Surprise launch of seven year old GPU leaves many confused, and it’s not a joke
There's a 'new' low-profile card from ASRock
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Despite just passing by April Fools’ Day, some recent news of ASRock launching a ‘brand-new’ graphics card doesn’t seem to be a joke at all. They have launched a Radeon RX 550 Low Profile GPU, which is a card based on seven-year-old architecture. While this obviously won’t be of much interest to the majority of gamers, it does fill the niche of low profile cards, if it is priced accordingly.
If you’re looking for the best low profile GPU, the chances are that you aren’t too concerned with getting the most powerful option available to you. These budget-friendly video cards are ideal for a simple PC build which doesn’t really have plans for heavy workloads.
ASRock launches Radeon RX 550 Low Profile
| Specification | Details |
|---|---|
| GPU | AMD Radeon RX 550 |
| Clock speed | Up to 1.1GHz |
| Memory | 4GB 128-bit GDDR5 |
| Memory clock | 6 Gbps |
| Bus standard | PCIe 3.0 x8 |
| Display connectivity | DisplayPort 1.4 (x1) / HDMI 2.0 (x1) |
| Cooling | Dual Fan, 0dB Silent Cooling |
| Weight | 260 grams |
Looking at the specs above, we can see that there is (unsurprisingly) nothing too outstanding here by today’s standards, with just 4GB of VRAM to start. We’re yet waiting for the official pricing, though a quick conversion based on early Japanese reports place it around the $85 mark. For a discrete graphics card solution, there isn’t a whole lot (brand new) within this price category.
Why has this been announced?
While this may seem like an April Fools’ joke, as it was reported by VideoCardz on the 1st, the source material hails from this Japanese press release, which is dated March 29th – with a release date for April 5th. Additionally, we can now see that ASRock has listed it on their website.
As we said earlier, new low profile cards are harder to come by, especially if you want something under $100. This RX 550, while based on AMD’s old Polaris architecture, could be a solid alternative choice for niche budget builds. The original RX 550 launched back in 2017, so either way you look at it, this is a surprising announcement.
