HIS Radeon HD 5550 GDDR5

Introduction

Over the last months AMD has presented a full lineup of DirectX 11 compatible products, from the high-end dual-GPU HD 5970, down to the low-end HD 5450. Only recently they have added another member to their lineup named Radeon HD 5550. It was a low key launch without big fanfare, for a product that tries to fill a gap in the $60-$75 segment, where NVIDIA's GT 220 and GT 240 are positioned.

HIS has developed their own HD 5550 PCB design equipped with GDDR5 memory, while many other AIBs use only slower DDR2 or DDR3 memory. The result is the HIS Silence HD 5550, a completely passive card that emits no noise, which makes it a prime candidate for a quiet media PC system. Unfortunately the memory and passive heatsink add quite a bit to the pricing, so the HIS card clocks in around $70. But 10 bucks extra for a noiseless experience doesn't seem too unreasonable?

	GeForce 9400 GT	Radeon HD 5450	Radeon HD 4550	GeForce 9500 GT	GeForce GT 220	Radeon HD 5550	Radeon HD 5570	Radeon HD 4670	GeForce 9600 GT	Radeon HD 5670
Shader units	16	80	80	32	48	320	400	320	64	400
ROPs	8	4	4	8	8	8	8	8	16	8
GPU	G96	Cedar	RV710	G96	GT216	Redwood	Redwood	RV730	G94	Redwood
Transistors	314M	292M	242M	314M	486M	627M	627M	512M	505M	627M
Memory Size	512M	512 MB	512 MB	256 MB / 512 MB	512 MB / 1024 MB	1024 MB	1024 MB	512 MB	512 MB	1024 MB
Memory Bus Width	128 bit	64 bit	64 bit	128 bit	128 bit	128 bit	128 bit	128 bit	256 bit	128 bit
Core Clock	550 MHz	650 MHz	600 MHz	550 MHz	625 MHz	550 MHz	650 MHz	750 MHz	650 MHz	775 MHz
Memory Clock	400 MHz	800 MHz	400 MHz	900 MHz	790 MHz / 1012 MHz	1000 MHz	1000 MHz	1000 MHz	900 MHz	1000 MHz
Price	$40	$45	$40	$50	$65	$65	$70	$65	$80	$90