GeForce GT 550M vs Radeon R5 (Carrizo)

Place in the ranking	917	981
Place by popularity	not in top-100	not in top-100
Power efficiency	3.67	2.97
Architecture	GCN 1.2/2.0 (2015−2016)	Fermi (2010−2014)
GPU code name	Carrizo	GF108
Market segment	Laptop	Laptop
Release date	4 June 2015 (9 years ago)	5 January 2011 (13 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	256	96
Core clock speed	no data	475 MHz
Boost clock speed	800 MHz	no data
Number of transistors	2410 Million	585 million
Manufacturing process technology	28 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	12-35 Watt	35 Watt
Texture fill rate	no data	7.600
Floating-point processing power	no data	0.1824 TFLOPS
ROPs	no data	4
TMUs	no data	16

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	medium sized	large
Interface	no data	PCIe 2.0 x16
Supplementary power connectors	no data	None

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	no data	DDR3
Maximum RAM amount	no data	1 GB
Memory bus width	64/128 Bit	128 Bit
Memory clock speed	no data	900 MHz
Memory bandwidth	no data	28.8 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

Portable Device Dependent

Supported technologies

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

Optimus

API compatibility

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

DirectX	12 (FL 12_0)	12 API
Shader Model	no data	5.1
OpenGL	no data	4.5
OpenCL	no data	1.1
Vulkan	-	N/A
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.

R5 (Carrizo) 1.84
+23.5%

GT 550M 1.49

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.

R5 (Carrizo) 1711
+75.8%

GT 550M 974

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	18−20 +20%	15 −20%
Full HD	27−30 +17.4%	23 −17.4%

FPS performance in popular games

Full HD
Low Preset

Cyberpunk 2077

4−5

+0%

4−5

+0%

Full HD
Medium Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	7−8 +16.7%	6−7 −16.7%
Battlefield 5	1−2	0−1
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	5−6 +25%	4−5 −25%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Far Cry 5	3−4 +50%	2−3 −50%
Far Cry New Dawn	5−6 +25%	4−5 −25%
Forza Horizon 4	7−8 +75%	4−5 −75%
Hitman 3	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	16−18 +13.3%	14−16 −13.3%
Red Dead Redemption 2	4−5 +33.3%	3−4 −33.3%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	9−10 +12.5%	8−9 −12.5%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 +6.1%	30−35 −6.1%

Full HD
High Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	7−8 +16.7%	6−7 −16.7%
Battlefield 5	1−2	0−1
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	5−6 +25%	4−5 −25%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Far Cry 5	3−4 +50%	2−3 −50%
Far Cry New Dawn	5−6 +25%	4−5 −25%
Forza Horizon 4	7−8 +75%	4−5 −75%
Hitman 3	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	16−18 +13.3%	14−16 −13.3%
Red Dead Redemption 2	4−5 +33.3%	3−4 −33.3%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	9−10 +12.5%	8−9 −12.5%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 +9.1%	10−12 −9.1%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 +6.1%	30−35 −6.1%

Full HD
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	7−8 +16.7%	6−7 −16.7%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	5−6 +25%	4−5 −25%
Cyberpunk 2077	4−5 +0%	4−5 +0%
Far Cry 5	3−4 +50%	2−3 −50%
Forza Horizon 4	7−8 +75%	4−5 −75%
Hitman 3	6−7 +0%	6−7 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	16−18 +13.3%	14−16 −13.3%
Shadow of the Tomb Raider	9−10 +12.5%	8−9 −12.5%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	12−14 +9.1%	10−12 −9.1%
Watch Dogs: Legion	35−40 +6.1%	30−35 −6.1%

Full HD
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

4−5
+33.3%

3−4

−33.3%

1440p
High Preset

Battlefield 5	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Far Cry New Dawn	3−4 +50%	2−3 −50%

1440p
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	1−2	0−1
Cyberpunk 2077	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Far Cry 5	2−3 +0%	2−3 +0%
Hitman 3	7−8 +0%	7−8 +0%
Horizon Zero Dawn	5−6 +0%	5−6 +0%
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Watch Dogs: Legion	10−11 +42.9%	7−8 −42.9%

1440p
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

5−6
+25%

4−5

−25%

4K
High Preset

Far Cry New Dawn

1−2

+0%

1−2

+0%

4K
Ultra Preset

Assassin's Creed Odyssey	2−3 +100%	1−2 −100%
Assassin's Creed Valhalla	1−2 +0%	1−2 +0%
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare	0−1	0−1
Far Cry 5	1−2	0−1
Watch Dogs: Legion	0−1	0−1

4K
Epic Preset

Red Dead Redemption 2

3−4

+0%

3−4

+0%

This is how R5 (Carrizo) and GT 550M compete in popular games:

R5 (Carrizo) is 20% faster in 900p
R5 (Carrizo) is 17% faster in 1080p

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

in Assassin's Creed Odyssey, with 4K resolution and the Ultra Preset, the R5 (Carrizo) is 100% faster.

All in all, in popular games:

R5 (Carrizo) is ahead in 32 tests (65%)
there's a draw in 17 tests (35%)

Pros & cons summary

Performance score	1.84	1.49
Recency	4 June 2015	5 January 2011
Chip lithography	28 nm	40 nm
Power consumption (TDP)	12 Watt	35 Watt

R5 (Carrizo) has a 23.5% higher aggregate performance score, an age advantage of 4 years, a 42.9% more advanced lithography process, and 191.7% lower power consumption.

The Radeon R5 (Carrizo) 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.