ASUS GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card, ENGTX550 TI DC TOP/DI/1GD5
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- Factory overclocked to performs at an incredible 975MHz, 75MHz faster than stock performance, resulting in higher frame rates in games.
- Precision mounted DirectCU copper heat pipes in direct contact with the GPU for rapid heat dissipation – creating 20% cooler and quiet performance in idle.
- Super Alloy Power technology uses special alloy formula in critical power delivery components for a 15% performance boost, 35°C cooler operation and 2.5 times longer lifespan.
- Full throttle overclocking with exclusive ASUS Voltage Tweak via Smart Doctor – boosting 50%* more speed, performance and satisfaction!
ASUS NGTX550 Ti DC TOP/DI/1GD5 top-selected and overclocked to 975MHz, 75MHz higher than reference for faster and smoother performance. 20% cooler with exclusive DirectCU thermal solution. Pump up graphics performance with Super Alloy Power delivering a 15% performance boost, 2.5 longer lifespan and 35°C cooler operation.
Asus Video Cards
ASUS GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card, ENGTX550 TI DC TOP/DI/1GD5
List Price: $ 156.00
Price:
Best card on its price range,
This is a review for the ASUS ENGTX550 TI DC/DI/1GD5 GeForce GTX 550 Ti (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support video Card.
Got this card as a present for my son. I was a little worried that the card wouldn’t fit comfortably inside the case (it is indeed a large card at around 9 inches long) or that it will draw too much power from the system (my system has a 500W power supply and the card requires 450W). Although the card is big, the computer has nothing else connected to the main board that could interfere, so I went ahead and purchased it with my fingers crossed. This card made better sense due to its price and relative power. It was also a huge upgrade from the onboard Nvidia on my system. I researched similar cards such as GeForce GTX 260 (pricier but less powerful), and GeForce GTS 450 (cheaper and less powerful), and Radeon HD 5770 (sort of the ATI equivalent card in price and power). I also researched the web to compare performance on similar cards and also to help with my final decision.
The card comes with a power cable and driver/sotware CD. One end of the cable goes to the card, the two female ends require two available component power cables from your power supply. The two component power connectors I required were hidden and hard to reach inside the system. I tried using the card without plugging additional power, but the system only made a beep, turned the card’s fan on (making a lot of fan noise), and didn’t display anything on the screen. I had to dig deep inside the case and cut three plastic cable holders in order to pull the two power cables I needed to power the card up. Make sure you have two component power cables available on your power supply, otherwise the card will not work (based on a 500w power supply I guess). Luckily, the card fit perfectly, I only had to push one cable to the side, no re-routing of cables was necessary.
Driver installation went very smoothly. Windows 7 (64-bit) recognized the card, and installed all software automatically. The CD was not necessary. The screen resolution may look funny initially, but resist tweaking it until after the system restarts. In my case everything went back to normal after restarting. Your experience may differ. I used to run an onboard Nvidia card, so it already had Nvidia drivers and just required a few updates for the new card. I’ve read horror stories about the included software on CD, so I decided not to install it for now.
Card runs very quiet so far. My son tested it immediately by setting his Minecraft program to full settings and adding texture packs that did not work at all with the onboard card. Although it is not a demanding game, FPS went from 10 at low settings with the old onboard card to 60 at full with texture packs with the new card. He also tried Portal, Bulletstorm, WoW, at highest settings without any lag or performance issues. He’s throwing everything at it right now and hasn’t found any issues. We are not demanding gamers or tech wizards, but it doesn’t take one to notice the performance difference between the older card and the 550Ti. Also, it is worth mentioning that the Windows experience index went from 3.3 to 7.3 (on the video) which is also quite significant.
The card has three video ports (DVI, HDMI full, and VGA). My son is only using the VGA port right now and it works great, I can’t imagine when he plugs in an HDMI cable in the future.
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|Good card…,
It is a wise thought to shop around before you actually buy a product and since there was very few reviews here or elsewhere, I took a chance on this card because my MB is made by the same company. And I’m telling you that I am glad came to Amazon and shopped for this card. It runs quietly and I’ve played dead Space and Crysis 2 with high settings without so much as a hickup. Will test it out on more of the newer games later. Good card, buy it.
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|Great card, looks and runs cool,
There are better cards out there and unless you have a huge bank account that allows you to buy what ever you want this card hits the mark.
I’ve run Tribes Ascend at 720P and highest settings without a hitch. The only issue, not much of one at that, I have is that I read in reviews I could’ve gone with the model that was $20 cheaper and pushed it to the same limits I can get from this card. Without actually having one of those cards for testing though I am completely satisified with my purchase.
The fan noise is non existant and from what I could see the thing stays cool under pressure. Obviously at 720P I’m not pushing this card to hard but for what I’m running and what I’m expecting this card is perfect. I am planning on getting a second one and running SLI in the near future.
Is the card future proof? No but what card really is; There’s always something better just down the road.
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