Final thoughts and rating
NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 550 Ti is a little bit confused. The design has merit and NVIDIA's now realising the full potential of last year's GTS 450, but this evolutionary 500-series part is fighting in a price bracket to which it doesn't belong.
As a mainstream solution, it ticks all the right boxes bar one; price. Performance at full-HD 1080p is decent, power consumption is low, and the card retains of all NVIDIA's enticing ingredients; including support for DX11, PhysX, 3D Vision and SLI.
True to NVIDIA's word, our benchmarks show that performance at 1080p is up almost 30 per cent from GTS 450. Yet, at around £120 for a reference design or £130 for Gigabyte's OC model, GTX 550 Ti finds itself going up against the GTX 460 - a year-old card that's a significantly better performer.
Should pricing fall to £100 for a stock-clocked card or £110 for an overclocked model, the card would make a lot of sense and show plenty of mainstream appeal. As it stands, the GeForce GTX 550 Ti is tough to recommend.
Gigabyte's implementation benefits from improved out-the-box frequencies and an exceptional cooler, but if you're serious about gaming £130 would be better spent on a GeForce GTX 460.
The Good
Solid mainstream performance at 1080p
Exceptional cooler keeps noise and temperatures down to a minimum
The Bad
£130 can buy the faster GeForce GTX 460
HEXUS. rating
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 550 Ti OC
HEXUS Where2Buy
The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 550 Ti (GV-N550OC-1GI) is available to purchase from scan.co.uk* and ebuyer.com.
HEXUS Right2Reply
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