WHAT GAMES?

http://www.geforce.com/optimize click on optimize on the left. Put you graphic card in and look at some games that interest you. Will tell you what settings you should put the game too, and give you an idea of framerates you should see.

with that hardware you should be able to run everything, but latest games you will have to run on low-medium settings (BF3) while older games you'll be able to run maxed out (TF2).

Basically, 550 is a good card but it's not exactly a gaming card, it won't give you all the eye candy and best visuals, but it will at least be able to show you what the game looks like.

You can run BF3 on high I do with a 550ti

yeah I ran BF3 on ultra with 540M!

...oh wait did I mention that I had all AA/AF off? and that it ran in 1024x576 at 15 fps?

there's a lot of things that affect how well the game will run and different people tolerate different fps levels as playable

AA deferred off
AA Post High
Anisotropic filter 16X

Frame rates are fine in multiplayer never noticed any stutter or sharp drops. Ok the card is OC'd but point stands you can get surprising quality from BF3 at high on a 550ti.

edit to add* res = 1920X1080

if you havent bought it yet

make sure i5 is i5 2500k
also look at the ati 6790

also the nvidia 550 will be enough to play all games at mid to high
however not all eyecandy will be visible

if you are a hardcore gamer get something a little better like gtx 560ti or the 6790 which has the same cost or a 6850