In terms of overall gaming performance, the graphical capabilities of the Intel HD i5 6300HQ are significantly better than the Nvidia GeForce GT 550M 2GB.

The GT 550M has a 390 MHz higher core clock speed and the same number of Texture Mapping Units as the HD i5 6300HQ. This results in the GT 550M providing 6.2 GTexel/s better texturing performance. This still holds weight but shader performance is generally more relevant, particularly since both of these GPUs support at least DirectX 10.

The GT 550M has a 390 MHz higher core clock speed but 4 fewer Render Output Units than the HD i5 6300HQ. The lower ROP count doesn't matter, though, as altogether the GT 550M manages to provide 0.2 GPixel/s better pixeling performance. However, both GPUs support DirectX 9 or above, and pixeling performance is only really relevant when comparing older cards.

The HD i5 6300HQ was released over three years more recently than the GT 550M, and so the HD i5 6300HQ is likely to have far better driver support, meaning it will be much more optimized and ultimately superior to the GT 550M when running the latest games.

The GT 550M has 2048 MB video memory, but the HD i5 6300HQ does not have an entry, so the two GPUs cannot be reliably compared in this area.

The HD i5 6300HQ has 24 Shader Processing Units and the GeForce GT 550M 2GB has 96. However, the actual shader performance of the HD i5 6300HQ is 182 and the actual shader performance of the GT 550M is 142. The HD i5 6300HQ having 40 better shader performance and an altogether better performance when taking into account other relevant data means that the HD i5 6300HQ delivers a marginally smoother and more efficient experience when processing graphical data than the GT 550M.

The HD i5 6300HQ transistor size technology is 26 nm (nanometers) smaller than the GT 550M. This means that the HD i5 6300HQ is expected to run slightly cooler and achieve higher clock frequencies than the GT 550M.

The HD i5 6300HQ requires 35 Watts to run and the GeForce GT 550M 2GB requires 35 Watts. The two GPUs require the same amount of wattage to run. As such, there is no need to worry about which will more significantly affect your yearly electricity bills.