AMD Radeon HD 8550G vs AMD Radeon HD 8310G

AMD Radeon HD 8550G

The AMD Radeon HD 8550G is a processor graphics card in the AMD Richland APUs (for example, the A8-5550M). It offers only 256 VLIW4 shader cores vs. the 384 shader cores of the 8650G. The 8550G has no dedicated graphics memory and shares the main memory with the CPU cores.

The integrated UVD3 video decoder allows for full decoding of Multi-View Codec (MVC), MPEG-4 Part 2 (DivX, xVid), MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 and Adobe Flash HD videos.

According to its clock rate range of 515 - 720 MHz (or 554 - 720 MHz in an A8-5557M), performance is only a few percentage points above a Radeon HD 7640G. Thus, the Radeon HD 8550G performs similarly to a dedicated Radeon HD 7570M. Without fast dual-channel memory, however, performance drops dramatically. The shaders of the chip can also be used for general computing.

The APU is manufactured in 32nm and rated at a TDP of 35 W. This allows the chip to be used in notebooks from 13- to 14-inches or larger.

AMD Radeon HD 8310G

The AMD Radeon HD 8310G is a processor graphics card in some of the ultra-low voltage AMD Richland APUs (A4-5145M). It only offers a reduced amount of 128 shader cores (VLIW4 architecture) and clocks at 424 - 554 MHz. The 8310G has no dedicated graphics memory, but shares the main memory with the CPU cores.

The integrated video decoder (UVD3) allows the full decoding of Multi-View Codec (MVC), MPEG-4 Part 2 (DivX, xVid), MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 and Adobe Flash HD videos.

According to the specifications, the performance should be somewhere between the HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge) and the HD Graphics 4000. Thus, the Radeon HD 8310G would place on the same level as a dedicated HD 6450M. Without fast dual-channel memory the performance drops dramatically, however. The shaders of the chip can also be used for general computing.

The APU is manufactured in 32nm and rated at a TDP of 17 watts. This allows the chip to be used in 11-inch notebooks or bigger.