Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti Review: Bridging The Budget Gap

Features
By Don Woligroski
published

Nvidia has a sizable gap in its product line between the GeForce GTS 450 and the GeForce GTX 460 768 MB. The company is filling that gap with an all-new card called the GeForce GTX 550 Ti. Is this product a worthy competitor for AMD's Radeon HD 5770?

Benchmark Results: Synthetics

We like to measure synthetic performance before seeing how a card's potential compares to its real-world showing. Let’s start with Futuremark’s 3DMark 11:

This benchmark considers the Radeon HD 5770 optimistically compared to the competition, including the GeForce GTX 550 Ti. We’ll see if that expectation holds up in the actual game benchmarks. In any case, the new card doesn’t catch up to the GeForce GTX 460 768 MB.

The Unigine Heaven benchmark is most useful as a yardstick of tessellation performance, and here we see the GeForce GTX 550 Ti exercise an advantage over the Radeon HD 5770. It's noteworthy that the GeForce GTX 550 Ti holds a similar lead with or without tessellation enabled. The GeForce GTX 460 768 MB continues to lead the pack.

Don Woligroski
112 Comments Comment from the forums
  • hardcore_gamer
    It consumes more power than the 6850, which is significantly faster.
    Reply
  • Pherule
    192-bit, good move there.
    Reply
  • AMD_pitbull
    So, when is the release date on this? Or is it going to be another paper launch by the green team?
    Reply
  • zooted
    So it consumes more power, and is louder than the 460 768, yet performs just about on par with the 5770? What was the point of this card?
    Reply
  • hardcore_gamer
    The far superior, less power consuming 6850 is available for only $10 more..This card is pointless
    Reply
  • scook9
    zootedSo it consumes more power, and is louder than the 460 768, yet performs just about on par with the 5770? What was the point of this card?To cost a lot clearly lol
    Reply
  • dark_lord69
    "On par with the 4870"
    "The MSRP of the new card is $149"
    Well.. in that case I'll stick with my 4870 that I bought for $80.
    Reply
  • sithtis
    zootedSo it consumes more power, and is louder than the 460 768, yet performs just about on par with the 5770? What was the point of this card?
    God i was thinking exactly the same... whats the point of that. a 460 768 cost around 140 and less noise less power better performance... i really really dont get it?

    6850 or 460 768 are the cards to get... here in Canada you can get a 5770 for less than 100$
    Reply
  • K2N hater
    @Don

    How about the minimal FPS? Any substantial change on FPS once all eye-candy settings are enabled?
    Reply
  • cleeve
    K2N hater@DonHow about the minimal FPS? Any substantial change on FPS once all eye-candy settings are enabled?
    Minimum FPS readings should be there for most of the games we've benched.

    As for adding eye-candy settings, not sure that makes sense for this class of card as it might push FPS down to unpleasant levels.
    Reply