The AMD Radeon HD 8550M is a DirectX 11.1 graphics card for small laptops. The core is clocked at 700 MHz, while the DDR3 graphics memory runs at 900 MHz. The 28nm Mars core uses the GCN architecture. Compared to the 8600M and 8700M series, the 8550M is different only in clock speed, memory bus configuration and memory type.
The performance of the Radeon HD 8550M is very similar to the Radeon HD 8570M or GeForce GT 630M. Current and demanding games like Far Cry 3 will run fluently only in low resolutions and detail settings.
The 384 shaders can be used with OpenCL 1.2 for general-purpose calculations (as 6 compute units). Compared to old TeraScale 2 chips, the GCN-based Mars architecture offers improved performance in this framework.
Features of the 8550M include video decoding via UVD3 for decoding MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, and Flash directly from the AMD GPU. Multi-View Codec (MVC) and MPEG-4 part 2 (DivX, xVid) HD videos are now compatible as well.
The 8500M series also supports automatic graphics switching between the integrated GPU and discrete GPU. Called Enduro, the technology supersedes AMD's Dynamic Switchable Graphics and is similar to Nvidia's Optimus. Furthermore, the 8550M can directly support up to 2 connected monitors using Eyefinity Technology if Enduro is disabled.
Other features of the 8500M series include ZeroCore for reducing power consumption when the display is turned off and Power Gating to power down areas of the chip that are not used. PowerTune allows automatic overclocking and underclocking of the graphics card as long as the GPU is within its TDP limit. For example, the chip may be underclocked when running FurMark and OCCT, but will overclock in certain games like Lost Planet, Crysis or Resident Evil 5.
The integrated HD audio processor is able to transmit HD Audio (TrueHD or DTS Master Audio) over HDMI and DisplayPort (e.g., for Blu-Ray videos). Additionally, it now allows audio to output simultaneously and in parallel to multiple devices with the new Discrete Digital Multipoint Audio (DDMA) feature.
The power consumption should be somewhat below that of the old HD 7650M. As a result, the 8550M is suited for 13-inch notebooks or larger.
Radeon HD 8500M Series
| ||||||||||||||||
| Architecture | GCN | |||||||||||||||
| Pipelines | 384 - unified | |||||||||||||||
| Core Speed | 700 MHz | |||||||||||||||
| Memory Speed | 1800 MHz | |||||||||||||||
| Memory Bus Width | 64 Bit | |||||||||||||||
| Memory Type | DDR3 | |||||||||||||||
| Shared Memory | no | |||||||||||||||
| API | DirectX 11.1, Shader 5.0 | |||||||||||||||
| Man. Technology | 28 nm | |||||||||||||||
| Notebook Size | medium sized | |||||||||||||||
| Date of Announcement | 16.11.2012 | |||||||||||||||
- Average benchmark valuesThe following benchmarks stem from our benchmarks of review laptops. The performance depends on the used graphics memory, clock rate, processor, system settings, drivers, and operating systems. So the results don't have to be representative for all laptops with this GPU. For detailed information on the benchmark results, click on the fps number.
| low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Far Cry 3 | 15.4 | 15.3 | 11 | |||
| Assassin´s Creed III | 7.2 | 6.8 | ||||
| Hitman: Absolution | 11.1 | 9.4 | 8.8 | |||
| Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 | 36.6 | 28.6 | 15.9 | |||
| Need for Speed: Most Wanted | 14.9 | 13.4 | 9.3 | |||
| Medal of Honor: Warfighter | 28.1 | 21.6 | 16.5 | |||
| Dishonored | 32 | 29.4 | 26.7 | |||
| Fifa 13 | 58.7 | 43.5 | 41.5 | |||
| Borderlands 2 | 25.4 | 20.9 | 16.7 | |||
| Guild Wars 2 | 16.8 | 7.8 | ||||
| Counter-Strike: GO | 38.7 | 33.6 | 29.4 | |||
| Darksiders II | 31.5 | |||||
| Sleeping Dogs | 22.1 | 15.5 | 13.5 | |||
| Max Payne 3 | 11.2 | 10.5 | 10 | |||
| Dirt Showdown | 16.5 | 11.5 | 10.4 | |||
| Diablo III | 59.5 | 44.9 | 34.4 | |||
| Risen 2: Dark Waters | 10 | 17 | 13.1 | |||
| Mass Effect 3 | 30.2 | 23.6 | ||||
| Alan Wake | 20.6 | 12.8 | ||||
| Anno 2070 | 56.4 | 25.6 | 19.1 | |||
| The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim | 20.9 | 19 | 15.9 | |||
| CoD: Modern Warfare 3 | 44.6 | 30.1 | 24 | |||
| Battlefield 3 | 16.4 | 14.4 | 13.4 | |||
| low | med. | high | ultra | QHD | 4K | < 30 fps < 60 fps < 120 fps ≥ 120 fps | 13 8 | 16 5 | 19 2 | | | |
For more games that might be playable and a list of all games and graphics cards visit our Gaming List
Toshiba Satellite S50D-A-10G: AMD A10-5745M, 15.60", 2.4 kg
External Review » Toshiba Satellite S50D-A-10G
Samsung ATIV 670Z5E-X01PL: Intel Core i5-3230M, 15.60", 2.2 kg
External Review » Samsung ATIV 670Z5E-X01PL
Samsung 740U3E-S01PL: Intel Core i5-3337U, 13.30", 1.6 kg
External Review » Samsung 740U3E-S01PL
Asus VivoBook U38DT-R3001H: AMD A8-4555M, 13.30", 1.6 kg
External Review » Asus VivoBook U38DT-R3001H
» Comparison of GPUs
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» Benchmark List
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» Notebook Gaming List
Playable games for each graphics card and their average FPS results.
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