EVGA’s GTX 550 Ti “free performance” evaluation
Conclusion
This has been quite an enjoyable experience for us in comparing our EVGA GTX 550 Ti versus our HD 5770 and other video card configurations and we look forward to evaluating further new products from AMD and Nvidia. Our original EVGA GTX 550 Ti was waylaid by the delivery company and we had to set the replacement aside for a week or so to benchmark the GTX 590. Fortunately, we have seen market pricing in action over the past two weeks, so that we can provide you with a more reliable price to performance comparison now than when it originally launched.
We feel priviliged to bring you our very first benchmarks and performance testing of Nvidia’s amazing value GTX 550 Ti. We like it quite a lot and it has exceeded this editor’s own expectations. In the meantime, feel free to comment below, ask questions or have a detailed discussion in our ABT forum. If you have any requests on what you would like for us to focus on for further testing or for any other information, please join our ABT forum or leave a comment.
Nvidia’s Strategy and AMD’s likely response
We have always likened the intense competition between AMD Graphics and Nvidia as a war or wargame. It is a real time strategy game of the highest order and they respond to each other’s moves as in a world class chess match. Nvidia has a specific purpose in bringing out the GTX 550 Ti now – to go after AMD’s bread and butter line-up, the HD 5770 – with a GTS 450 replacement.
In our original review of the GTS 450 last September, we saw it go toe-to-toe with the HD 5750 although its performance fell short of the HD 5770’s. Nvidia filled their product line-up “hole” with discounted versions of the GTx 460 and especially the 768MB version although it is a more expensive card to produce than the GTS 450. Nvidia’s strategy worked and the discounted GTX 460s put pressure on AMD and gained some marketshare at a cost. So Nvidia’s logical choice now is to bring out a cheaper-to-produce GTS 450 replacement that can meet or beat the HD 5770 in the same approximate $150 ($129-$169) range. It is easy to find the HD 5770 at or below the $129 price point – the very cheapest we have found is $100 after rebate; they are usually around $120, and the HD 6850 usually begins just above $150 (with rebates).
After just two weeks since the GTX 550 Ti’s launch, we see that you can get a GTX 460-1GB overclocked edition for $170, a regular GTX 460-1GB like we tested for $139, a EVGA GTX 550 Ti just like the one we are featuring for $129 and the very cheapest GTX 550 Ti we could find is $125. So there is excellent value right now from both AMD and Nvidia and market pricing has taken hold.
Is Nvidia’s strategy successful? We believe that Nvidia has found an inexpensive and worthy replacement for the GTS 450 in GTX 550 Ti. It is the same launch price, so similar market conditions have exerted the same kind of forces to balance the card’s pricing with each other. And the real proof of the GTX 550 Ti’s success will be determined by how and if AMD responds. It is unlikely that they will sit by and let the GTX 560 Ti make inroads into their marketshare and they already have overclocked the HD 5770 and dropped its pricing.
We feel pretty certain we will soon see at least a spiritual replacement for the HD 5830 which is currently an expensive card to produce and priced rather high for its performance. Since AMD’s OEM’s have already rebadged HD 5750 and HD 5770 into HD 6750/6770, we can no doubt expect a new 6000 series card which is inexpensive to produce and will go after the GTX 550 TI. And then of course Nvidia will probably respond with a non-Ti GTX 560 or GTX 560 “SE” as this great real time strategy game with AMD continues. It makes for exciting times and good for the consumer!
Of course we are speculating on the future. For this moment – and even considering near-future releases – the GTX 550 Ti has come in and done exactly what Nvidia intended to do – replace the GTS 450 with a similarly inexpensive and nearly 30 percent higher-performing video card for the mainstream 1680×1050 gamer. They have brought it in at $150 at allowed market pricing to drop it to $129 even for the overclocked EVGA premium GTX 560 Ti. At that price point, it is unbeatable for this snapshot we have taken of this moment in time. And the future looks good as it is a decently strong performer for its price. If you can spend ten dollars more, the GTX 460-1GB is in a higher class. And you can get a GTX 460-768M version for even less although 768MB seems to be a little low just from a marketing perspective; they are great performers for even 1920×1080 but we suspect they won’t be around for many more months as Nvidia and AMD continue to upgrade their line ups from top-to-bottom.
EVGA GTX 560 Ti
Pros and Cons:
Pros:
- Nvidia’s GTX 560 Ti is much faster than the GTS 450 and it wins more benches than it loses to the HD 57y0. Nvidia has brought good performance into a $150 (suggested etail) price-point package.
- The price has already dropped to $129 for this EVGA GTX 550 Ti!
- The EVGA GTX 560 Ti offers a guaranteed +50MHz over the stock clocks and there is further room for overclocking and good scalibility.
- New Fermi GF110 architecture brings support for GPU computing and a level of performance way beyond the last generation.
- DX11 and great support for tessellation, PhysX and CUDA, and 3D gaming bring realism to gaming
- EVGA’s highly efficient cooler is great for achieving and keeping your OC by keeping your GPU cool. It is one awesome cooler that tames GTX 590’s thermals very quietly, even at full load.
- SLI is possible with two of these cards; good performance for Surround. A cheap future drop-in upgrade is possible with a SLI motherboard.
- It is an EVGA card with a superb warranty and all of the benefits and extras that come with it including great support and a “community” of enthusiasts.
- Awesome overclocking tools are provided with EVGA Precision and OC Scanner and you can adjust the voltage with ELEET.
- Free copy of 3DMark11 when registering your new EVGA GTX 560 Ti worth $20
Cons:
- Future uncertainty about AMD’s response.
That’s it. For about the same price as an overclocked HD 5770, you get all the features that Nvidia video cards have to offer in a very solidly-built, cool and quiet-running EVGA GTX 550 Ti! If you require quiet running, EVGA’s superb quiet cooling is a real winner. Considering that you can get the EVGA GTX 560 Ti with free performance guaranteed for $129 from a (USA) etailer – this is after rebate and it includes the Mafia II game!! – we give it our Great Value award and a hearty thumbs up!
The Competition:
The ATI Radeon HD 5770 offers its own set of unique features. Launched 17 months ago, the ATI Radeon HD 5770 continues to offer excellent performance at now discounted price points. It gives you an immersive gaming experience with AMD Eyefinity Technology; driving up to three displays simultaneously and AMD HD3D technology for stereoscopic 3D gaming and Blu-ray 3D playback. The HD 5770 scales well also when overclocked. With AMD you also have the possibility of pairing up two HD 5770s for CrossFire-X or for even more flexibility paired with a more powerful card.
The Future
We do not know what the future will bring, but this amazing card brings a great value to the Fermi family of upgraded GTX “snipers” in Nvidia’s lineup. This editor believes that Nvidia brings a very remarkable full-featured DX11 GPU lineup to the market that will find good acceptance among customers and their fans alike. Fermi architecture is impressive and flexible and it does translate to performance in gaming. We have also seen Nvidia’s drivers improve and their multi-GPU SLI scaling for newer games is very impressive. If you currently game on an older card, you will do yourself a big favor by upgrading. The move to a GTX 550 Ti will give you better visuals on the DX11 pathway and you are no doubt thinking of GTX 550 Ti SLI further down the road if you want to get even higher performance as you may want to use Suround’s three-panel display or even 3D Vision for really intense gaming as we saw with a couple of games that we tested.
If the many exclusive features of the new GTX 550 Ti appeal to you and you are gaming at 1680×1050 , you cannot go wrong. In this editor’s experience, it is also a great choice if you are considering overclocking further as scaling is superb and EVGA’s quiet cooling is up to the task. The competition is hot as the competing Radeons offer their own set of features including a cheaper way to experience 3-panel multi-display with Eyefinity.
Stay tuned, there is a lot coming from us at ABT. We are going to follow up this review with much more testing of 3D Vision and continue our ongoing evaluation of SLI versus CrossFire which of course includes the GTX 590 vs. HD 6990. We also believe that another video card is going to be launched shortly.
Mark Poppin
ABT Senior Editor
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I am just getting around to it but i must say very nice review apoppins! As always your vast selection of games and benchmarks is top notch. Its so complete. I know you used it a lot, but I wouldve liked to have seen 1680 x 1050 results for every game. You may have only skipped it when the 550ti was doing very well at 1920×1200 and thats fine. But i feel like 1680×1050 is intended for this card and although at times it can obviously do well at higher resolutions, the 1680×1050 should be the starting point in all the test.
Dont get me wrong, your review was great. I just think cards intended for a certain resolution often get reviewed in much higher resolutions which doesnt do them much justice. Your review does do the 550ti justice though, its very full and useful.
Thank-you!
Again, the reason for leaving 1680×1050 out came down to time. Or a lack of it.
I did try to compensate by finding settings that approached playability and I hope we can revisit the GTX 550 Ti in another article. I did some further testing of the GTX 550 Ti in the HD 6670/6570 launch article, in fact.
Galaxy is sponsoring our May contest – the prizes will include a GTX 550 Ti and a GTX 560 Ti.