AMD announces Radeon Pro W5500 graphics card alongside W5500M variant for laptops

AMD presents the Radeon Pro W5500, a variant of the RX 5500 XT, but intended for workstations. The video card gets a Navi 14 GPU, is equipped with 8GB GDDR6 memory and has a TDP of 125W. The video card costs $399.

In terms of specifications, the Radeon Pro W5500 largely matches the Radeon RX 5500 XT. The workstation model is equipped with 8GB gddr6 in all cases; of the card for gamers there are also variants with 4GB vram. The video card supports PCI-E 4.0 and is based on the Navi GPU that is made at 7nm.

AMD provides the Radeon Pro W5500 with four displayport 1.4 connections, one less than the more expensive W5700. The USB-C connection is also missing from the new video card. It is possible to connect four 4k or 5k monitors, or one 8k monitor.

The W5500 is positioned below the Radeon Pro W5700, which was announced late last year and costs twice as much. AMD’s Radeon Pro cards have a modified pcb and different drivers than the consumer cards.

AMD pits the new video card for workstations against last year’s Nvidia Quadro P2200. That is a more economical card, with a TDP of 75W and a GPU derived from that of the GTX 1060. Nvidia does not have Quadro GPUs with newer GPUs in the price range of the W5500.

AMD also comes with the Radeon Pro W5500M for laptops. That variant has 4GB gddr6 memory and a tdp of 85W. Apple is already putting a Radeon Pro 5500M in its 16″ MacBook Pro. The W5500M variant will be available in other laptops in the spring, according to AMD. The Radeon Pro W5500 card for desktops will be available in mid-February.