MSI GeForce GTX 550 Ti Cyclone OC Card
For testing of this new graphics platform, MSI sent along its overclocked version dubbed the MSI N550GTX-Ti Cyclone OC. As the name implies, the clock speeds on this version are just a bit higher than the reference settings.
Here are the specifications of this card:
- Core clock: 950 MHz (versus 900 MHz)
- Memory clock: 1075 MHz (versus 1025 MHz)
- 1GB GDDR5 frame buffer
- 192-bit memory bus
- MSRP of $159
The MSI card uses the popular Cyclone cooler we have seen on several other designs over the years and it definitely offers a better cooling solution than reference while limiting noise levels.
The MSI Cyclone OC edition take up two full slots with this cooling option and you can see here the heatpipes used to move the heat from the GPU around to the top layer of fins.
The display output configuration includes a pair of dual-link DVI connections as well as a mini-HDMI port; this will be standard on the GTX 550 Ti cards based on what we have seen from early samples.
As advertised, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti only requires a single 6-pin PCIe power connector even in this mildly overclocked state.
In the box MSI has included just the basics: a PCIe power adapter, DVI to VGA adapter and a mini-HDMI to HDMI adapter.
