After careful consideration I have decided to transfer all hardware review activities to a new domain. I purchased Hardwareasylum.com in 2012 and have been working hard to build a new and improved Ninjalane on that domain. If you are reading this you have reached one of the archived articles, news, projects and/or reviews that were left behind during the site migration.
Please update your bookmarks and be sure to visit the new and improved Ninjalane at Hardwareasylum.com
NVidia GeForce GTX550 Ti Video Card Review
Author: Will West
Published: Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Conclusion
Early in this review we pondered the question, can the GTX 550 Ti replace the GTS 450? Based on the benchmark numbers we would have to say that without a doubt the GTX 550 Ti would be a great replacement. Then again nVidia assured us that the GTS450 will have a long and happy life after the GTX550Ti hits the market. Of course we heard the same thing in relation to the GTX460 cards during the launch of the GTX560Ti, and so far that has proven to be true. So this does leave the new GTX550Ti in a strange place among the mid-range cards and gives consumers something to think about when looking for a viable upgrade.
In terms of performance we have gotten mixed messages between older DirectX 9 and 10 games and the newer, and more demanding, DirectX 11 titles. While we have seen that the GTX550Ti is clearly faster than the Radeon 5770 in older games that is simply not the case when it comes to DirectX 11 games where we see these cards being equal. We have seen this before on the Radeon side which was easily resolved with a driver update. As for older games on DirectX 9 and 10 the GTX550Ti is already very mature and a leader among the mid-range market.
The GTX naming is often a mystery that may never get explained, but if nVidia's partners go for some big factory overclocks on these cards then the GTX name is well deserved. As we have seen these cards have great potential for overclocking and do so without much noise or excess heat. Combine that with an aggressive price point and we might see older GTS450 and GTX460 cards a thing of the past.
In terms of performance we have gotten mixed messages between older DirectX 9 and 10 games and the newer, and more demanding, DirectX 11 titles. While we have seen that the GTX550Ti is clearly faster than the Radeon 5770 in older games that is simply not the case when it comes to DirectX 11 games where we see these cards being equal. We have seen this before on the Radeon side which was easily resolved with a driver update. As for older games on DirectX 9 and 10 the GTX550Ti is already very mature and a leader among the mid-range market.
The GTX naming is often a mystery that may never get explained, but if nVidia's partners go for some big factory overclocks on these cards then the GTX name is well deserved. As we have seen these cards have great potential for overclocking and do so without much noise or excess heat. Combine that with an aggressive price point and we might see older GTS450 and GTX460 cards a thing of the past.
Good Things
Lots of overclocking headroom
Very quiet cooling solution
DirectX 11 ready
192-bit with a full 1GB of RAM
Low power usage
Very quiet cooling solution
DirectX 11 ready
192-bit with a full 1GB of RAM
Low power usage
Bad Things
Performance that is only equal to the Radeon 5770
Only allowed dual-card in SLI
Only allowed dual-card in SLI
NVidia GeForce GTX550 Ti Video Card Review
Silent 4 of 5
http://www.hardwareasylum.com
