Radeon HD 6550A vs Radeon HD 8730M

In this comparison between Radeon HD 6550A and Radeon HD 8730M you will find out which graphics card performs better in today's games. Bear in mind that third-party versions may have more efficient cooling and higher clock speeds. This will increase cards' performance, though not by much. In addition to raw power you should also take into account the dimensions. Thicker models simply will not fit into a small mini-ITX case. The resolution of your monitor also affects the choice, since 4K gameplay requires a more powerful GPU. And don't overspend on the graphics card. Other parts of your build may also need to be upgraded, save some money for the CPU or power supply. For some people Radeon HD 6550A will be the best choice, for others Radeon HD 8730M will be their preference. Study the comparison tables below and make your choice.

Radeon HD 8730M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 8730M is only used in laptop graphics. It has lower GPU clock speed compared to the desktop variant, which results in lower power consumption, but also 10-30% lower gaming performance. Check available laptop models with Radeon HD 8730M here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 6550A Radeon HD 8730M
Power consumption (TDP) 35 Watt
Interface MXM-A (3.0) PCIe 3.0 x8
Memory type GDDR3 DDR3
Maximum RAM amount 2 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors No outputs No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 6550A is connected by MXM-A (3.0), and Radeon HD 8730M uses PCIe 3.0 x8 interface.
  • Radeon HD 6550A and Radeon HD 8730M have maximum RAM of 2 GB.
  • Radeon HD 6550A is used in Desktops, and Radeon HD 8730M - in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 6550A is build with TeraScale 2 architecture, and Radeon HD 8730M - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon HD 8730M is 100 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6550A.
  • Radeon HD 6550A is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 8730M - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 8730M is 400 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 6550A.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 0−1 0−1
QHD / 1440p 0−1 0−1
low / 720p 1−2 1−2
medium / 1080p 0−1 0−1
Radeon HD 6550A and Radeon HD 8730M have the same average FPS in Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 6550A Radeon HD 8730M
Architecture TeraScale 2 GCN
Code name Pinewood Mars
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 7 February 2011 16 November 2012
Pipelines 480 384
Core clock speed 550 MHz 650 MHz
Boost Clock 700 MHz
Transistor count 627 million 950 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 13.20 16.80
Floating-point performance 624.0 gflops 537.6 gflops
Memory bus width 128 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 1600 MHz 2000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 25.6 GB/s 32 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 11.2 (11_0) 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.0 5.1
OpenGL 4.4 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 1.2
Vulkan N/A 1.2.131
Laptop size medium sized
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