% faster.
in Assassin's Creed Valhalla, with 1080p resolution and the Medium Preset, the RX 550X Mobile is 600% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

GTX 260M SLI is ahead in 1 test (1%)
RX 550X Mobile is ahead in 61 test (87%)
there's a draw in 8 tests (11%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	3.29	6.06
Recency	2 March 2009	11 April 2018
Chip lithography	55 nm	14 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	150 Watt	50 Watt

RX 550X Mobile has a 84.2% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 9 years, a 292.9% more advanced lithography process, and 200% lower power consumption.

The Radeon RX 550X Mobile is our recommended choice as it beats the GeForce GTX 260M SLI in performance tests.

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