AMD Radeon RX Vega 6 (Ryzen 4000/5000) vs AMD Radeon RX 550 (Laptop)

AMD Radeon RX Vega 6 (Ryzen 4000/5000)

The AMD Radeon RX Vega 6 is an integrated GPU for notebooks. It is used in certain Ryzen 5 APUs of the Renoir generation (Ryzen 4000 Mobile), which were launched in early 2020. The iGPU is based on the Vega architecture (5th generation GCN) and has 6 CUs (= 384 of the 512 shaders) clocked at up to 1,500 MHz. Compared to the similar Radeon RX Vega 6 in the Raven Ridge generation (Ryzen 2000 Mobile), the GPU is clocked significantly higher (1.500 versus 1.100 MHz Boost).

The performance depends on the configured TDP (12-54 W at launch), the clocks, the cooling, and the memory configuration). The GPU should benefit from fast dual-channel DDR4-3200 RAM (contrary to DDR4-2133 single-channel, which is also possible).

The Vega architecture offers some improvements over the Polaris generation and now supports DirectX 12 Feature Level 12_1. More information is available in our dedicated article about the Raven Ridge architecture.

The performance is clearly faster than the old RX Vega 6 thanks to the higher clock speed and faster main memory (if used). In first synthetic benchmarks, the Vega 6 was able to reach the performance of a dedicated GeForce MX150. In games it should be somewhere between a GeForce MX230 and MX150.

Thanks to the modern 7nm process and clever power-saving features, the power consumption is comparatively low (according to AMD), so the graphics adapter can also be used for slim and light notebooks.

AMD Radeon RX 550 (Laptop)

The AMD Radeon RX 550 is mobile mid-range graphics card for laptops based on the Polaris 12 chip . It is manufactured in an improved 14 nm FinFET process at Globalfoundries or Samsung. The Polaris 12 chip (codename Lexa) is a smaller chip than the Polaris 11 and 21 and uses the improved 14nm process that allows higher clock rates than the first generation (Radeon RX 400 series). It features 640 shaders (10 CUs) and (at least in the Pavilion 15t) all cores are activated in the mobile version (where 512 are activated in the desktop RX 550).

According to the specified peak performance, the chip should be similar fast as a Radeon Pro 455 in the MacBook Pro 2016. In our tests it reaches the Radeon Pro 455 and bests the Nvidia GeForce MX150, but stays behind the GeForce GTX 1050.

The features of the Radeon RX 550 are identical to the faster RX 460 and all other Polaris chips. See more details on the Polaris architecture here.

The power envelope of the faster Radeon Pro 460 is rated at 35 Watt according to the AMD blog post. In our tests with The Witcher 3, the GPU needed in the Pavilion 15t 80 Watt and positiones itself between the much more power efficient MX150 and the GTX 1050.