NVIDIA GeForce MX550 vs AMD Radeon R9 280X

VS
Performance
GeForce MX550
10,00510% of 104,737
Radeon R9 280X8% better
10,79210% of 104,737

The Radeon R9 280X has 8% better performance than the GeForce MX550 for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

Performance per dollar
GeForce MX550
No data available
Radeon R9 280X
36.0922% of 161.45

The Radeon R9 280X has 22% of the performance per dollar compared to the leader for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark: AMD Radeon RX 7600.

Shop GeForce MX550
Shop Radeon R9 280X
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Summary

#

About the NVIDIA GeForce MX550 GPU

The NVIDIA GeForce MX550 is a mobile graphics card that launched in Q4 2021. It is built on the Turing GPU microarchitecture (codename TU117SB) and is manufactured on a 12 nm process.

Memory

The MX550 has 2 GB of GDDR6 memory, with a 1,500 MHz memory clock and a 64 bit interface. This gives it a memory bandwidth of 96 Gb/s, which affects how fast it can transfer data to and from memory. GPU memory stores temporary data that helps the GPU with complex math and graphics operations. More memory is generally better, as not having enough can cause performance bottlenecks.

Cores and Clock Speeds

The MX550 includes 1,024 CUDA cores, the processing units for handling parallel computing tasks. The GPU operates at a core clock speed of 1,065 MHz and can dynamically boost its clock speed up to 1,320 MHz. Complementing the processing units are 32 texture mapping units (TMUs) for efficient texture filtering and 16 render output units (ROPs) for pixel processing.

Compatibility & Power Consumption

The GPU has a thermal design power (TDP) of 25 W. A power supply not strong enough to handle this might result in system crashes and potentially damage your hardware.

Benchmark Performance

The MX550 has the 180th best 3DMark 11 Performance GPU score among the 543 benchmarked GPUs in our database. It achieves 9.55% of the performance of the best benchmarked GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.

About the AMD Radeon R9 280X GPU

The AMD Radeon R9 280X is an end-of-life desktop graphics card that released in Q4 2013 with a MSRP of $299. It is built on the GCN 1.0 GPU microarchitecture (codename Tahiti) and is manufactured on a 28 nm process.

Memory

The R9 280X has 3 GB of GDDR5 memory, with a 1,500 MHz memory clock and a 384 bit interface. This gives it a memory bandwidth of 288 Gb/s, which affects how fast it can transfer data to and from memory. GPU memory stores temporary data that helps the GPU with complex math and graphics operations. More memory is generally better, as not having enough can cause performance bottlenecks.

Cores and Clock Speeds

The R9 280X includes 2,048 stream processors (SPs), the processing units for handling parallel computing tasks. The GPU operates at a core clock speed of 850 MHz and can dynamically boost its clock speed up to 1,000 MHz. Complementing the processing units are 128 texture mapping units (TMUs) for efficient texture filtering and 32 render output units (ROPs) for pixel processing.

Compatibility & Power Consumption

The R9 280X occupies 2 PCIe expansion slots. It supports DVI, HDMI 1.4a, DisplayPort 1.2 display connections. AMD recommends a power supply of at least 600 W to handle the GPU's thermal design power (TDP) of 250 W.

Benchmark Performance & Value

The R9 280X has the 171st best 3DMark 11 Performance GPU score among the 543 benchmarked GPUs in our database. It achieves 10.30% of the performance of the best benchmarked GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. Its 10,792 score and $299 launch price (MSRP) gives it a performance per dollar of 36.09. This is the 73rd best in value for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

General Info

General overview of the GPU, including details like its manufacturer, release date, launch price, and current production status.

InfoGeForce MX550Radeon R9 280X
ManufacturerNVIDIAAMD
ArchitectureTuringGCN 1.0
Market SegmentMobileDesktop
Release DateQ4 2021Q4 2013
Launch Price (MSRP)--$299
Production StatusActiveEnd-of-life
ShopCheck PriceCheck Price

Gaming Performance

#

Select a game to compare FPS metrics

Display FPS for EA Sports F1 22
EA Sports F1 22
Display FPS for Ghostwire: Tokyo
Ghostwire: Tokyo
Display FPS for GRID Legends
GRID Legends
Display FPS for God of War
God of War
Display FPS for Farming Simulator 22
Farming Simulator 22
Display FPS for Forza Horizon 5
Forza Horizon 5
Display FPS for F1 2021
F1 2021

FPS Benchmarks

This table showcases the average frame rate (FPS) achieved both GPUs in at various resolutions. Frame rate is a crucial indicator of how smoothly the GPU can run the game. A higher FPS generally translates to a smoother gameplay experience.

  • Frames Per Second
FPS data for EA Sports F1 22
EA Sports F1 22
GeForce MX550Radeon R9 280X
Low - 1080p
59 FPS
--
Medium - 1080p
51 FPS
--
High - 1080p
41 FPS
--
Ultra - 1080p
--
--
QHD - 1440p
--
--
4K UHD - 2160p
28 FPS
--
FPS Source: Notebookcheck

Compare Frames Per Second (FPS)

The average frame rate (FPS) in can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative performance. Generally, higher FPS results in a smoother gameplay experience.

Choose Baseline GPU:GeForce MX550 orRadeon R9 280X
GPUFrames Per Second
GeForce MX55028.1
GeForce RTX 3050 Mobile5.9-79%

Compare Cost Per Frame

The average cost per frame in can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative value. Generally, a lower cost per frame implies better value for your money.

Choose Baseline GPU:GeForce MX550 orRadeon R9 280X
GPUCost Per Frame
Our database does not have enough data to compare the FPS per dollar with other GPUs.

Benchmark Performance

#
Performance
GeForce MX550
10,00510% of 104,737
Radeon R9 280X8% better
10,79210% of 104,737

The Radeon R9 280X has 8% better performance than the GeForce MX550 for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark.

The GeForce MX550 is ranked 180th with a score of 10,005, and the Radeon R9 280X is ranked 171st with a score of 10,792.

Performance per dollar
GeForce MX550
No data available
Radeon R9 280X
36.0922% of 161.45

The Radeon R9 280X has 55% of the performance per dollar compared to the leader for the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090.

Radeon R9 280X's 36.09 performance per dollar ranks it 0th among the other benchmarked GPUs in our database.

Relative Performance

The average score in the benchmark test can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative performance. Generally, powerful GPUs tend to have higher scores.

Choose Baseline GPU:GeForce MX550 or
GPUBenchmark Performance
GeForce GTX 165013,645+36%
Radeon R9 38012,191+22%
Radeon R9 280X10,792+8%
GeForce GTX 96010,767.5+8%
Radeon 680M10,399+4%
Quadro M4000M10,259+3%
GeForce GTX 68010,216.5+2%
GeForce MX55010,005
GeForce GTX 970M9,877.5-1%
FirePro W7170M9,708-3%

Relative Value For Money

The average performance per dollar in the benchmark test can be compared to similar GPUs to assess relative value. A higher score implies a better value for your money.

Choose Baseline GPU:GeForce MX550 orRadeon R9 280X
GPUPerformance Per Dollar
GeForce GTX 96054.11+50%
GeForce GTX 95052.52+46%
GeForce GTX 97048.73+35%
Radeon R9 390X41.83+16%
GeForce GTX 750 Ti36.09+0%
Radeon R9 280X36.09
GeForce GTX 98032.07-11%
GeForce GTX 76031.98-11%
Radeon R9 FURY31.95-11%
Radeon R9 290X29.45-18%

Benchmark Scores

This table showcases the average performance scores achieved by both GPUs across industry-standard benchmark tests. These scores provide a valuable insight into overall performance. Powerful GPUs tend to have higher scores.

  • Popular
BenchmarkGeForce MX550Radeon R9 280X
3DMark Time Spy Graphics
2,470
(+11.76%)
2,210
3DMark Time Spy Score
2,800
(+17.01%)
2,393
3DMark Cloud Gate Graphics
40,364
52,117
(+29.12%)
3DMark Fire Strike Standard Graphics
6,125.5
8,343
(+36.2%)
3DMark 11 Performance Score
10,319.5
(+0.77%)
10,241
Cinebench R15 OpenGL 64 Bit
173.5
--
PassMark G3D Mark
4,555
6,186
(+35.81%)
PassMark G2D Mark
396
680
(+71.72%)
Unigine Heaven 3.0 DirectX 11
--
95.2
Benchmarks Source: Notebookcheck

Technical Specs

#

Graphics Processor

General information about the graphics processing unit like their architecture, manufacturing process size, and transistor count. Newer GPU architectures generally bring efficiency improvements and may introduce technologies that enhance graphical capabilities.

SpecGeForce MX550Radeon R9 280X
CodenameTU117SBTahiti
ArchitectureTuringGCN 1.0
Process Size12 nm28 nm
Transistors4,700 million4,313 million

Memory Details

Memory specifications like their capacity, bandwidth, and clock speeds. GPU memory stores graphics data like frames, textures, and shadows which helps display rendered images. These specs are crucial for graphics-intense applications like gaming and 3D modeling.

SpecGeForce MX550Radeon R9 280X
Memory Size2 GB3 GB
Memory TypeGDDR6GDDR5
Memory Bandwidth96 Gb/s288 Gb/s
Memory Clock1,500 MHz1,500 MHz
Memory Interface64 bit384 bit
L1 Cache128 KB16 KB
L2 Cache2 MB768 KB

Board Compatibility

Compatibility information like their slot size, bus interface, power consumption, and display support. These specs are useful for verifying compatibility with your motherboard, power supply, and monitor.

SpecGeForce MX550Radeon R9 280X
Slots--2 slots
Bus InterfacePCIe 4.0 x8PCIe 3.0 x16
Thermal Design Power (TDP)25 W250 W
Suggested PSU--600 W
Power Connectors--1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
OutputsDevice DependentDVI, HDMI 1.4a, DisplayPort 1.2

Cores & Clock Speeds

Processing power information like its cores and clock speed. These specs impact how fast they can process graphics. Each type of core or component serves a specific computational purpose.

SpecGeForce MX550Radeon R9 280X
Stream Processors (SP)--2,048
CUDA Cores1,024--
Compute Units (CU)--32
Stream Multiprocessors (SM)16--
Texture Mapping Units (TMU)32128
Render Output Units (ROP)1632
Core Clock Speed1,065 MHz850 MHz
Core Clock Speed (Boost)1,320 MHz1,000 MHz

Theoretical Performance

Theoretical performance numbers derived from the raw specifications of the different components like core count and clock speeds. While these provide a glimpse into peak processing power, they do not represent real-world performance.

SpecGeForce MX550Radeon R9 280X
Pixel Fill Rate21.12 GPixel/s32 GPixel/s
Texture Fill Rate42.24 GTexel/s128 GTexel/s
FP32 Performance2.7 TFLOPS4.1 TFLOPS
FP64 Performance42.24 GFLOPS1,024 GFLOPS

API Support

Graphics API versions supported by these graphics cards. APIs evolve over time, introducing new features and functionalities. Older GPUs may not support recent versions.

SpecGeForce MX550Radeon R9 280X
DirectX12 (12_1)12 (11_1)
OpenCL3.02.1 (1.2)
OpenGL4.64.6
Shader Model6.86.5 (5.1)

Check out these comparisons for similar GPUs:

Looking for alternatives? Check out these similar GPUs:

* Performance rating, performance per dollar, and rankings are based on the 3DMark 11 Performance GPU benchmark and MSRP.