Introduction:
Zotac International is one of the largest producers of NVIDIA VGA and motherboard solutions worldwide have produced another amazing product called the “GeForce GTX 550 Ti amp!” Below is Zotac claim for the 550 series cards:
Quote from Zotac:
| Elevate your gaming experience to the next level with the carefully tweaked and tuned ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 550 Ti AMP! Edition graphics card. By supercharging the engine, shader and memory clocks, the ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 550 Ti AMP! Edition is able to extract every ounce of performance available from the graphics processor to deliver class-dominating performance and clarity.
NVIDIA® SLI™ technology enables two ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 550 Ti AMP! Editions to work together and deliver twice the performance boost to keep up with demanding gamers. NVIDIA® 3D Vision™ technology enables gamers to step into the third dimension with breathtaking stereoscopic 3D effects with hundreds of game titles using the ZOTAC GeForce® GTX 550 Ti AMP! Edition and compatible 3D hardware or unprecedented gaming immersion. |
The 550 Ti amp!
Zotac has sent us their 550Ti amp! video card to review and without we put it through our gambit of benchmarks and quite impressed for a card that is presently running for a price of $153 is a great value and performer for the price. The tweaks that Zotac has added to the “amp!” has set it a little faster than its competitors in the 550 series and at the time of this review is just $10 more than its closest competitor.
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Specifications:
So what does Zotac pack into their GTX 550Ti AMP! card? Well, lets take a look at the specifications provided by Zotac’s web site: here.
| Model | ZT-50402-10L |
| Cooler Type | Fan (Dual Slot) |
| Core Clock | 1000 MHz |
| Core Processors | 192 Stream Processors |
| Dimensions | Height: 4.376in – 111.15mm • Width: 7.4in – 187.96mm |
| DirectX | DirectX 11 |
| Dual-Link DVI Supported | Yes |
| DVI | 2 x Dual-link DVI |
| GPU | GeForce GTX 550 Ti |
| HDCP Ready | Yes |
| HDMI | 1 x HDMI 1.4a |
| Interface | PCI Express 2.0 x 16 (Compatible with 1.1) |
| Max Resolution | 2560 x 1600 |
| Memory Clock | 4400 MHz |
| Memory Size | 1GB |
| Memory Interface | 192-bit |
| Memory Type | GDDR5 |
| Recommended Power Supply Wattage | 400-Watt |
| Package Contents | 1 x DVI-to-VGA adapter 1 x Dual MOLEX to 6-pin PCIe power adapter 1 x Driver Disk 1 x ZOTAC Boost Premium software bundle 1 x User manual |
| RAMDAC | 400MHz |
| SLI Supported | Yes |
So what does this all mean? Well, how about a great performance video card for a roughly $150 (at the time of this review) that can run DirectX 11, and include PhysX by NVIDIA, 1024MB of DDR5 memory to inch out competitor cards. So enough about what this card is, lets get to what the numbers are that this card can put up.
Test System Specificatons:
Processor: AMD Phenom ™ II X6 1090T
RAM: 4GB of OCZ DDR3
Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair IV Formula Motherboard
Hard Drive: OCZ Solid State Drive (Solid 2 Series 60GB
Power Supply: Tuniq Ensemble 1200 Watt PSU
Operating System: Windows 7
Benchmarks:
We took the Zotac GeForce GTX 550Ti amp! Edition through several benchmarks to see what it could do. We were pretty impressed with how it performed with the scores it put up. We did have an issue with 3DMark Vantage putting up a over-all score, but since we were after the GPU score which was posted on the final screen, we settled with that screen shot.
Benchmark software used:
3DMark 06
3DMark 11
3DMark Vantage
Geeks 3D Fur Mark v1.9
Alien Vs. Predator D3D11 Benchmark v1.03
Unigine Tropics
Unigine Sanctuary Benchmark
Unigine Tropics:
3DMark 06:
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3DMark06 is a PC benchmark suite designed to test the DirectX9 performance of your graphics card. A 3DMark score is an overall measure of your system’s 3D gaming capabilities, based on comprehensive real-time 3D graphics and processor tests. By comparing your score with those submitted by millions of other gamers you can see how your gaming rig performs, making it easier to choose the most effective upgrades or finding other ways to optimize your system. 3DMark06 has been downloaded more than any other 3D benchmark and the ORB database now contains over 8.5 million 3DMark06 benchmark scores from around the world. 3DMark is an essential tool for every PC gamer, hardware enthusiast or component manufacturer in the industry. |
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| Benchmark was ran 1024 resolution | Benchmark was ran at 1200 resolution |
The score at 1024X768 is very respectful 16,137 3DMarks which is the most common resolution for gamers. The next time we ran the benchmark we pushed the resolution up to 1920X1200 and we got a pretty respectful 14,588 3DMarks which is still pretty good score and not likely a resolution used by someone who can just afford a $150 card.
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Benchmarks Continued:
3DMark 11:
| 3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world’s most popular benchmark. Designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 11 under game-like loads. |
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| 3DMark 11 at 720 resolution | 3DMark 11 at 1080 resolution |
We chose to run the the resolutions are the two settings that are at the 3DMark 11’s middle and max setting which are 720 and 1080 setting. We were quite impressed with the 720 resolution score with a P2542. The 1080 resolution score was still good and though we did notice some waviness while watching the benchmark run.
3DMark Vantage:
| 3DMark Vantage is the industry standard performance benchmark for DirectX 10 gaming PCs. It includes two graphics tests, two CPU tests and six feature tests. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark Vantage is the best way to consistently and reliably test DirectX 10 under game-like loads. |
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| 3DMark Vantage GPU score of 6601 |
The 3DMark Vantage score was a little low for what we where hoping to get, but as stated on previous benchmarks the performance wasn’t anything to shake your head at.
Geeks 3D Fur Mark v1.9:
| FurMark is a very intensive OpenGL benchmark that uses fur rendering algorithms to measure the performance of the graphics card. Fur rendering is especially adapted to overheat the GPU and that’s why FurMark is also a perfect stability and stress test tool (also called GPU burner) for the graphics card.
The benchmark offers several options allowing the user to tweak the rendering: fullscreen / windowed mode, MSAA selection, window size, duration. |
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| Windowed Benchmark test | Full Screen Benchmark at 1920X1200 resolution |
The FurMark GPU stress Test is one very impressive to witness, though you must be warned by their claims on their website which even shows photo of video cards that have died while the benchmark was running. The Zotac FeForce GTX 550Ti amp! Edition did not die on us , but we did hear the fan spin up while this benchmark was running which made us a little concerned but the Zotac 550 Ti amp! pulled though with flying colors.
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Benchmark Continued:
Alien Vs. Predator D3D11 Benchmark v1.03:
| Test your PC’s DirectX 11 performance with this free, standalone benchmark test based upon Rebellion’s 2010 inter-species shooter Aliens vs. Predator. The test shows xenomorph-tastic scenes using tessellation and other such fancy DX11 features. |
| AvP D3D11 Benchmark Report ========================== ************************************************** *DX11 Hardware Detected* Using Default Video Settings: Resolution: 1280 x 800 Benchmark Summary: Number of frames: 5826 |
| Alien vs. Predator while ran at 1280 X 800 resolution |
The Alien vs. Predator benchmark is also a first for this review, and a pretty straight forward benchmark where once again tests DirectX 11. The Zotac 55oTi amp! did pretty well at a 1280X800 resolution with an average frames per second of 55.6. The score may be a little higher than what users may experience on their gaming system because they will be running a slightly higher resolution.
Unigine Tropics:
| Tropics Benchmark is a GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine™ engine from Unigine Corp. Original version was released in 2008.
The benchmark depicts tropical paradise: waves of the infinite ocean leisurely rolls over the sun-splashed shores of lagoon islands. The sunset paints straw huts with warm colors while the mild breeze genly stirs the coconut palm leaves. Hovering high in the tranquil sky the gulls are watching crabs crawling on the velvety sand among the abandoned boats. |
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| UNIGINE Tropics benchmark at 1920 X 1200 resolution |
This is one of the first UNIGINE benchmarks for this reviewer and in a word “WOW!” We ran this benchmark at the max resolution of 1920 X 1200 resolution and since the card was able to keep the score above 30 ~ 35fsp and the 550Ti amp! edition was able to push out an acceptable 42Fps.
Unigine Sanctuary Benchmark:
| Sanctuary Benchmark is a first GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine™ engine from Unigine Corp., original version was released in 2007.
A gothic chapel with sorrowful statues stand in solemn stillness lit by the trembling light of torches. Only few rays of sun coming through the stained glass windows slide over the biblical fresco and ominous creatures carved in cold stone. |
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| UNIGINE Sanctuary benchmark at 1920 X 1200 resolution |
We continue on with another UNIGINE benchmark and again we were able to get a above 35fps with a 47fps average. This goes to show how close in coding the benchmark programs are between Tropics and Sanctuary. The score being a respectful 47fps for a DirectX11 card at a $150 price point.
Conclusion:
Zotac has engineer another great product once again and have listed the GeForce GTX 550Ti amp! Edition at a price that should appeal to the masses with positive sales. The Zotac Geforce 550Ti amp! Edition card handled our benchmarks with really good score for a video card that is priced at $150 (at time of review) and can run DirectX11, PhysX (by NVIDIA), 1GB of onboard DDR5 memory and dual HDMI ports. The “amp!” edition gives the extra tweaks that set this card ahead of its competitors and all for just a couple of dollars more. So if you are looking for an awesome video card which is the leader in its class the Zotac GeForce GTX 550 Ti amp! Edition card is a card you should really consider.
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