With so much development in modern computing, graphics processing has become as the underlying need. Graphics card or GPU is essential for carrying out graphically rich tasks such as graphics processing, image processing, and 3D modeling or for gaming. They help to reduce the workload on the main CPU by handling all graphics related operations themselves so that CPU resources can be utilized for other services. Since GPU costs are sky high, there is a fresh interest at mid-range GPU’s. This brings in to the topic of AMD Radeon RX 550 Vs. Nvidia GT 1030 which are the current low-mid range contenders.
AMD Radeon RX 550 Vs. Nvidia GT 1030
There is the vast variety of graphics card available in the market. Each has their performance advantages and limitations. You need to be picky to choose the right one for yourself based on your application requirements and needs; So that you don’t end up spending extra cash. Today, we are discussing two of such graphics cards, Radeon RX 550 and Nvidia GeForce GT 1030.
We have prepared a detailed specification comparison tables along with a brief discussion. Hope this helps you to understand the performance level of both Radeon RX 550 and Nvidia GT 1030 graphics card. So without any further delay, here is a brief comparison between Radeon RX 550 and Nvidia GT 1030 graphics card:
GPU Architecture:
| Specifications | Nvidia GT 1030
|
AMD Radeon RX 550
|
| Core Speed | 1252 MHz | 1090 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1506 MHz | 1200 MHz |
| Architecture | Pascal | GCN 1.3 Baffin XT |
| Driver Updates | Normal | Great |
| Release Date | 17 May 2017 | 18 Apr 2017 |
GeForce GT 1030 delivers 162 MHz higher clock speeds compared to the base RX550 specs. However, the number of render output units is same in both GPUs, and RX550 has 24 more texture mapping units than GeForce GT 1030. As a result, AMD Radeon RX550 delivers 20.9 GTexel/s better texture fill rate compared to Nvidia GeForce GT 1030. Still, the shader performance of both graphics cards is almost similar since both of them support at least DirectX 10. However, GeForce GT1030 delivers 2.6 GPixel/s better pixel rendering performance compared to RX550. Pixeling performance is least relevant when comparing to newer cards, and we expect similar performance from both of them since they support DirectX 9 and better.
Resolution Performance Benchmark:
| Resolution | Nvidia GT 1030
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AMD Radeon RX 550
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| 1366 x 768 | 8.8/10 | 10/10 |
| 1600 x 900 | 7/10 | 10/10 |
| 1920 x 1080 | 5.6/10 | 8/10 |
| 2560 x 1440 | 4.1/10 | 5.8/10 |
| 3840 x 2160 | 2.8/10 | 3.9/10 |
[Ratings From www.game-debate.com]
The GeForce GT 1030 and Radeon RX550 were released within 1-month difference. Thus, they come with similar drivers for optimizing performance. However, Nvidia is not as regular as AMD for releasing driver updates. AMD releases new drivers almost every month for taking the most out of their graphics card and utilizing performance with newer games. The amount and type of graphics memory are same on both graphics cards in our comparisons. Do note that the RX 550 comes with 4 GB GDDR5 models as well. However, their performance on different resolutions differs a lot as shown in the table.
Graphics Memory:
| Specifications | Nvidia GT 1030 | AMD Radeon RX 550 |
| Memory | 2048 MB | 2048 MB |
| Memory Speed | 1000 MHz | 1750 MHz |
| Memory Bus | 64 bit | Not specified |
| Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR5 |
| Bandwidth | 32 GB/s | Not specified |
| L2 Cache | 0 KB | 1024 KB |
| Delta Color Compressing | No | Yes |
AMD Radeon RX 550 offers better memory speed. However, we are not sure if the overclocking capabilities are same or not. Moreover, GeForce GT 1030 has 32 GB/sec greater memory bandwidth compared to that of AMD Radeon RX 550. It implies that Nvidia GT 1030 might deliver better performance compared to AMD Radeon RX 550 once overclocked to deliver better texture rendering.
GPU Display:
| Specifications | Nvidia GT 1030 | AMD Radeon RX 550 |
| Shader Processing Units | 384 | 896 |
| Actual Shader Performance | 28% | 52% |
| Technology | 16 nm | 14 nm |
| Texture Mapping Units | 32 | 56 |
| Texture Rate | 40.1 GTexel/s | 61 GTexel/s |
| Render Output Unites | 16 | 16 |
| Pixel Rate | 20 GPixel/s | 17.4 GPixel/s |
There is a considerable difference between the numbers of shader processing units. Nvidia GT 1030 offers GeForce GT 1030 has 384 Shader Processing Units and Radeon RX 550 2 GB has 896 Shader Processing Units. Moreover, GeForce GT 1030 has 578 shader performances where Radeon RX 550 provides 1075 shader performance. It means that AMD Radeon RX 550 is way too better than GT 1030 for ensuring smooth and efficient experience when processing graphical data. Nvidia GeForce GT 1030 is good too, but not as good as AMD Radeon RX 550.
Transistor size technology in Radeon RX 550 to 2 nanometers smaller compared to that of GeForce GT 1030. It means RX 550 will remain cooler than the GT 1030 and will manage to achieve higher clock frequencies too.
Outputs:
| Specifications | Nvidia GT 1030 | AMD Radeon RX 550 |
| Maximum Resolution Support | 3840 x 2160 | 5120 x 2880 |
| VGA Output | 0 | 0 |
| DVI Output | 1 | 1 |
| HDMI Output | 1 | 1 |
| Standard Display Port | 0 | 1 |
None of their graphics cards offer a VGA output. Both of them offer DVI and HDMI output. AMD Radeon RX 550 offers standard display ports, which is missing in Nvidia GT 1030. Maximum digital resolution for Nvidia GT 1030 is 3848 x 2160. AMD Radeon RX 550 is much superior with 5120 x 2880 maximum digital resolutions.
Power Requirements:
| Specifications | Nvidia GT 1030 | AMD Radeon RX 550 |
| Max. Power Consumption | 30 Watts | 75 Watts |
| Recommended PSU Power | 300 Watts | 350 Watts and 23 Amps |
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GT 1030 requires 30 watts to run while AMD Radeon RX 550 requires 75 Watts. Considering an overall gaming build, you will require a 300 Watts PSU for running Nvidia GT 1030 and a 350 Watts PSU running AMD Radeon RX 550. Considering electricity use, Nvidia GT 1030 will save a lot of your money on electricity bill. However, AMD Radeon RX 550 provides better performance, so it is quite considerable.
GPU Features:
| Specifications | Nvidia GT 1030 | AMD Radeon RX 550 |
| DirectX | 12 | 12 |
| Shader Model | 5.0 | Not Specified |
| Open GL | Not Specified | 4.5 |
| Notebook GPU | No | No |
| SLI / Crossfire | No | No |
| Dedicated | Yes | Yes |
As shown in the table above, neither Nvidia GT 1030 nor AMD Radeon RX 550 come in a notebook version. In other words, you will not find any gaming laptop offering these graphics card. AMD Radeon RX 550 offers Open GL 4.5, where Nvidia GT 1030 comes with Shader Model 5.0. None of the theme offer SLI / Crossfire or Open CL technologies.
GPU Supporting Hardware:
| Specifications | RX 550 | AMD Radeon RX 550 |
| Recommended Processor | Not Specified | AMD Ryzen R3 1200X |
| Recommended RAM | 8 GB | 8 GB |
| Max. Recommended Gaming Resolution | 1920 x 1080 | 1600 x 900 |
AMD recommends using AMD Ryzen R3 1200X as it is configured to utilize the most of their graphics cards. For Nvidia GT 1030, there is no such recommendation as it runs pretty fair with most of the Intel and AMD processors. It is recommended to have 8 GB of RAM to use any of these two graphics cards. Overall resolution performance of AMD Radeon RX 550 is better compared to Nvidia GT 1030. However, when it comes to gaming, Nvidia recommends not to exceed 1920 x 1080 and AMD recommends not to exceed 1600 x 900, as the quality may be affected.
Gaming Performance Comparison:
| Specifications | Nvidia GT 1030 (%) | Radeon RX550 (%) |
| PUBG | -214 | -59 |
| Kingdom Come: Deliverance | -236 | -70 |
| Far Cry 5 | -704 | -306 |
| Final Fantasy XV | -414 | -160 |
| Call of Duty: WW II | -255 | -79 |
| Monster Hunter World | -97 | 0 |
| Grand Theft Auto VI | -287 | -96 |
| Sea of Thieves | -101 | -2 |
| Hunt: Showdown | -214 | -59 |
| Need For Speed Payback | -236 | -79 |
Note: Plus (+) value means GPU performance is some percent greater than game’s recommended performance. Minus (-) value means GPU performance is some percent less than game’s recommended performance. 0 means GPU performance is equal to game’s recommendation. [Source: www.game-debate.com]
As the table above implies, the graphics performance of AMD Radeon RX 550 2GB is much better compared to Nvidia GeForce GT 1030 2GB, when it comes to overall gaming performance.
Conclusion:
We hope this post helps you to understand the difference between AMD Radeon RX 550 and Nvidia GeForce GT 1030 so that you can choose the right product according to your needs, requirements and performance expectations from your rig. If you have any question or suggestion, feel free to use the comment section below. We are looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you! See you until next post!