Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB Review

How we tested

As always, we did our best to deliver a clean set of benchmarks, with each test repeated three times and an average of those results is what we’re reporting here. In the rare case where performance was inconsistent, we continued repeating the test until we got three results that were consistent.

The tests performed are a mixture of custom in-game timedemos and manually played sections, using FRAPS to record the average and minimum frame rates. We strive to not only record the real-world performance you will actually see, but also present the results in a manner that is easy to digest.

Intel Core i7 Test System

• Intel Core i7-965 processor (3.2GHz: 133MHz x 24)
  
• Asus Sabertooth X58 motherboard (Intel X58 Express with three PCI-E 2.0 16x slots)
  
• 3x 2GB Corsair TR3X6G1333C9 memory modules (operating in dual channel at DDR3 1,600MHz 9-9-9-24-1T)
  
• Corsair X128 120GB SSD running v1 firmware
  
• Corsair HX1000W PSU
  
• Windows 7 Home Premium x64
  
• Antec Twelve Hundred Chassis

AMD graphics cards

• AMD Radeon HD 6950 2GB (800MHz GPU, 5GHz memory) using Catalyst 11.2 WHQL
  
• AMD Radeon HD 6950 1GB (800MHz GPU, 5GHz memory) using Catalyst 11.2 WHQL
  
• AMD Radeon HD 6850 1GB (775MHz GPU, 4GHz memory) using Catalyst 11.2 WHQL
  
• AMD Radeon HD 5850 1GB (725MHz GPU, 4GHz memory) using Catalyst 11.2 WHQL
  
• AMD Radeon HD 5770 1GB (850MHz GPU, 4.8GHz memory) using Catalyst 11.2 WHQL

Nvidia graphics cards

• Nvidia GeForce 560 Ti 1GB (820MHz GPU core, 1,620MHz stream processors, 5GHz memory) using GeForce 266.58 WHQL
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB (900MHz GPU core, 1,800MHz stream processors, 4.104GHz memory) using GeForce 267.59 launch driver
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 1GB (675MHz GPU core, 1,350MHz stream processors, 3.6GHz memory) using GeForce 266.58 WHQL
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 768MB (675MHz GPU core, 1,350MHz stream processors, 3.6GHz memory) using GeForce 266.58 WHQL
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTS 450 1GB (783MHz GPU core, 1,566MHz stream processors, 3.6GHz memory) using GeForce 266.58 WHQL

Games Tested

• Colin McRae: Dirt 2 (DX11)
  
• Arma II: Operation Arrowhead(DX11)
  
• Call of Duty: Black Ops (Open GL)
  
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (DX11)