MSI nVidia GeForce GTX550 Ti Cyclone OC 1GB DDR5 2DVI/Mini HDMI PCI-Express Video Card N550GTX-TI CYCLONE OC
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- Propeller Blade on Cyclone II Ø The special blade design generates 20% more airflow than traditional design.
- MSI Afterburner overclocking utilityØ Supports advanced fan speed control.Supports burn-in stability test.
- Military Class Concept ComponentØ SSC (Solid State Choke) keeps totally silent while the card is in full loading.
- PhysX & 3D Vision TechnologyØ Support PhysX technology effects for realist physics effect.
MSI nVidia GeForce GTX550 Ti Cyclone OC 1GB DDR5 2DVI/Mini HDMI PCI-Express Video Card
Msi desktop motherboard
MSI nVidia GeForce GTX550 Ti Cyclone OC 1GB DDR5 2DVI/Mini HDMI PCI-Express Video Card N550GTX-TI CYCLONE OC
List Price: $ 190.39
Price:
A Sweet Deal,
I bought this card about a month ago and wanted to wait before writing a review so that I know its true capacity. I must say that this card,the MSI version in particular, really impressed me.
First of all, the card looks great with a very aggressive appearance. The cooler is a bit large because it is only .5 inch away from the side panel of my case, So just pay close attention to dimensions of the card.However, it did fit in my HP p6754y case, which is not very big.
Temperatures:
The card at idle,with an ambient temperature in the mid 30 degrees Celsius, stays at about 45C. In the mornings, when the ambient temperature is lower, the card stays at a cool 38C. While playing games like Assassin’s creed II and Lara Croft: the guardian of Light(Came free with the card :]) at MAX settings(at 1080p!), the temperature does not go over 70C. I know it is a bit high but considering my case is a bit small, I am fine with the temperature. Playing Crysis 2 on advanced settings at 1080p, the card easily manages to keep FPS above 40 (45 is average) and the temperature stays below 75C.
Before this, I had an EVGA GT430. The fan burned out only after a month. At idle, the GT430(a much weaker card) is WAY louder than the MSI GTX550 Ti. I must say that unless you put your ear right next to the case, you cannot hear the 550 at all at idle. The fan does get louder during gameplay though.
If you are looking for a fairly cheap graphics card with great capacity, great looks and good quality, then definitely go with the MSI GTX 550 Ti. I am VERY pleased with the card.
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|Great Card!,
The GTX 550 Ti has been a great card. I ordered my first one on January 4th and it was very easy to install. Just pulled out my old 9600 GT and slid this one in the PCI-Express slot. After I booted up my computer it auto detected the driver I needed and installed and rebooted. The upgrade was instantly noticeable. It runs WoW close to max settings with 60FPS in 1080p. I haven’t tested it on an intense game of Starcraft 2, but for the few games I played it ran full settings with no hiccups. The cyclone design is genius, it keeps the card very very cool even under heavy strain. It is, however, a tad wide. I am using the NZXT Source 210 Elite case (white if you care) and it almost touches the side of my case. So if you are using a smaller midsize case beware.
I purchased MSI’s P67A-G45 Motherboard and this card but neither came with a SLI Bridge. Recently I emailed MSI’s customer support and told them I was interested in buying another card and running an SLI setup but neither my Motherboard nor GPU came with a bridge. 3 days later I received an email asking for my shipping address and the next day they sent the SLI bridge out for free. MSI makes quality products and has great customer support.
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|Power Requirements,
First of all, this is a great card. It’s pretty big so it’s not going to fit in a small case. My case is exactly 7 inches wide and there’s only about a half inch clearance between the side of the fan shroud and the side of my case. This measurement doesn’t allow for the space the mobo occupies or for the amount of the card swallowed up in the PCIe slot (about 3/8ths of an inch) so a 7 inch case might not work in all circumstances but it probably will.
The fan can get kinda loud when it really starts turning but who cares? When you’ve got the volume up it’s barely, if at all, audible. Besides, I/we have alot of money tied up in our computers and as long as it’s not a screeching, sizzling or popping noise I like to hear my computer working from time to time.
Amazon is pretty slack on giving good specs for alot of their computer hardware and you often have to go to another website to find what you’re looking for. To simplify it a little here’s some requirement specs that, when I bought this card, Amazon did not list:
Minimum Wattage: 400
Minimum +12v amps: 24
Now, this is what all other websites have listed AND this is what is on the box that the card comes in, however, the owner’s manual states the requirements to be a minimum of 500 watts and 30 amps.
My guess is that the specs in the manual are actually incorrect and that they are a broad requirement listed for every card they manufacture. FYI, I power this card with a Corsair Builder Series V2 CX500 – another piece of hardware for which Amazon has/had slack specs. They are(the most important stuff anyway):
Maximum total watts: 500
+12 volt watts: 408
Maximum +12v amps: 34 (this is a single rail unit)
I don’t know why Amazon refuses to list these numbers for nearly every GPU and PSU that they sell but they do.
So the card is great and I’m completely satisfied with it. I play mostly RTS games which can be pretty hard on your system and I can smoothly max out everything I’ve put through it so far, including Men of War, Dawn of War, Order of War, Napoleon: Total War, STALKER SoC and CoP, DCS A10C and ArmA 2. ArmA 2 actually kinda crawls but I’m pretty sure that’s a CPU shortcoming and not the graphics card. For the record, it is a WICKED looking beast!! It looks like some kind of fusion reactor or something. Not that it matters though. It’s looks have no bearing on how it functions and I can’t see the thing in it’s case anyway.
EDIT: It will also very smoothly run Crysis completely maxed out and Crysis 2 on the Very High setting. With Crysis 2 there was one area of the game that had minor framerate problems but I think that was a programming issue and not GPU power. There was nothing special going on – no explosions or lot’s of movement, etc. it was just normal gameplay and the card has done has done a consistently excellent job before and since under much more demanding scenes in that game. So in short, yeah, it’ll run Crysis AND Crysis 2.
The card does run very cool which it ought to with that hair dryer sitting on top of it. Even under a heavy extended load the card has yet to go over about 55 degrees Celsius with the standard factory overclocking. Keep in mind that this isn’t in a custom gaming case with fans hanging everywhere. It’s in a factory built, standard-cased, moderately modified Lenovo K300 (an EXCELLENT all-purpose machine) with only one exhaust fan, not counting the PSU fan which is only good for the PSU anyway. I think that’s pretty damned good.
The card also comes with the MSI Afterburner overclocking and monitoring software but I don’t plan on overclocking it beyond what has already been done at the factory.
It’s a good card and I definitely recommend it.
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