To retain modest pricing, it’s common to see lower-end graphics cards equipped with either DDR2 or DDR3. That design choice, though, can have a major effect on performance, something that’s proven twice over with AMD’s Radeon HD 5550 and HD 5570, both of which have just been upgraded with a move to GDDR5 memory.

In the early months of 2010, it became clear that AMD had the intention of not just painting the town red, but keeping it that way for a while. It accomplished this with not just one GPU launch, and not even two… but five, spanning across a month and a half. Of these, most were budget models, from the Radeon HD 5450 up to the HD 5670; the exception being the mainstream HD 5830.

On February 9th in particular, AMD launched the HD 5550 and HD 5570, also known as Redwood LE and PRO, respectively. At that time, the HD 5570 seemed to be the main focus, because for months past that launch, I had forgotten all about the HD 5550. In a rarity, AMD didn’t send out samples for that model, so it itself didn’t seem to value the card that highly.

(…)

• READ MORE (Source): AMD’s HD 5550 & 5570 – Now Equipped with GDDR5 Goodness: Introduction – Techgage