Just bought a ZOTAC GTX 550 Ti...

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Niiro

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Just bought a ZOTAC GTX 550 Ti... + few more build questions

Well, I thought I made a decent choice, I was always debating between the 550 Ti and overclock it, or pick up a 560. I ended up choosing the 550 Ti since I got one for $80, free shipping off of NewEgg.

Obviously, it's better than my current POS card, a 8400GS. It's been a looooong time since I've upgraded my PC.

Though, I have a question for future builds. Should I keep my 550 Ti (I'm only expecting to use it until the end of the year, and upgrade.) and put it in SLI with another one later on, or should I just skip that idea altogether and get something from the 600 series?

I saw some hate for this card, and I figured I would ask here.
 
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The 550ti is just on the low end side, which is why it gets negative comments. The price is good for the performance, but still way behind a 560. Coming from an 8200, that's a pretty awesome upgrade.

At the end of the year you would probably be better off getting a 600 series card if it's priced right.
 
shadows5631 said:
The 550ti is just on the low end side, which is why it gets negative comments. The price is good for the performance, but still way behind a 560. Coming from an 8200, that's a pretty awesome upgrade.

At the end of the year you would probably be better off getting a 600 series card if it's priced right.
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No. At $80 the price is good for performance and is a solid buy. At the $120-150 mark, it has to compete against the 6850 which it absolutely fails in comparison to. So to the OP, congrats on finding a good deal on it. :)

As for future upgrades, I don't recommend SLI with mid/low-range cards. You really only want to deal with multi-GPU configurations if you're pushing past the performance that a single card can get you.
 
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APR summed it up. You got one for a pretty decent price.

As for SLI, I still think it is an option if you are able to find one after the 600 series is launched. If you are able to get it for a bit less then you just paid, then it is a worthy upgrade imo. However, depends on the cost when you look to upgrade as well as the performance you would get out of it relative to an upgraded card for the same cost plus the cost of selling your other 550 Ti.
 
a pet rock said:
No. At $80 the price is good for performance and is a solid buy. At the $120-150 mark, it has to compete against the 6850 which it absolutely fails in comparison to. So to the OP, congrats on finding a good deal on it. :)

As for future upgrades, I don't recommend SLI with mid/low-range cards. You really only want to deal with multi-GPU configurations if you're pushing past the performance that a single card can get you.
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He got a good buy yes. But buying from zotac was a bad choice. Ive seen those cards go bad in about 2 months of steady use. Personally I think he should go for the 560Ti non zotac. Zotac is mainly micro ATX mobo's and computers. :I But other then that he got the card for a steal
 
Yes, he should spend double the amount to get a better card. Why not just tell him to get a gtx 680? That is even better than the 560 ti...................................

Zotac is fine. I think they even have a lifetime warranty with registration.
 
i wish i would of found that deal on the 550ti. i just bought the 560ti for 219 today. :-(
 
Cloakedsphere said:
He got a good buy yes. But buying from zotac was a bad choice.
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I've never had a ZOTAC card before, so I was a bit hesitant to buy it, but I couldn't really give it up for the price. I like EVGA, my 8400GS (I accidentally said 8200 earlier, but it is in fact an 8400GS that I am running, currently, I edited my original post.) and I've been able to OC it by about 150Mhz without any heat/glitch issues. Obviously I don't mind burning it out as the 550ti should come in the mail by tomorrow.

Also, isn't this a mid-range card? I figured anything with a GTX label on the card at least gave it some sort of a mid-range capacity. Honestly, all my video cards to date have been either onboard or the size of a soundcard, lol. It's weird modernizing my system.

Why not just tell him to get a gtx 680?
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Lol, I was hoping this is sarcasm, as I could only find those for around $700.

Well, thanks for the feedback, guys. I'll probably end up dropping $500/$600 on either a 680/690 this Christmas as a little gift.


However, I do have a few more questions. I'm thinking about completely upgrading my rig as it is extremely dated. Right now I'm running a Athlon X2 250 @ 3.0Ghz (dual core), with Samsung 4GB DDR2 @ 800mhz on a mobo that only has one PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot and a 450 Watt PSU. Still running XP on 32 bit, but my system should be able to handle 64 bit. I'm doubtful there's a lot I can keep in my current system if I want to go to Ivy Bridge with the next generation of processors, DDR3 memory, and possibly PCI 3.0 when it's all said and developed. How long should I wait, and about how much of a hit will my budget take?
 
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Well you will need new everything and an OS and if you get a card from the 600 series maybe 1500 or so depends on what you get
 
With today's lineup, we're seeing "mid-range" cards at $250-350. Last gen the mid-range was $180-250. The 550Ti launched at about $180 but never competed with the Radeon 6850 at the same price point. As the 6850 kept dropping in price, the 550Ti never really had a chance. They released the 560 (non-Ti) which was strong competition with the 6850 but had to price it higher to avoid cannibalizing all 550Ti sales. And since the 560 (non-Ti) was a rebranded 460 most enthusiasts didn't really consider the 560 either.

And so far Ivy Bridge prices look pretty nice. They're having issues with it only being slightly better than Sandy Bridge with the 22nm and tri-gate magic, which results in lower prices for us. Honestly though, you can spend however much you want. 8GB of RAM is about $50, you could get a locked chip at $100-150 depending on quad- or dual-core, a non-OC mobo for $80-130, and tack on windows for another $100. That would get you a very respectable core. The 450W PSU should be fine for any single GPU rig, if it's a quality unit. And by quality, I mean can actually perform as rated.

Oh, and dropping $1500 is not a requirement for a new rig. Just flat out.
 
Well if he were to get a card from the 600 series, I thought most of them were around 500 USD they may have had cheaper ones I did not see though
 
Only 600 series card released so far is the 680 which is the fastest card out right now (single core). That is why they are $500. Will have to wait a couple months for the rest of the 600 series cards to be released.

The 460 competed with the 6850 and the 560 competed with the 6870. 550 Ti was competing with the 67xx series.

And you can get a nice 2500k and 7850 system for around $1000.
 
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I bought the Asus 550ti Direct cu Card with the asus m5a99x evo motherboard
 
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