Gtx 550 ti: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti Specs

Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti Review: Bridging The Budget Gap

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

There is a sizable performance gap between the GeForce GTS 450 and the GeForce GTX 460 768 MB, and AMD’s Radeon HD 5770 is positioned smack-dab in the middle of it. The Radeon card currently sells for a few dollars more than the GeForce GTS 450, and yet it offers a notable upgrade, featuring performance on par with the venerable Radeon HD 4870.

Given the current market conditions, AMD’s Radeon HD 5770 consequently enjoys free reign over its $125-$150 price range, and has for some time now. The GeForce GTX 460 768 MB recently dropped a few dollars add some pressure, but that Radeon card slid a few bucks to counterattack, too. Up until now, Nvidia’s higher-priced GeForce GTX 460 SE was the only thing battling AMD for its position. Unfortunately, relatively sparse availability makes that card more of a stopgap measure.

Today Nvidia introduces its GeForce GTX 550 Ti, a card that should change the status quo by delivering more performance than a GeForce GTS 450. The 550 Ti centers on a respun GPU called GF116, which benefits from many of the same transistor-level changes introduced on GF110 and GF114.

The GF116 has a single Graphics Processing Cluster (GPC), with four Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs). Each SM contains 48 shader cores, four dispatch units, and eight texture units. All told, GF116 employs 192 shader cores, four Polymorph engines (one per SM), and 32 texture units.

Given its familiar specifications, you might be thinking that GF116 is no different from GeForce GTS 450’s GF106. And, from an architectural perspective, you’d be right. However, recall that the GTS 450 has one if its ROP partitions disabled at the factory. The GF116 in Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 550 Ti does not suffer this indignity, and all three ROP partitions are fully functional. In this respect, it’s similar to the uncut GF106 GPU in Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 460M mobile graphics module. With each of the three ROP partitions capable of eight 32-bit integer pixels per clock, we have 24 ROPs and a cumulative 192-bit memory interface. Because of the wider interface and higher memory clocks, the GeForce GTX 550 Ti boasts 70% more bandwidth than the GeForce GTS 450. This should prove to be a big help when anti-aliasing (AA) is enabled.

The new GF116 holds another notable distinction: it can accommodate mixed density memory ICs. This means that the GeForce GTX 550 Ti can be equipped with 1 GB of graphics RAM, unlike previous 192-bit cards with three 64-bit memory partitions limited to 3 x 256 MB (768 MB—not enough to be optimal) or 3 x 512 MB (1.5 GB—too expensive for a budget card).

Now we have a good idea what to expect from the GeForce GTX 550 Ti: it’s a GeForce GTS 450 with a 50% increase of ROPs and memory interface width, and overclocked for good measure. With these specifications, Nvidia claims that the new card provides 28% higher performance than the GTS 450, with 20% more performance per watt. We’ll put those marketing figures to the test in our benchmarks, but for now let’s consider how the new card stacks up against its competition:

Swipe to scroll horizontally

Header Cell — Column 0	GeForce GTS 450	GeForce GTX 550 Ti	GeForce GTX 460 768 MB	Radeon HD 5770
Shader Cores	192	192	336	800
Texture Units	32	32	56	40
Full Color ROPs	16	24	24	16
Graphics Clock	783 MHz	900 MHz	675 MHz	850 MHz
Shader Clock	1566 MHz	1800 MHz	1350 MHz	850 MHz
Memory Clock	902 MHz	1025 MHz	900 MHz	1200 MHz
GDDR5 Memory	1 GB	1 GB	768 MB	1 GB
Memory Interface	128-bit	192-bit	192-bit	128-bit
Memory Bandwidth	57. 7 GB/s	98.5 GB/s	86.4 GB/s	76.8 GB/s
Texture Filtering Rate	25.1 GTex/s	28.8 GTex/s	37.8 GTex/s	34 GTex/s
Connectors	2 x DL-DVI, 1 x mini-HDMI	2 x DL-DVI, 1 x mini-HDMI	2 x DL-DVI, 1 x mini-HDMI	2 x DL-DVI, 1 x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort
Form Factor	Dual-slot	Dual-slot	Dual-slot	Dual-slot
Power Connectors	1 x 6-pin	1 x 6-pin	2 x 6-pin	1 x 6-pin
Recommended Power Supply	400 W	400 W	450 W	450 W
Thermal Design Power	106 W	116 W	150 W	108 W

Making Comparisons

First and foremost, we need to point out that Nvidia confirmed for us that the “GeForce GTX 460 SE & 768 MB are transitioning out of our primary channel lineup. ” GeForce GTX 550 Ti is being groomed as the only bridge between the GeForce GTS 450 and GeForce GTX 460 1 GB. Having said that, the company also stated that “end market availability through e-tail can sometimes be found for months after such a transition.” From this, we can expect that GeForce GTX 460 768 MB availability will depend on how quickly the market adopts GeForce GTX 550 Ti.

When we compare the new model to the GeForce GTX 460 768 MB on its way out, we see identical render back-ends, both with a 192-bit memory interface and 24 ROPs. The similarities end there, however. The GF104 GPU in the GeForce GTX 460 is about 50% more powerful, with 336 shader cores and 56 texture units versus the GeForce GTX 550 Ti’s 192 cores and 32 texture units. This difference is mitigated a little by the new card’s higher clock speeds. But we still expect the GeForce GTX 460 768 MB to outperform it by a notable margin.

Comparing in the opposite direction, the GeForce GTS 450 shares an identical shader core and texture unit count with the new card. But its 128-bit memory interface boasts one-third less bandwidth, while the core and memory clocks are both about 120 MHz lower. Given those numbers, we expect the new GeForce GTX 550 Ti to perform significantly faster, just as Nvidia suggests.

The real question is: how will the GeForce GTX 550 Ti compare to AMD’s Radeon HD 5770? The 192-bit memory interface should afford a significant memory bandwidth advantage over the 128-bit Radeon, but we think the shader core power remains similar (for those surprised at the difference in quantity, keep in mind that GeForce shader cores are not 1:1 comparable with Radeon shader cores). As such, we expect the GeForce to perform similarly, except in bandwidth-limited situations, where it may show an advantage (for example, when AA is enabled).

The  GeForce GTX 550 Ti reference card looks a lot like the GeForce GTS 450 reference card, and according to the specifications, they share the same 8 ¼” length. Having said that, the reference PCB amounts to little more than a suggestion, and both of the launch samples we have for testing are unique overclocked models from their respective manufacturers. Let’s examine them now: meet Zotac’s GeForce GTX 550 Ti AMP! Edition and MSI’s N550GTX-Ti Cyclone II.

• 1

Current page:
Nature Abhors A Vacuum

Next Page Zotac’s GeForce GTX 550 Ti AMP! Edition

Join the experts who read Tom’s Hardware for the inside track on enthusiast PC tech news — and have for over 25 years. We’ll send breaking news and in-depth reviews of CPUs, GPUs, AI, maker hardware and more straight to your inbox.

Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti Review – Techgage

March 25, 2011 Addendum: The original price I quoted the GeForce GTX 550 Ti as was $130, when in fact it’s $150. The reason behind the mistake is that NVIDIA’s marketing materials listed a $129 price-point, but what we didn’t catch was that the company was talking about the older GeForce GTS 450 which the 550 Ti replaces. We apologize for the error.

Since NVIDIA first launched its GeForce GTX 500 series in November, the company has kept quite close to a schedule of one new card per month, with the most recent being this one, the GeForce GTX 550 Ti – a budget offering.

Up to this point, we’ve seen four GTX 500 cards launched across a good set of price ranges: $130, $250, $350 and $500. There are still some gaps, though, so it can be assumed that as per the norm, NVIDIA will release in-betweens over the course of the year.

As the numbering scheme implies, the GeForce GTX 550 Ti is the lowest-end model of the GTX 500 series released thus far, and despite its “GTX” moniker, it is indeed a budget / low-end mainstream model. NVIDIA’s first goal with the card is to deliver great gameplay experiences to gamers using a resolution of 1680×1050 or less, and secondary on the list, the company wants to beat out AMD’s Radeon HD 5770 – a card of the same price-range.

Mentioned in one of our news posts last week, NVIDIA puts the GTX 550 Ti in the “Sniper” category of its gamer-esque naming scheme. It’s meant to be lightweight, but still pack a punch, and I guess if you want to take things literally, it could also refer to the card being silent, just as a sniper would be when hiding in the bushes.

Also, since a sniper can shoot from afar and leave a little hole in its target, NVIDIA’s GTX 550 Ti leaves a little hole in your wallet due to its modest $130 price tag. Am I thinking too deeply into this? I think so, so let’s get on with our closer look, and then dive into a look at the card’s performance!

Closer Look

The GTX 550 Ti could be best compared to the GTS 450, as both feature similar goals, and even share similar silicon. The cards are designed to offer the best performance per watt, but thanks to the GTX 550 Ti’s improved memory density of 1GB, along with a bus boost up to 192-bit, the memory bandwidth has been increased roughly 70%.

For more specific information on the card, I recommend reading through that news post linked to above, and for a simpler comparison between the GTX 550 Ti and GTS 450, along with the rest of NVIDIA’s current line-up, this table should do the trick:

GeForce GTX 580	772	1544	4008	1536MB	384-bit	512
GeForce GTX 570	732	1464	3800	1280MB	320-bit	480
GeForce GTX 560 Ti	822	1645	4008	1024MB	256-bit	384
GeForce GTX 460	675 675	1350 1350	3600 3600	768MB 1024MB	192-bit 256-bit	336 336
GeForce GTX 550 Ti	900	1800	4104	1024MB	192-bit	192
GeForce GTS 450	783	1566	3608	1024MB	128-bit	192

Compared to the GTS 450, the GTX 550 Ti is the far superior card. It offers faster clocks all-around, an increased bus width and consequently far improved memory bandwidth. Given that lower-end models like these tend to struggle mostly because of a tight memory bus, this improvement might make some hearty differences in our real-world tests.

For our testing, MSI sent us its N550GTX-Ti Cyclone II, a card that features a starkly different cooler compared to NVIDIA’s reference, and also higher-that-reference clocks, with a 50MHz boost to the core, 100MHz to the shaders and roughly 200MHz to the memory. Overall, those are fairly substantial boosts, so for this article we’re including results with both the reference clocks and also MSI’s Cyclone II clocks.

According to MSI, this card avails an additional 20% worth of airflow across the card compared to the reference, but judging by looks alone, I’d have to assume the real number would be even higher. At the same time, the cooler included here is likely to be much more efficient with heat dissipation, and it’s for one very good reason: it’s huge. Well, huge as far as “budget” cards go, anyway.

It’s so large, in fact, that once the card was installed into our Cooler Master HAF X chassis, I couldn’t even close the door, due to the fact that it has a large fan equipped on it. Now, I’ve installed tri-SLI and tri-CrossFireX setups before in that chassis no problem – but here it is, a $150 GPU that prevents me from closing the door!

To be fair to MSI, most people who run a $150 GPU are not going to be using an equally-expensive $150 chassis with a huge fan in the door. But, it’s important to bear this minor issue in mind when looking to purchase it. While the cooling ability is sure to be top-rate, if you have a fan on your chassis door that lines up with the GPU PCI Express slot, you might have clearance issues.

Bulkiness aside, NVIDIA includes the same array of ports on this card as it does on the others from the GTX 500 series. That includes dual DVI ports and a mini-HDMI. As you’d also expect, this card can be paired up with another down the road for an SLI setup, which could boost the performance to put the card just past the GTX 560 Ti.