MSI GeForce GTX 550 Ti Cyclone II OC 1GB GDDR5 PCIe

Overview

TechSpot Metascore

Based on 5 expert reviews

Excellent:

4
Good:

1
Average:

0
Bad:

0

Pros:

Quiet cooler, Factory overclocked, MSI Afterburner, Upgraded cooler, Huge overclocking potential, Requires only 1 PCI-E power connector, Operates with low temperatures, DX11 capable
Incredible cooling solution, Stronger stabile overclocks, Better quality VRM area, Very quiet cooling solution, Better gaming performance over reference clocks
High quality of manufacture, Can compete against Radeon HD 6850 when overclocked, Wide range of supported FSAA modes, Highly efficient cooling system, High performance in applications using tesselation, Low noise, Good overclocking potential, Nvidia PhysX

Cons:

Heatsink beyond normal ATX specs, Heat dumped into case
Cooling system too large.

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Last revision on February 20, 2012

Reviewers Liked

Quiet cooler, Factory overclocked, MSI Afterburner, Upgraded cooler, Huge overclocking potential, Requires only 1 PCI-E power connector, Operates with low temperatures, DX11 capable
Incredible cooling solution, Stronger stabile overclocks, Better quality VRM area, Very quiet cooling solution, Better gaming performance over reference clocks
High quality of manufacture, Can compete against Radeon HD 6850 when overclocked, Wide range of supported FSAA modes, Highly efficient cooling system, High performance in applications using tesselation, Low noise, Good overclocking potential, Nvidia PhysX
Cyclone II cooler is excellent, Fan at 100% is not too loud, Very nice looks, Excellent build quality, Great value for money, SLI Support, Good overclocking headroom, Good power consumption, Variety of outputs: DSUB, DVII and HDMI
Overclocked out of the box, No price increase compared to reference design, Quiet cooler in idle, Good GPU overclocking potential, Low temperatures, Low power draw, Mixed density memory chips help increase performance, Support for DirectX 11, Support for

Reviewers Didn't Like

Heatsink beyond normal ATX specs, Heat dumped into case
Cooling system too large
Hot air from GPU exhausted into case, Extra height of card may cause problems in a small form factor build
Limited memory overclocking potential, Still limited to two active display outputs per card, No triple or quad SLI option, DirectX 11 relevance limited at this time

Expert reviews and ratings

The MSI GTX550 Ti Cyclone II OC brings a lot to the market. With it's upgraded cooler, factory overclock, and small size, it's a great addition to a low to mid-range gaming computer. It performed right where we expected it to at 1680x1050 and at...

By Bjorn3D on April 18, 2011

100

After reviewing a few different GTX550 Ti graphic cards it does start to lose its flavor, especially when the results can be so similar. So it is a major relief to get a refreshing view of a reference card from MSI. They beefed the GTX 550 Ti up with...

By Ninjalane on April 11, 2011

I’m going to keep this short because the test results speak for themselves. This card would be very easy to recommend if there were no GTX 460 768MB cards out there. For gaming, the GTX 550 Ti’s slightly older brother is a far better buy at...

By FutureLooks on March 30, 2011

Important: In this section I am going to write a brief five point summary on the following categories; Performance, Appearance, Construction, Functionality and Value. These views are my own and help me to give the MSI N550GTX-Ti Cyclone II OC Video...

By Benchmark Reviews on March 15, 2011

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti adds yet another item to the overcrowded mainstream plate, in the GPU buffet. At the outset, any addition is a good one for the buyer, as it increases consumer choice and tends to affect pricing of other products in the...

By techPowerUp! on March 15, 2011

We’ve got rather mixed impressions from our benchmarking the newest GeForce GTX 500 series product in 17 tests. Let’s take a look at the performance summary: So, the GeForce GTX 550 Ti is superior to the previous generation of affordable...

By X-bit Labs on March 28, 2011

The MSI N550GTX-Ti Cyclone II OC is another great example of a custom GeForce GTX 550 Ti video card that costs less than $150 and performs very well!...

By Legit Reviews on March 23, 2011

NVIDIA continues progress with the Fermi architecture by moving the GTX 500 series of cards down into another new price range. Unfortunately, the previous generation of parts from its own lineup are keeping the card from looking as good as it could....

By PCPer on March 15, 2011

Final Words & Conclusion The GTX 550 Ti series is going to be interesting in the sense that it addresses a very specific market, it makes it a hard to pinpoint and position product though, that market probably is not the Guru3D.com audience. Fact...

By Guru of 3D on March 15, 2011

So, I'm going to jump on out there and say that for those looking for a sub $160 video card with the capabilities to run the latest games at moderate resolutions and medium to medium-high quality settings, this is far from a bad choice. It offers...

By Overclockers Club on March 15, 2011

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