Radeon HD 5970 vs Radeon RX 550 mobile

If you are going to buy a new graphics card and are choosing between Radeon HD 5970 and Radeon RX 550 mobile, 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 Radeon HD 5970 stacks up against Radeon RX 550 mobile, check out specs charts below.

Radeon RX 550 mobile is a Laptop Graphics Card

Note: Radeon RX 550 mobile 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 RX 550 mobile here:

Main Specs

  Radeon HD 5970 Radeon RX 550 mobile
Power consumption (TDP) 294 Watt 50 Watt
Interface PCIe 2.0 x16 PCIe 3.0 x8
Supplementary power connectors 1x 6-pin + 1x 8-pin
Memory type GDDR5 GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount 1 GB 4 GB
Display Connectors 2x DVI, 1x mini-DisplayPort No outputs
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  • Radeon HD 5970 has 488% more power consumption, than Radeon RX 550 mobile.
  • Radeon HD 5970 is connected by PCIe 2.0 x16, and Radeon RX 550 mobile uses PCIe 3.0 x8 interface.
  • Radeon RX 550 mobile has 3 GB more memory, than Radeon HD 5970.
  • Radeon HD 5970 is used in Desktops, and Radeon RX 550 mobile - in Laptops.
  • Radeon HD 5970 is build with TeraScale 2 architecture, and Radeon RX 550 mobile - with Polaris.
  • Core clock speed of Radeon RX 550 mobile is 562 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 5970.
  • Radeon HD 5970 is manufactured by 40 nm process technology, and Radeon RX 550 mobile - by 14 nm process technology.
  • Memory clock speed of Radeon RX 550 mobile is 2000 MHz higher, than Radeon HD 5970.

Game benchmarks

high / 1080p 10−12 18−20
ultra / 1080p 6−7 10−12
QHD / 1440p 1−2 5−6
4K / 2160p 4−5
low / 720p 24−27 35−40
medium / 1080p 14−16 24−27
The average gaming FPS of Radeon RX 550 mobile in Assassin's Creed Odyssey is 72% more, than Radeon HD 5970.

Full Specs

  Radeon HD 5970 Radeon RX 550 mobile
Architecture TeraScale 2 Polaris
Code name Hemlock Polaris 12
Type Desktop Laptop
Release date 18 November 2009 21 March 2017
Pipelines 1600 640
Core clock speed 725 MHz 1287 MHz
Boost Clock 1476 MHz
Transistor count 2,154 million 2,200 million
Manufacturing process technology 40 nm 14 nm
Texture fill rate 58.00 51.48
Floating-point performance 2x 2,320.0 gflops 1,647 gflops
Length 305 mm
Memory bus width 256 Bit 128 Bit
Memory clock speed 4000 MHz 6000 MHz
Memory bandwidth 128.0 GB/s 96 GB/s
Shared memory -
DirectX 11.2 (11_0) 12 (12_0)
Shader Model 5.0 6.4
OpenGL 4.4 4.6
OpenCL 1.2 2.0
Vulkan N/A 1.2.131
FreeSync +
Laptop size large
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