Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB Review

Zotac GeForce GTX 550 Ti Amp! Edition Preview

Manufacturer: Zotac
UK price (as reviewed): MSRP £129
US price (as reviewed): TBC

Zotac has let us know about two GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB cards that it plans to release, but they look identical, with the same striking black and orange cooler. There will be a standard-speed card with the GPU clocked at 900MHz (with 1.8GHz stream processors) and 4.1GHz (effective) memory, while the Amp! Edition that we were sent has a 1GHz GPU frequency (with 2GHz stream processors) and 1.1GHz (4.4GHz effective) memory.


This is a reasonable 7-11 per cent overclock, but there’s not a lot of hardware to back this up. The card uses a fairly basic 4+1 phase power circuit, with no sign of fancy chokes or non-standard capacitors. This means that the card only has one 6-pin power connector, and that the PCB is the more typical length of 210mm. However, as the power connector is on the end of the card, you’ll need to leave around 50mm of extra space to connect and disconnect it easily.


The heatsink underneath the large black and orange shroud is disappointingly small and basic too. There’s not a heatpipe to be seen, as it’s just a lump of aluminium onto which a PWM 4-pin 80mm fan blows. We had hoped that the basic design of the card would lead to a low price, but the non-overclocked card costs £119 inc VAT, which is toward the high end of the GTX 550 Ti 1GB price range we were quoted by a leading UK reseller. Meanwhile, the Amp! Edition card is set to cost £129 inc VAT, which is even higher than the £90-125 inc VAT price range we expect for most cards.

Where to Buy

Zotac cards are stocked at many online retailers, including:

• CCL Online
  
• Dabs
  
• eBuyer
  
• Overclockers UK
  
• Scan
  
• Yoyotech