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ASUS GeForce GTX 550 Ti DirectCU TOP graphics card. Review and testing

Comparatively inexpensive video cards based on the graphics chip from NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti have become very popular lately. The mainstream processor has replaced the very popular GeForce GTS 450-based solution. Not a bad device for budget gamers who want to get the power of new technologies at their disposal. The accelerator will allow you to play modern games, while you do not have to sacrifice picture quality and lay out a large sum. Many manufacturers release accelerators based on this GPU, such as the GeForce GTX 550 Ti DirectCU TOP. In order to start a substantive conversation, first of all, let's look at the table with the technical parameters of the video card.

Accelerator

ASUS GeForce GTX 550 Ti DirectCU TOP

Graphics chip

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti

Universal shader processors, pcs

192

Support for proprietary technologies

NVIDIA CUDA, NVIDIA SLI, NVIDIA PhysX, NVIDIA PureVideo HD, NVIDIA 3D Vision

Supported APIs

DirectX 11 (Shader Model 5.0), OpenGL 4.1

GPU operating frequency, MHz

975

Shader domain operating frequency, MHz

1950

Working video memory frequency (effective), MHz

1026 (4104)

Volume and type of video memory, MB

1024, GDDR5

Memory bus width, bit

192

Image output ports

1xDVI-I, HDMI, VGA

Maximum resolution

Up to 2560x1600 pixels

HD video decoding

MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, WMV9, VC-1 and H.264 / AVC

Minimum requirements for power supply unit, W

400

If we compare the accelerator in question with the "reference" solution based on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti, we can note that the video card we are testing has a slightly modified set of ports for displaying images. But that's not all. If you just analyze the name of the accelerator, you will notice the TOP prefix. She speaks about the presence of factory overclocking of the graphics core. In addition, Asus has installed a proprietary DirectCU cooling system. By the way, there is a version of this accelerator without TOP - ASUS GeForce GTX 550 Ti DirectCU. These, as well as other differences and features of the video card, we will analyze in detail below. We will begin our review, traditionally, with a story about the box. It is in it that the accelerator falls into our hands. Thanks to her, we get the first impression of the device.

The video card comes in a small but attractive enough box. It is made in the recognizable ASUS style. The front side is decorated with a traditional for the company rider with wings. A lot of space is occupied by an advertisement for one of the main "chips" of the accelerator - "Overclocked 975 MHz" - factory overclocking. And below are the logos of the technologies supported by the video card.

The back of the box contains a little more information. The name of the device and the icons of proprietary technologies are repeated again. A little below, on a light green background, are brief characteristics of the device. Traditionally, they are duplicated in the main world languages, there is a Russian version. Below are large pictures with a detailed description of the technologies used to create the video card. What information can be found here:

  1. The manufacturer has installed a proprietary cooling system - DirectCU. She, according to marketers of ASUS, should be 20 percent more efficient to cool the video card. The comparison was carried out with the "reference" cooling system recommended by NVIDIA engineers;
  2. High-quality element base - according to ASUS specialists, it ensures long-term operation of the video card and lowering the temperature of the printed circuit board elements. Smaller thermal package will increase graphics processing performance by 15%;
  3. Voltage Tweak technology - allows you to adjust the voltage of the graphics core. This is necessary for a stable and safe manual overclocking of the accelerator.
  4. And finally, we can get acquainted with the design of the interface panel. One of its slots is completely reserved for the grill, through which warm air is emitted from the case, the second is occupied by the image output ports.

On the side wall of the box, you can find the system requirements for the computer in which the ASUS GeForce GTX 550 Ti DirectCU TOP is planned to be installed. In principle, the only thing worth paying attention to is the minimum power of the power supply. If you are planning an upgrade, then perhaps you should change more than just the video card.So, the computer's power supply must have a power of at least 400 watts.

Continuing to explore the box, let's move on to its contents. The set in the package, in principle, confirms the budget of the solution. The scope of delivery is modest and includes only the essentials. What's in the box:

  1. Disk with utilities and drivers;
  2. A small brochure with instructions for installation and operation;
  3. And an adapter for the 6-pin power connector of the accelerator.

If you remember that we are holding in our hands one of the most expensive video cards based on the GeForce GTX 550 Ti, then you can understand the slight disappointment we experienced. In addition to the Spartan set, it was possible to put at least a bridge for connecting a pair of devices in SLI mode. On the other hand, considering that the kit will allow you to take a video card out of the box, install it and connect almost any monitor, you can understand ASUS who decided to save a little. In addition, almost all motherboards that support SLI technology have a connector in the kit. Thus, the poor delivery set is, of course, a minus, but it still cannot be called critical.

DirectCU video cards, despite their relatively low cost, are positioned as advanced devices, which the manufacturer has done well. Accelerator ASUS GeForce GTX 550 Ti DirectCU TOP is no exception. The board has a unique design. The arrangement of the elements differs from the "reference" one. The manufacturer used high-quality components - tantalum capacitors and chokes with ferrite cores. In addition, the ASUS GeForce GTX 550 Ti DirectCU TOP graphics card has an additional stiffener. It will prevent the PCB from deforming.

The back of the board is almost empty. There are no significant elements here. The only thing there is is a pair of tantalum capacitors. You can see empty footprints for memory chips. Hence the conclusion: either the tested device uses a board from a more powerful accelerator, or it is possible to create a video card with a large amount of video memory.

As we have already mentioned, speaking about the package bundle, the video card supports SLI technology and there is a corresponding connector on the PCB. With the help of the bridge, you can combine, for work in a single bundle, two similar video cards. This will allow, if desired, not only to increase the performance of the accelerator, but also subsequently to carry out a "soft" upgrade of the computer.

In the introductory part, we mentioned that the ASUS GeForce GTX 550 Ti DirectCU TOP video card is equipped with a changed set of image display interfaces compared to the "reference" accelerator. What exactly has changed? One of the two DVI ports has been replaced with a VGA connector. The standard is a little outdated, but still up to date. We can say that the set, in general, reflects modern realities and is convenient for most consumers. It will allow you to connect almost any monitor, projector or plasma panel to a video card without any problems.

Power to the GeForce GTX 550 Ti DirectCU TOP accelerator is supplied not only via the PCI Express bus, it also uses a 6-pin connector. It is located on the side of the PCB. The power stabilization system uses the traditional 4 + 1 scheme. As a PWM controller - Super Hybrid Engine.

NVIDIA's GF116 graphics chip is based on the Fermi architecture. The central part of the video card is a processor manufactured according to the 40 nanometer process technology. It contains 192 CUDA cores (unified shader processors) and 24 ROP units. You can examine the rest of the parameters in the screenshot below.

The video memory, the modern GDDR5 standard, is recruited using 4 microcircuits of 128 MB each and two microcircuits of 256 MB each. The total amount of video memory is 1024 MB. Chips manufactured by Hynix. According to the manufacturer's technical documentation, their sampling time is 0.4 ns. This corresponds to an effective frequency of 5000 MHz.As we said above, the ASUS GeForce GTX 550 Ti DirectCU TOP video card went through a small factory "tuning" and the video memory operates at an effective operating frequency of 4104 MHz. This gives us some headroom that can be used for manual overclocking. Considering a good cooling system and a good element base, one can hope for a noticeable increase in performance.

ASUS engineers have developed a special cooling system for DirectCU graphics cards. It is quite different from the "reference" one proposed for similar accelerators by NVIDIA designers. Let's consider its design in more detail. Not the largest aluminum radiator is riddled with heat pipes. A fairly large plastic casing is mounted on top. It actually covers the entire surface of the PCB. It contains a large cooler with a diameter of 80 mm. Through a small layer of thermal paste, the graphics core directly contacts the copper heat pipes. By the way, this is why the cooling system is called DirectCU. The only drawback of the heatsink design is that the elements of the power stabilization system and video memory do not contact the main heatsink, and the ASUS designers did not provide for an auxiliary heatsink. Another flaw in the design of the cooling system - the contact points of the copper heat pipes and the radiator are not improved with solder, this is a very simple but effective method, but it was neglected. True, in general, the thermal package of the GeForce GTX 550 Ti is low, according to the manufacturer, the TDP does not exceed 116 W. And non-critical design flaws do not play a big role.

Let's test the cooling system and see how it copes with its task. At the same time, we will assess how these shortcomings affect its effectiveness. We traditionally carry out testing using the FurMark utility. This program is a convenient and functional tool for assessing the efficiency of cooling. The study will be carried out in two modes - automatic adjustment of the cooler rotation speed and manual setting of the maximum frequency.

The first mode - at peak load, the GPU accelerator warmed up to 72 degrees. Quite an acceptable indicator. Especially when you consider that the fan was running at only 30 percent of its maximum speed. The noise generated by the cooler was extremely low. It is almost impossible to hear the fan operation against the background of a running computer.

Second mode. We did not set the rotational speed to maximum, the noise level at the peak rotational speed of the cooler is too high and starts to create discomfort. But even at 80 percent of the fan power, the cooling system showed a very good result. Under maximum load, the temperature of the graphics core dropped by 20 degrees! Noise aside, the result is great.

When idle, the frequency control system automatically lowers the operating frequencies of the graphics core and video memory. At the same time, heat generation and energy consumption are significantly reduced. The cooler of the cooling system reduces the rotation speed to 14% of the maximum. The noise level drops much below background noise.

In general, we can note the high efficiency of the cooling system developed by ASUS. She has proven her high consumer qualities. Its only drawback is a fairly high noise level with manual control of the rotational speed. In automatic mode, there are no complaints about the volume of work. The system has a great potential. It can be used when manually overclocking a video card.

CPU

Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition

Motherboard

MSI Big Bang-Xpower

Fan

Cooler Master V8

RAM

3x 2 GB Kingston DDR3-2250

Winchester

2x 128 GB Kingston SSDNow

Housing

Antec LanВoy Air Yellow (MidiTower, Transformer)

Power Supply

Seasonic M12D-850 (850W)

Monitor

ASUS VG236H (Full HD, 1920x1080, 3D, 120Hz) + NVIDIA 3D Vision Kit

Operating system

Microsoft Windows 7

The test results were, in principle, predictable.As we said above, the video card under review went through the factory overclocking procedure and already "out of the box" differed from the "reference" sample by an increased level of performance. This increase is insignificant. Looking at the graphs, you can see a difference in power of 5 percent. Such a difference can be noticed only in tests; such a gap will not noticeably affect the quality of the picture or the comfort of the game.

From the younger model based on the GeForce GTX 460, equipped with 768 MB of video memory, the tested accelerator lagged behind by about 10 percent. As you can see, the large amount of video memory did not play a significant role. It can help the accelerator work only in "heavy" graphics modes. But there the graphics core becomes the weak link. If we look at the competitors from the AMD camp, we can note the superiority of our accelerator. It easily outperforms solutions based on the Radeon HD 5770 chip. However, if you remember the venerable age of these video cards, then you shouldn't be surprised at the dominance of the younger model.

As we said above, when discussing the cooling system and hardware of the tested accelerator, it has potential for overclocking. As usual, we will use the Afterburner 2.0 utility that was developed specifically for such cases by MSI. With its help, it is very easy to control both the frequency characteristics and the supply voltage of the elements of the video card. So, we managed to achieve stable operation of the accelerator at the following operating frequencies - 1074 MHz (10% increase) and 5152 MHz (26% increase) for the graphics core and video memory, respectively. An excellent result, it is especially impressive if you remember about the factory "tuning".

After manual overclocking, the accelerator performance increased by an average of 11 percent. Thus, our video card reaches the level of more powerful solutions on the GeForce GTX 460 with 768 MB of memory. What are we “paying” for performance gains and extra frames per second? As we said earlier, overclocking costs more heat and noise. The only thing worth noting is that the noise level is quite high and creates some discomfort. Whether the increased productivity of these "sacrifices" is worth the decision only for you, dear customers.

The ASUS GeForce GTX 550 Ti DirectCU TOP (ASUS ENGTX550 Ti DC TOP / DI / 1GD5) graphics card makes a very pleasant impression. The highly efficient and, most importantly, rather quiet proprietary cooling system pleases with good performance. It should be noted, however, that this only applies to a video card operating in normal mode. The accelerator has excellent overclocking potential. The element base of the accelerator is excellent, only high-quality components and materials are used. A fly in the ointment - a relatively high cost of an accelerator. Despite the numerous and obvious advantages of the GeForce GTX 460 with 768 MB. Moreover, the latter accelerator is more efficient. Even without looking at the smaller amount of video memory.

But, despite the above, we can safely recommend ASUS GeForce GTX 550 Ti DirectCU TOP for overclocking fans and gamers.

  1. Good performance level;
  2. Support for all advanced gaming technologies;
  3. Efficient and quiet cooling system;
  4. High-quality element base.
  1. Relatively high cost;
  2. Modest equipment.
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