Radeon RX 6550S vs GeForce GTX 980

VS

Primary details

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

Place in the ranking193not rated
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation10.94no data
Power efficiency12.17no data
ArchitectureMaxwell 2.0 (2014−2019)RDNA 2.0 (2020−2024)
GPU code nameGM204Navi 24
Market segmentDesktopLaptop
Release date19 September 2014 (10 years ago)4 January 2023 (1 year ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$549 no data

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

no data

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 cores20481024
Core clock speed1064 MHz2000 MHz
Boost clock speed1216 MHz2400 MHz
Number of transistors5,200 million5,400 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm6 nm
Power consumption (TDP)165 Watt50 Watt
Texture fill rate155.6153.6
Floating-point processing power4.981 TFLOPS4.915 TFLOPS
ROPs6432
TMUs12864
Ray Tracing Coresno data16

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 sizeno datamedium sized
Bus supportPCI Express 3.0no data
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 4.0 x4
Length267 mmno data
Height4.376" (11.1 cm)no data
Width2-slotno data
Recommended system power (PSU)500 Wattno data
Supplementary power connectors2x 6-pinNone
SLI options+-

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 typeGDDR5GDDR6
Maximum RAM amount4 GB4 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit64 Bit
Memory clock speed7.0 GB/s2000 MHz
Memory bandwidth224 GB/s128.0 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 ConnectorsDual Link DVI-I, HDMI 2.0, 3x DisplayPort 1.2Portable Device Dependent
Multi monitor support4 displaysno data
VGA аnalog display support+no data
DisplayPort Multimode (DP++) support+no data
HDMI+-
HDCP+-
Maximum VGA resolution2048x1536no data
G-SYNC support+-
Audio input for HDMIInternalno data

Supported technologies

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

GameStream+-
GeForce ShadowPlay+-
GPU Boost2.0no data
GameWorks+-
H.264, VC1, MPEG2 1080p video decoder+-
Optimus+-
BatteryBoost+-

API compatibility

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

DirectX12 (12_1)12 Ultimate (12_2)
Shader Model6.46.7
OpenGL4.54.6
OpenCL1.22.2
Vulkan1.1.1261.3
CUDA+-

Pros & cons summary


Recency 19 September 2014 4 January 2023
Chip lithography 28 nm 6 nm
Power consumption (TDP) 165 Watt 50 Watt

RX 6550S has an age advantage of 8 years, a 366.7% more advanced lithography process, and 230% lower power consumption.

We couldn't decide between GeForce GTX 980 and Radeon RX 6550S. We've got no test results to judge.

Be aware that GeForce GTX 980 is a desktop card while Radeon RX 6550S is a notebook one.


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

Vote for your favorite

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


NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
GeForce GTX 980
AMD Radeon RX 6550S
Radeon RX 6550S

Comparisons with similar GPUs

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.


4.3 1441 vote

Rate GeForce GTX 980 on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
2.8 10 votes

Rate Radeon RX 6550S on a scale of 1 to 5:

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Questions & comments

Here you can ask a question about this comparison, agree or disagree with our judgements, or report an error or mismatch.