Introduction
Contents
The GeForce GTX 550 Ti is the latest addition to the GeForce GTX 500 series from NVIDIA, coming with a nice USD 150 suggested price, putting it between the GeForce GTS 450 and the GeForce GTX 460 768 MB. The MSI N550GTX-Ti Cyclone OC comes with a custom GPU cooler and factory-overclocking, costing only USD 5 above the reference model. Let’s check it out.
In the table below we compare the main specs of the video cards included in our review. They are all DirectX 11 parts. The prices listed below do not include rebates. With them, the price of the Radeon HD 5830 drops to between USD 130 and USD 145, and the price of the GeForce GTX 460 768 MB drops to between USD 130 and USD 140. Prices were researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this review, except for the GeForce GTX 550 cards, that we are publishing the suggested prices according to NVIDIA and MSI.
| Video Card | Core Clock | Shader Clock | Memory Clock (Real) | Memory Clock (Effective) | Memory Interface | Memory Transfer Rate | Memory | Shaders | Price |
| GeForce GTS 450 | 783 MHz | 1,566 MHz | 900 MHz | 3.6 GHz | 128-bit | 57.7 GB/s | 1 GB GDDR5 | 192 | USD 110 – USD 140 |
| GeForce GTX 460 768 MB | 675 MHz | 1,350 MHz | 900 MHz | 3.6 GHz | 192-bit | 86.4 GB/s | 768 MB GDDR5 | 336 | USD 150 – 170 |
| GeForce GTX 550 Ti | 900 MHz | 1,800 MHz | 1,025 MHz | 4.1 GHz | 192-bit | 98.4 GB/s | 1 GB GDDR5 | 192 | USD 150 |
| MSI N550GTX-Ti Cyclone OC | 950 MHz | 1,900 MHz | 1,075 MHz | 4.3 GHz | 192-bit | 103.2 GB/s | 1 GB GDDR5 | 192 | USD 155 |
| Radeon HD 5830 | 800 MHz | 800 MHz | 1 GHz | 4 GHz | 256-bit | 128 GB/s | 1 GB GDDR5 | 1,120 | USD 156 – USD 175 |
You can compare the specs of these video cards with other video cards by taking a look at our AMD ATI Chips Comparison Table and NVIDIA Chips Comparison Table tutorials.
NVIDIA is targeting this video card to users playing at 1680×1050 and this will be the resolution we will be using in our review.
Now let’s take an in-depth look at the MSI N550GTX-Ti Cyclone OC.
