Review (Galaxy) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti: The Cheapest GTX 500 a Gamer Can Get

Conclusions

We’ll begin the conclusion by looking at the performance of NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 550 Ti itself. Overall, this particular graphics card performs well enough. The Full-HD, 1920×1080 resolution is too much for the GTX 550 Ti as it struggled to produce acceptable frame rates in our test. But in lower resolutions, this graphic card is a remarkable performer that could hold its own against its competitions.

At 1360×768, the GTX 550 Ti produced more than 30 frames per second in nearly all games in our test, including “heavyweight” DirectX 11 titles such as Lost Planet 2. This is a good indication of the graphics card’s DirectX 11 performance. 1360×768 is the native resolution of most 18,5 inch LCDs, which are popular here in Indonesia.

Performance Comparison GeForce GTX 550 Ti VS GeForce GTS 450: When it comes to performance, GTX 550 Ti is the obvious winner. This is not surprising since the GTX 550 Ti is technically superior compared to its predecessor, the GTX 450. Overall, the GTX 550 Ti is around 24% faster, but the power consumption is not that much different at just 8% higher than the GTS 450 during full load conditions.

Performance Comparison: GeForce GTX 550 Ti VS Radeon HD 5770: The AMD Radeon HD 5770 is a tough rival that could keep up or even surpass the GTX 550 Ti in some of our tests. GTX 550 Ti’s advantage lies in its ability to produce higher frame rates in tessellation-intensive DirectX 11 titles such as Lost Planet 2 and Unigine Heaven 2.1, thanks to its more powerful tessellation engine. It’s also armed with some features not found on the AMD Radeon HD 5770, like PhysX and CUDA support.

GALAXY GTX 550 Ti, Individual Assessment: As opposed to previous “new-variant” graphics card tests, this time we used a custom designed card (with non-reference HS and PCB layout) from Galaxy. However, the card follows NVDIA’s reference standard for operating frequencies, and therefore should perform similarly with a reference-based GTX 550 Ti. Its display output selection is more varied compared to a standard GTX 550 Ti card. You should be able to hook up all kinds of display onto this graphics card without needing to use additional display converter. The sales package bundle is rather modest, with only the essential items included, but that would suffice for most users who intend to incorporate this graphics card inside their system.

The GTX 550 Ti is currently being offered for US$ 149 (lowest online price). That price point puts it somewhere between the GTS 450 and GTX 460 768 MB. Owners of the latter need not consider the GTX 550 Ti because their graphics card is still the better performer. But between the GTS 450 and GTX 550 Ti? We would definitely suggest to go with the GTX 550 Ti.

For an enthusiast gamer, the GTX 580, GTX 570, and GTX 560 Ti are the most appealing choices, but you need a powerful system in order to allow these cards to perform optimally. If your system isn’t powerful enough, GTX 550 Ti is the more feasible choice. GTX 550 Ti is an interesting alternative for entry-level gamer. It performs well in modern games, and it won’t drain your wallet as severely as its higher-end cousins.

GALAXY GTX 550 Ti

• Manufacturers : GALAXY
• Info : www.galaxytech.com
• Price : –
• Indonesian Distributor : Graha Komputindo
• Phone : 6012 974

TECHNICAL SPECS

• Graphics Chip : NVIDIA GTX 550 Ti
• Interface : PCI Express 2.0 x16
• Memory Size : 1024 MB
• Core Clock : 900 MHz
• Shader Clock : 1800 MHz
• Memory Clock : 4104 MHz
• Stream Processor : 192
• D-Sub Output : Ada
• DVI Output : Ada
• HDMI Output : Ada
• Display Port Output : Tidak Ada
• Memory Type : GDDR5
• Memory Interface : 192-bit
• Bundled Accessories : User’s Manual, Quick Installation Guide, Driver Disk, and Molex to PCI Express 6-pin Power Converter.