RX550 Review Compilation Thread

[CA_Steve]

In brief: eSports and low need GPU game card, 65W TDP, but OEM stock OC'ed cards may use more at stress loads. HDMI 2.0b and Display Port 1.4(ready), DVI no longer includes analog VGA signals. Dimensions stated as: a" x b" x c" are from mfgr websites - others are from reviews. Slots between GTX 750 and GTX 950. Note - some are 2GB and some are 4GB.

Roundups:

Reviews with acoustic testing: (hardwareLUXX in German)

Asus RX 550 4GB (7.24" length, xx" height, dual slot (xx"), no PEG. 1 DP, 1 HDMI, 1 Dual-link DVI). No passive mode - 2-pin fan always runs at ~2000 rpm -> Not recommended.
hardwareLUXX

PowerColor RX 550 Red Dragon 2GB (8.27" length, xx" height, dual slot (xx"), no PEG. 1 DP, 1 HDMI, 1 Dual-link DVI). Passive to 60C.
hardwareLUXX

Sapphire RX 550 Pulse 4GB (6.3" length, xx" height, 1.5 slot (xx"), no PEG. 1 DP, 1 HDMI, 1 Dual-link DVI). Passive to 60C.
hardwareLUXX
Computerbase

MSI RX 550 Aero ITX 2GB (6.1" length, 4.13" height, 2 slot (1.38"), no PEG. 1 DP, 1 HDMI, 1 Dual-link DVI). No passive mode. Fan spins around 1600rpm...possible BIOS fix in works.
Tom's Hardware

[MoJo]

MSI RX 550 Aero ITX 2GB

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd ... 034-2.html

Overclocked. No semi-passive fan mode. Like all RX 550s, it has one dual-link DVI port, one HDMI 2.0 interface, and a DisplayPort connector.

MSI claim that a BIOS update may sort the fan out, but otherwise it's 1600 RPM constantly.

[MoJo]

Gigabyte claiming passive up to some unspecified temperature:

http://www.gigabyte.com/Graphics-Card/GV-RX550D5-2GD#kf

[CA_Steve]

First reviews are up.

[MoJo]

I bought a Sapphire RX550 Pulse 4GB and can confirm passive operation.

The first post has a mistake, these cards are not 150W TDP. They are all under 75W, no extra power connector required.

[CA_Steve]

copy/paste mistake. fixed.

[CA_Steve]

Sapphire Pulse @ ComputerBase added.

[mingus]

will the Sapphire RX550 Pulse 4GB be the best choice? need 4gb for HTPC. only 4 models on newegg.

thanks

[MoJo]

One really important thing to note about the 500 series: there is no Windows 8/8.1 support. They are Windows 7 and Windows 10 only.

[CA_Steve]

Of those four? Probably. Unless MSI got around to fixing their fan profile.

[Derek Semeraro]

Drawing only 50 watts, the RX 550 is a good affordable entry-level video card for builds that want to do semiprofessional video editing and 4K streaming. For gaming, it can handle light to medium titles at 1080p 60 frames per second at high settings, but bigger budget titles will face a tradeoff between resolution, frame rate and settings.

For silent power-efficient Intel builds, you are better off just using the integrated graphics. For silent AMD Ryzen builds geared toward productivity and creativity, the RX 550 appears to be a good value all around.