# Palit GeForce GTX 550 Ti Sonic 1 GB



## W1zzard (Mar 14, 2011)

Palit's GeForce GTX 550 Ti comes with leading clocks of 1000 MHz out of the box which helps gain some performance to the GTX 460. In our testing the card emits super low noise levels which makes it a good choice for a silent media PC.

*Show full review*


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## newtekie1 (Mar 15, 2011)

Very interesting card.  I did not expect them to use the 192-bit memory bus from the GF116, and I really didn't expect different memory densities being used to achieve 1GB.

I wonder if nVidia is forcing 1GB on card makers, or if we will eventually see a 768MB version, or a 1.5GB version.


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## Zubasa (Mar 15, 2011)

The thing is, the extra memory on this card doesn't stop it from being slaughtered by the GTX 460 768MB.
This card should really have been a 768MB in the first place.
All that extra memory does is adds to the cost and maybe fools uninformed customers.


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## newtekie1 (Mar 15, 2011)

Zubasa said:


> The thing is, the extra memory on this card doesn't stop it from being slaughtered by the GTX 460 768MB.
> This card should really have been a 768MB in the first place.
> All that extra memory does is adds to the cost and maybe fools uninformed customers.



I agree, I'm glad they used the 192-bit memory bus, but 1GB is kind of useless.  I'd rather see 768MB and a cheaper card.


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## dj-electric (Mar 15, 2011)

I would say that loud and clear

NVIDIA = YOU HAVE FAILED !


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## sneekypeet (Mar 15, 2011)

It beats the 450, so because its named GTX its supposed to be better than a card it wasn't made to compete with?


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## wolf (Mar 15, 2011)

newtekie1 said:


> I agree, I'm glad they used the 192-bit memory bus, but 1GB is kind of useless.  I'd rather see 768MB and a cheaper card.



IMO it should have been 768mb and $119-129, and $149 for a 1.5gb version.

I have a feeling with different memory densities across the three 64-bit memory controllers not all of that 1gb will be as effectively used as if they were all the same density.


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## Zubasa (Mar 15, 2011)

sneekypeet said:


> It beats the 450, so because its named GTX its supposed to be better than a card it wasn't made to compete with?


Does it matter?
The fact is this thing is so overpriced that it competes against those cards price-wise.


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## newtekie1 (Mar 15, 2011)

sneekypeet said:


> It beats the 450, so because its named GTX its supposed to be better than a card it wasn't made to compete with?



No one is saying that, we are saying that the extra memory doesn't help it, if it did then it would be outperforming the 768MB GTX460 in memory limitted games, but it ain't because the GPU is so weak it holds it back.


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## cheesy999 (Mar 15, 2011)

newtekie1 said:


> Very interesting card. I did not expect them to use the 192-bit memory bus from the GF116, and I really didn't expect different memory densities being used to achieve 1GB.
> 
> I wonder if nVidia is forcing 1GB on card makers, or if we will eventually see a 768MB version, or a 1.5GB version.



we probably will see a smaller memory version - after all they did a 512mb gts 450 Inno3D GTS 450 512MB GDDR5 DVI VGA HDMI Out PCI-E....


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## sneekypeet (Mar 15, 2011)

seems priced perfect to me. The GTS 450 dropped pricing to about $130 average, and the GTX 460 is still near $200 averagely. Seems a card right in the middle that costs right in the middle of the two is just a hole filler. I mean why not?

Also to compare against the 460 you are giving up half the shaders at the start. Sort of like racing a one legged man in my eyes


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## newtekie1 (Mar 15, 2011)

sneekypeet said:


> Also to compare against the 460 you are giving up half the shaders at the start. Sort of like racing a one legged man in my eyes



That is kind what we are trying to say.  By giving it 1GB of RAM it is like racing a 4 Cylinder vs. an 8 Cylinder, but giving the 4 Cylinder a bigger gas tank to help make up for the under powered engine.


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## sneekypeet (Mar 15, 2011)

but the latter is $50 cheaper. For those on a budget, they can SLI these really cheap. For those complaining about the results, we will never buy this card anyways, might pick one up in a trade, but we aren't going to shell out the $150 for em anyways. Still seems like we are picking on the less fortunate here


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Mar 15, 2011)

Meh. For me 768 and 1 gb are equally inadequate. So if I had to buy this crap I'd get whatever performs better at the same price, which is def. the 460. They should either discontinue the 460 768 or lower the 550 price. Losing to yourself is just stupid.


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## ViperXTR (Mar 16, 2011)

and i was expecting it to demolish my GTX 460 SE :\


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## newtekie1 (Mar 16, 2011)

sneekypeet said:


> but the latter is $50 cheaper. For those on a budget, they can SLI these really cheap. For those complaining about the results, we will never buy this card anyways, might pick one up in a trade, but we aren't going to shell out the $150 for em anyways. Still seems like we are picking on the less fortunate here



For those looking to SLi two of these, they might as well buy a GTX470 and have better performance than two of these in SLI anyway for the same price.

My only complaint is that I'd rather see a 768MB version for cheaper than this 1GB for $160.  It would have been a better bang for the buck if it was 768MB @ $130.


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## _JP_ (Mar 19, 2011)

Neat little card. But like others are saying, I wouldn't buy it because of the price tag. If it was priced equal, close or slightly lower to OC'ed GTS 450, I think it would be a winner.


newtekie1 said:


> By giving it 1GB of RAM it is like racing a 4 Cylinder vs. an 8 Cylinder, but giving the 4 Cylinder a bigger gas tank to help make up for the under powered engine.


Yeah, and 2 more valves-per-cylinder too.


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