Friday, June 12th 2020

ASUS Releases Polaris 12 Phoenix Radeon 550 Card

by
Uskompuf
 Discuss (33 Comments)
The Polaris architecture was debuted by AMD in the RX 400 series almost 4 years ago, since then AMD has released two new generations of graphics processors, Vega and Navi. It seems that the Polaris architecture will be living on a bit longer with the release of the ASUS Phoenix Radeon 550 2GB GPU, based on the Polaris 12 GPU.

This product may seem familiar and that's because ASUS released the Phoenix Radeon RX 550 back in 2017, the new Phoenix Radeon 550 uses a different memory configuration of 2 GB GDDR5 / 64-bit / 6 Gbps which is a significant step down from the 2/4 GB GDDR5 / 128-bit / 7 Gbps of the Phoenix Radeon RX 550 especially considering that card was released 3 years ago. This new card seems to have been available to OEM's for some time and is only now making it's way to retail at a hopefully cheap price.
Source: ASUS

Related News

Add your own comment

33 Comments on ASUS Releases Polaris 12 Phoenix Radeon 550 Card

#26
watzupken
I condone this sort of bait and switch tactic. Same name but significantly slower specs. Even if they are clearing stock, the RX 550 is not like a super fast card in the first place, and I see no benefits in gimping it further just to save a little money on the PCB?
r.h.pi wonder if this is better with cpu than a cpu onboard graphics combo like 3200g ....
I doubt so. Perhaps at its base specs, it may be a bit quicker. After being gimped here, I feel it should at best be on par if not slower.
Posted on Reply
#27
Caring1
watzupkenI condone this sort of bait and switch tactic. Same name but significantly slower specs. Even if they are clearing stock, the RX 550 is not like a super fast card in the first place, and I see no benefits in gimping it further just to save a little money on the PCB?
*Don't condone.
Fixed it for you ;)
Posted on Reply
#28
Valantar
watzupkenI condone this sort of bait and switch tactic. Same name but significantly slower specs. Even if they are clearing stock, the RX 550 is not like a super fast card in the first place, and I see no benefits in gimping it further just to save a little money on the PCB?


I doubt so. Perhaps at its base specs, it may be a bit quicker. After being gimped here, I feel it should at best be on par if not slower.
It's not a bait and switch (at least not for this particular product), the Radeon "non-RX" 550 hs existed as an OEM model for quite some time. If anything, blame OEMs and their demand for bespoke SKUs and the lowest possible prices, which is why we get misleading garbage like this. The whole reason for this thing's existence is OEMs going to AMD and saying "Yeah, we want a GPU that is like your RX 550, but cheaper, exclusive to us, and with a similar enough name that uneducated buyers won't notice, but one that still different enough that nobody can sue us." It's a shitty practice that I really wish would end, but it's been going on for a long, long time and is only getting attention here now due to Asus for some reason deciding to launch this GPU for retail.
Posted on Reply
#29
Tartaros
Chloe PriceYeah, I had also a GT 1030 not that long ago and with better cooling it boosted to around 1900MHz. Hella great card when thinking about that it has just a 64-bit memory bus.

In fact it was an Asus Phoenix one and had a similar heatsink as this card here. :D
I have a MX250 in my convertible laptop, which is basically a mobile GT1030, and I was surprised too. It can pack quite a punch. Though it will probably be left behind by AMD and Intel's new igpus in the next months and surely Nvidia will refresh its low end segment, that's why I said I don't see the interest in this card if it's going against the GT1030 rather than the GT710.
Posted on Reply
#30
RJARRRPCGP
Chrispy_Bait and switch to prey on the ignorant.
Sadly, it reminds me of Radeon, when it was ATi, when they came out with the Radeon 9000 Pro, which was pretty much a crippled Radeon 8500! Even if it had a new-at-the-time chip lithography revision.
Posted on Reply
#31
Chrispy_
I bought a Radeon 9100 which was just 2-year old 8500 silicon with a 10% downclock and a fresh label on the box.

I was fine with that though, the "8500" performed well (because I flashed it to an 8500 again) and it was not an expensive card at all. I seem to remember it being a stopgap when my GF2MX died suddently. Luckily I got my hands on a faulty 9700Pro via ebay for next to nothing (£40 I think) and with just one component to solder back on it was the easiest soldering fix I've ever done.
Posted on Reply
#32
Valantar
Am I the only one who doesn't see an issue with hardware being rebranded as a lower tier of the next generation and sold at a lower price? End users get more bang for their buck than previously, manufacturers can focus their R&D on higher end products where it will make more of a difference. If the alternative is a brand new stack of poorly finished GPUs due to budget constraints, I sure know which option I'd choose. If AMD were to sell a low-clocked Navi 10/6GB SKU as the RX 6500 next time around (or Nvidia sell a low-clocked TU106 as an RTX 3050) - even with a strict power limit or some other measure to prevent heavy overclocking, I would be all for it.
Posted on Reply
#33
windwhirl
ValantarAm I the only one who doesn't see an issue with hardware being rebranded as a lower tier of the next generation and sold at a lower price? End users get more bang for their buck than previously, manufacturers can focus their R&D on higher end products where it will make more of a difference. If the alternative is a brand new stack of poorly finished GPUs due to budget constraints, I sure know which option I'd choose. If AMD were to sell a low-clocked Navi 10/6GB SKU as the RX 6500 next time around (or Nvidia sell a low-clocked TU106 as an RTX 3050) - even with a strict power limit or some other measure to prevent heavy overclocking, I would be all for it.
I don't think it is a problem per se. Otherwise, what would AMD and partners do with the parts? As long as it is correctly priced it should be fine.
Posted on Reply
Add your own comment
May 29th, 2024 06:36 EDT change timezone

Latest GPU Drivers

New Forum Posts

Popular Reviews

Controversial News Posts