Asus GTX 550 Ti DirectCU – An Ideal GPU For Low Budget Gaming PCs Read more: http://www.tech2date.com/asus-gtx-550-ti-directcu-an-ideal-gpu-for-low-budget-gaming-pcs.html#ixzz1VUzAPIxB Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

Asus GTX 550 Ti DirectCU – An Ideal GPU For Low Budget Gaming PCs

After the GTX 560 Ti, we now have an even more affordable GPU from Nvidia, the Asus GTX 550 Ti DirectCU, which is targeted at budget gaming PCs. It features the new GF116 GPU, which benefits from transistor level improvements like the GTX 580 and GTX 560 Ti. This means less heat and more performance per watt thanks to higher memory bus width and clock speed. The 550 Ti has 192 shader units, which is similar to the GTS 450. However, the memory bus is wider (192-bit versus 128-bit on the GTS 450) and both the core and memory are clocked around 100 MHz higher at 900 MHz and 1025 MHz respectively. Factory-overclocked variants of GTX 550 Ti graphics cards by a few brands are already available. The Asus GTX 550 Ti DirectCU features their new cooler, which is seen on most of their new cards. The GPU on this card is overclocked by a mere 10 MHz and the memory speed is untouched. The Zotac GTX 550 Ti Amp Edition is factory overclocked to quite an extent. The core speed is cranked by 100 MHz and the memory speed by 75 MHz. The video outputs on both the cards are also different. Zotac offers DisplayPort, HDMI, and a pair of DVI ports, while Asus off ers a D-sub and an HDMI port. Performance-wise, the GTX 550 Ti fits right between the GTS 450 and GTX 460. The overall 3DMark Vantage score was 10050 at stock speed. Crysis Warhead at 1920×1080 in Gamer mode ran at 34 fps. Mafi a II was also smooth at 32 fps, but with PhysX disabled. The GTX 460 was faster by 5 to 8 fps and the Radeon HD 5770 came close, but took a hit when it came to tessellation and PhysX. If your budget for a gaming PC is up to Rs 45,000, this GPU would be ideal. Specification of Asus GTX 550 Ti DirectCU: GPU: GTX 550 Ti Memory: 1 GB GDDR5 Memory bus width: 192-bit Speed (Core | Memory): 900 MHz | 1250 \MHz Stream processors: 1408 Video outputs: Dual-link DVI, HDMI and mini-DP The Asus GTX 550 Ti DirectCU is a Graphics Card which is Good Value for Money because its Priced at Rs. 9,600/-.

Overclocking the Nvidia GeForce GTS 450

In our recent overclocking tests of the Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 and GTX 465, we found that pushing the cards to their performance limits essentially provided the equivalent of a free upgrade. After all, the overclocked GTX 460 outperformed a stock-clocked GTX 465, and upping the GTX 465's clock speed boosted performance up to 20 percent. So when Nvidia touted its bargain-priced GeForce GTS 450 video card ($129 list) as being highly overclockable, we were anxious to put it to the test and see if it too might reach into the performance range of its more expensive big brother.
Video card performance is about a lot more than just clock speed. Though the GTS 450 is a decent performer at resolutions of 1,680 by 1,050 or lower, its hardware is pretty stripped down compared to the GTX 460 and higher cards.

Spec	GTS 450	GTX 460	GTX 465
CUDA Cores	192	336	352
Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs)	4	7	11
Memory Bandwidth	128 bits	192 bits (768MB version)	256 bits
Stock Core Clock Speed	783 MHz	675 MHz	607 MHz

As you can see, the lower-end cards actually have faster clock speeds. But with fewer CUDA cores and SMs, and a narrower memory bandwidth, each of the individual components in the GPU has to do more work to render an image, so higher clock speeds become necessary just to maintain a baseline of performance.
In this story, we take the stock GeForce GTS 450 card and, using the standard software available from the card's designer and some trial and error, determine just how fast it can run without introducing instability to the system. What we find is that, once you cut back the number of cylinders under the hood far enough, running them at a higher RPM seems to have diminishing returns.
Though we did get a noticeable speedup from the GTS 450 when we pushed its clock rates higher, the results didn't edge it into the performance territory of pricier cards. Let's take a closer look.
Source:http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2369472,00.asp