Wednesday, January 31st 2018

Sapphire Intros Radeon RX 550 Graphics Cards with 640 Stream Processors

Sapphire quietly introduced a slightly bolstered Radeon RX 550 graphics card that's based on the "Polaris 21" silicon, rather than the Polaris 20 "Lexa" silicon, called simply the Pulse Radeon RX 550 2GD5/4GD5 (model: 11268-16 for 2 GB and 11268-15 for 4 GB). Consumers should pay attention to the model number. "Polaris 21" is the same chip AMD bases the RX 560 on. This particular card has 10 out of 16 compute units physically present on the chip, which translates to 640 stream processors, higher than the 512 stream processors the RX 550 is originally endowed with. Other vital specs include 40 TMUs, and 2 GB or 4 GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 6.00 GHz, over a 128-bit wide memory interface (96 GB/s memory bandwidth). The GPU is clocked at 1071 MHz. The card relies on the PCI-Express slot for power, its display outputs include one each of DVI, HDMI 2.0, and DisplayPort 1.4. Sapphire could be going after the sweltering PUBG crowd.
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17 Comments on Sapphire Intros Radeon RX 550 Graphics Cards with 640 Stream Processors

#1
Ruru
S.T.A.R.S.
These low-end cards are so confusing about their shader count.
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#2
ArbitraryAffection
Is this P21 or full P12? The Full P12 GPU has 640 SP and 10 CU. This is probably based on the same silicon as RX 550, just with the extra CU enabled. Makes more sense than cutting a P21 down even further.
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#3
T4C Fantasy
CPU & GPU DB Maintainer
11268-15 for 4GB model
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#4
cdawall
where the hell are my stars
It would be curious to see if this unlocks to a full RX560 with 16CU's. Might grab one to try it out, although the cooler looks a bit wimpy to deal with 50W
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#5
T4C Fantasy
CPU & GPU DB Maintainer
cdawallIt would be curious to see if this unlocks to a full RX560 with 16CU's. Might grab one to try it out, although the cooler looks a bit wimpy to deal with 50W
60W xD

side note Bios says Baffin LE specifically, bios would say Polaris 21 if it was specifically, so its Polaris 11
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#6
cdawall
where the hell are my stars
T4C Fantasy60W xD

side note Bios says Baffin LE specifically, bios would say Polaris 21 if it was specifically, so its Polaris 11
So it should in theory unlock. They are already up for sale in China, don't know if I want to wait 4+ weeks to see what it takes to unlock them.
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#7
Eric3988
Nice discrete looking card, perfect for the causal gamer. Also perfect for the miner who can stuff over a dozen of them into a rack and call it a day.
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#8
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
cdawallIt would be curious to see if this unlocks to a full RX560 with 16CU's. Might grab one to try it out, although the cooler looks a bit wimpy to deal with 50W
I was thinking the same, i mean you see 560Ds unlocking to 1024 from 896 lol. Reminds me of the 9500/9500Pro Days.
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#9
Apocalypsee
Incoming surges of more vBIOS brick thread when people wanted to flash it to RX560 vBIOS.
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#10
eidairaman1
The Exiled Airman
ApocalypseeIncoming surges of more vBIOS brick thread when people wanted to flash it to RX560 vBIOS.
Final Fighter and cdawall seem to have the hang of it, course the cards could be laser cut too
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#11
T4C Fantasy
CPU & GPU DB Maintainer
ArbitraryAffectionIs this P21 or full P12? The Full P12 GPU has 640 SP and 10 CU. This is probably based on the same silicon as RX 550, just with the extra CU enabled. Makes more sense than cutting a P21 down even further.
Its a baffin the ID and name says so, P11
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#12
lexluthermiester
eidairaman1Final Fighter and cdawall seem to have the hang of it, course the cards could be laser cut too
Not uncommon, but there is a cost to such an effort. It will be interesting to see if these can be unlocked and what performance limitations might exist.
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#15
T4C Fantasy
CPU & GPU DB Maintainer
kombajnAnd here is BIOS for ASUS RX560(1024 SP) with the same GPU Device Id: 0x1002 0x67FF
www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/194113/asus-rx560-2048-170510
Yes different revision ids though
67FF Rev. FF RX 550 640SP
67FF Rev. CF RX 560
bios CAN be flashed its been done already

Reason why its not a 560 LE is because it uses same board as 550

67EF Rev. E5 RX 560D
67EF Rev. CF RX 460
Posted on Reply
#16
kombajn
T4C FantasyYes different revision ids though
67FF Rev. FF RX 550 640SP
67FF Rev. CF RX 560
bios CAN be flashed its been done already

Reason why its not a 560 LE is because it uses same board as 550

67EF Rev. E5 RX 560D
67EF Rev. CF RX 460
So if I bay let say this card:
www.notebooksbilliger.de/sapphire+pulse+radeon+rx+550+4gd5+lexa+xt+4gb+gddr5?nbb=45c48c
and flash for example this bios
www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/193242/asus-rx560-4096-170426
it should (in theory) work and give me full 1024SP ?
Posted on Reply
#17
cdawall
where the hell are my stars
No

In theory this is the unlocked sapphire bios. DO NOT DO THIS UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO RISK KILLING YOUR CARD THIS IS COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY UNTESTED
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