GeForce GTX 550 Ti vs Radeon HD 8790M

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between GeForce GTX 550 Ti and Radeon HD 8790M, there are a couple of things to consider. Cards with more VRAM in general perform better and allow you to play on higher graphics settings. Size also makes a difference. A model with a large heatsink can occupy up to three expansion slots on a motherboard. Be sure you have enough room in your PC case. When comparing GPUs with different architectures, more processing cores and even higher TFLOPS will not always translate to better performance. To help you decide which GPU you need, we have measured frame rates in a number of popular games. For more on how the GeForce GTX 550 Ti stacks up against Radeon HD 8790M, check out specs charts below.

Radeon HD 8790M is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon HD 8790M 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 8790M here:

Main Specs

  GeForce GTX 550 Ti Radeon HD 8790M
Power consumption (TDP) 116 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 MXM-A (3.0)
Supplementary power connectors One 6-pin None
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 2 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x mini-HDMI No outputs
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  • GeForce GTX 550 Ti is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon HD 8790M uses MXM-A (3.0) interface.
  • Radeon HD 8790M has 1 GB more memory, than GeForce GTX 550 Ti.
  • GeForce GTX 550 Ti is used in Desktops, and Radeon HD 8790M - in Laptops.
  • GeForce GTX 550 Ti is build with Fermi architecture, and Radeon HD 8790M - with GCN.
  • Core clock speed of GeForce GTX 550 Ti is 50 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 8790M.
  • GeForce GTX 550 Ti is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon HD 8790M - by 28 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon HD 8790M is 4496 MHz higher, than GeForce GTX 550 Ti.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 7−8 3−4
ultra / 1080p 4−5 1−2
QHD / 1440p 0−1 0−1
low / 720p 18−20 14−16
medium / 1080p 9−10 6−7
The average gaming FPS of GeForce GTX 550 Ti in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 66% more, than Radeon HD 8790M.

Full Specs

  GeForce GTX 550 Ti Radeon HD 8790M
Architecture Fermi GCN
Code name GF116 Mars XTX
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 15 March 2011 16 November 2012
Pipelines 192 384
Core clock speed 900 MHz 850 MHz
Boost Clock 900 MHz
Transistor count 1,170 million 950 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 28 nm
Texture fill rate 28.8 billion/sec 21.60
Floating-point performance 691.2 gflops 691.2 gflops
Length 8.25" (21 cm)
Memory bus width 192 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 4.1 GB/s 4500 MHz
Memory bandwidth 98.4 GB/s 64 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 12 (11_0) 12 (11_1)
Shader Model 5.1 5.1
OpenGL 4.2 4.6
OpenCL 1.1 1.2
Vulkan N/A 1.2.131
CUDA +
CUDA cores 192
Bus support 16x PCI-E 2.0
Height 4.376" (11.1 cm)
SLI options +
Multi monitor support +
HDMI +
Maximum VGA resolution 2048x1536
Audio input for HDMI Internal
Bitcoin / BTC (SHA256) 44 Mh/s 80 Mh/s
Laptop size medium sized
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