Introduction

Last week we were looking at AMD release a new card that manages to take top spot as the fastest VGA card currently on the market. From one extreme to another, we're checking out the new baby mid-range card from NVIDIA today in the GTX 550 Ti.

Like us, though, NVIDIA understand that $699 cards aren't for everyone, and really, where the bread and butter is for these companies is the mid-range market, as that's what really sells.

So the question is, how's the GTX 550 Ti? Well, we're not sure yet, but we're going to find out soon enough. Like most mid-range models lately, though, NVIDIAs partners have come out hard and fast with models that move away from the reference design with the one we're looking at today coming from MSI and using the new "Cyclone II" cooler.

The "Cyclone" series isn't new to us as we've seen it for a while now, but this is the second iteration in the series and we'll have to see how it differs. Before we look at the actual card, though, let's have a look at the package that MSI has put together. We'll then check out the card and look at the specifications before we get into the performance side of things.

So without further ado, let's check out the package!

Package

Looking at the bundle, there's nothing really exciting going on. Considering most cards don't have a whole lot going on in the package these days and mid-range models having even less going on, this is no surprise. The only extra that might look a little different is the HDMI to Mini-HDMI connector that's included.