Hi all...

 

I found 1 post regarding this, but it didn't quite include the answer I was looking for, so any suggestion on your part would be appreciated.

 

My specs are below, and in addition I run a 750 Watt PSU and the MOBO is ASUS P8Z68-V - OC is stable.

 

Basically my local hardware vendor offers Gainward, Gigabyte, ASUS and EVGA editions of the GTX 550ti cards, where ASUS and EVGA are priced around 5-10$ higher than Gainward and Gigabyte. So obviously the price is not the issue here.

 

On the other hand, I can see from the product desciptions, that there are in fact different product specs on these cards, and being the total computer idiot that I am, I'm just in the woods of what to go with...

 

The links (in danish, but if you press the product, and then "Udvidet info" the 2nd tab, you'll get full product specs)

https://www.komplett.dk/k/search.aspx?q=gtx+550ti

 

(I'm looking at the 1GB cards)

 

My forst thought was to go the ASUS as that would maybe be more compatible with the MOBO, but what do I know?

 

So what do you guys think:

1. what brand to go with, and

2. I used an online PSU calculator and it came out with a usage of 440 W with the 550ti - so do you see any PSU problems adding the 550ti to the system?

 

Thx!

 

Mas

Brand shouldn't really matter actually, above all it's all the same design that origally came from NVIDIA. No PSU problems there too.

 

Anyway, I don't recommend buy any 500 series card. THey are getting out of stock, their prices are rising and thus the performance you get for the price is quite low. What's your budget? I don't recommend buying this thing, you might regret it later on as it's not that fast. I'd wait some time until you can afford a GTX 660 or GTX 660Ti or better.

The GTX660ti is due to be released within a week or so. I would strongly recommend waiting for the 660 instead of purchasing an obsolete piece of hardware.

Arjen and Ben - thank you both of you - 2nd time around both of your have helped me out in this section - appreciate it!

 

As far as I could google, the 660 expects to be around 299$-329$ - which is around 100$ more that the 550ti... I would really be streching my budget - but do you guys think it would be worth the extra cash?

 

Again - thank you for taking your time to explain!

 

Mas

I would really be streching my budget - but do you guys think it would be worth the extra cash?

 

It really depends on what you plan to do with your setup. Honestly, if you use low AA levels or just default FSX AA, then stick with the 550ti. BUT, if you would like to have extremely crisp visual quality with high AA then definitely go for the 660ti.

Well, I use 8xSQ setting from TAbs post about Inspector. It's the onl way I really get things crisp. But I'm still having issues with low fps in overcasts and so on - texure objects and 3d obects loading very slow and appearing only when very close.. Overall I also feel that the GTS250 do not support my clock speed - It just doesn't match.

 

I think I'll wait and see what price the 660ti ends up on here in Denmark.

 

Thx again for your suggestions!

 

Mas

 

I think I'll wait and see what price the 660ti ends up on here in Denmark.

 

Great plan! I hope everything pans out and you manage to get your hands on a 660ti!

I installed the ASUS GTX550 Ti yesterday as the fan in my OEM GTS 240 was getting noisy and probably about to fail. To be honest my decision was heavily based upon power consumption (as much as budget) as I didn't want to buy another PSU along with a graphics card. I really didn't expect to see an improvement in frame rates and AA given the limitations of my CPU .But I am actually getting a very worthwhile increase in performance and I'm delighted with my purchase. It seems the GTS240 was a bottleneck after-all. I paid €119 for the card and had it up and running in minutes.

A couple of months ago, before the 600 series arrived, we were all saying the 500 series, in particular the 580 was the dog's bollocks, the finest card available. So what's changed? I wish people would put as little emphasis on GPUs as the CPU does

I installed the ASUS GTX550 Ti yesterday as the fan in my OEM GTS 240 was getting noisy and probably about to fail. To be honest my decision was heavily based upon power consumption (as much as budget) as I didn't want to buy another PSU along with a graphics card. I really didn't expect to see an improvement in frame rates and AA given the limitations of my CPU .But I am actually getting a very worthwhile increase in performance and I'm delighted with my purchase. It seems the GTS240 was a bottleneck after-all. I paid €119 for the card and had it up and running in minutes.

Hey Anthony - thx for sharing.

 

To me it will also be a desicion based on budgets. I read yesterday on some swedish computer-magazine, that they expected to 660ti to be around 530 USD - way to much for me, if that's the case.

 

Did you install the card yourself? Was is straighforeward - say you almost had opened a computer before?? ;) Just wondering if I should throw money at some prof guy for doing it...?

 

Mas

@mas618. I've been messing with computers for yrs. I'm one of those guys that upgrades almost every component before giving in and making a new purchase ( financially may not be the wisest method of doing things). Having said that installing cards is the easiest mod you can do yourself,I'm sure there are lots of Youtube videos giving exact instructions. All I would say is be very cautious of static and don't "bully" your way through the job, be gentle inside the case.

 

My understanding has always been that the most important combinations in FSX is the CPU/GPU pairing. I'm sure the latest/fastest O.C Ivy Bridge CPU will make the most of the latest/fastest O.C GPU but there is little point in spending whopping amounts of cash on a graphics card if most of it's ability is not going to be utilized. I have also heard of instances where a card was too powerful for the CPU with an actual negative effect on performance. Having said that I imagine your game-play has been limited by the GTS 250 to date given you have an i5 2500k overclocked to 4.5GHz.. In this case the GTX 550 TI would be the least I would aim for. You could do a bit of overclocking to squeeze some more out of it, this is easy to do with Asus' Smart Doctor. You will however IMO definitely see an improvement with this card, I'd be very surprised if you didn't.

 

In addition.............I have recently been looking at upgrading my entire system but having looked very closely at what is out there I am holding off for another while. I genuinely feel that my i7-860 CPU is still a good processor in 2012 and it will take a significant spend to see a really marked increase in performance. Having said that my I don't regularly fly the PMDG 737NGX into Heathrow, most of my flying ( for now) is centered around sight seeing in OrbX and GenX scenery. I fly IFR in weather occasionally for the challenge.

 

Hey Anthony - thx for sharing.

 

To me it will also be a desicion based on budgets. I read yesterday on some swedish computer-magazine, that they expected to 660ti to be around 530 USD - way to much for me, if that's the case.

 

Did you install the card yourself? Was is straighforeward - say you almost had opened a computer before?? ;) Just wondering if I should throw money at some prof guy for doing it...?

 

Mas

 

The 660ti is expected to be between $250 and $350. That Swedish magazine is in the twighlight zone.

@Anthony.. Thx again - I'll look around and see if it's something I would be capable of pulling off ;) I think it'll deped on what the actual price off the 660ti ends up on, as Randy said, it might be a bit lower than expected, even though 350USD is at the very top of what I wanna spend...

 

Thx to both of you for hepling out!

 

Mas

What's the main differens between the Ti card and non Ti card?

 

Jonny

I had an EVGA card about 5 years ago. It failed so I got another from them through warranty. I got the feeling that they sent me someone else's problems, so I gave up after a few tries. The ASUS cards I have are rock solid.

 

Just my personal experience. YMMV.