WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:08.800 This video marks the launch of a couple of interesting things. So, this is the 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:11.599 MSI GTX 550Ti or TAI, which is a 1 gig 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:17.039 brand new video card, brand new GPU from NVIDIA, and it also marks the 00:00:13.920 --> 00:00:20.080 introduction of the Cyclone 2. So, the 00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:22.640 Cyclone cooler was incredibly popular, 00:00:20.080 --> 00:00:25.920 still is incredibly popular on the LA previous generation cards from MSI, but 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:30.720 it looks like they've made some improvements to it, and they've made enough improvements to call it an 00:00:29.119 --> 00:00:34.559 upgraded Cyclone 2. So, let's find out what's up with the Cyclone 2 once we get 00:00:32.800 --> 00:00:38.399 things opened up. First of all, this is an OC edition card, so that means it is 00:00:36.640 --> 00:00:42.399 factory overclocked. It is ready for 3D Mark 11, which is one way of saying it 00:00:40.160 --> 00:00:46.800 is a DirectX11 card. It's compatible with MSI Afterburner, which is awesome. 00:00:44.800 --> 00:00:52.320 It's overclocking utility for monitoring temps, all that good stuff. It supports 00:00:48.879 --> 00:00:54.520 CUDA, SLI, PhysX, 3D Vision, as well as 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:59.840 NVIDIA Surround if you run two of them together. It uses MSI's military class 00:00:57.520 --> 00:01:05.680 concept, including solidstate chokes and solid caps for no coil wine and up to 10 00:01:03.440 --> 00:01:08.640 years lifetime. We've also got a 3-year warranty in the USA and Canada. Oh, and 00:01:07.520 --> 00:01:13.439 here's one interesting difference between the Cyclone and the Cyclone 2. 00:01:10.560 --> 00:01:19.360 The propeller blade now allows for up to 20% more air flow. 00:01:16.439 --> 00:01:23.119 Interesting. Yes. Okay. What do we got in here? Okay. More of the same 00:01:24.119 --> 00:01:33.040 stuff, right? Oh, here's some specs on the Cyclone 2. Here we go. So, 9 cm PWM 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:38.079 fan up to 40% more air flow to cool down the GPU memory and power modules all at 00:01:35.360 --> 00:01:41.840 once. Multiple heat pipes. So, it has it looks like two heat pipes through the uh 00:01:40.320 --> 00:01:46.240 window there, though it's hard to say yet. Hybrid heat sink design. So, it 00:01:43.920 --> 00:01:52.640 combines aluminum extrusion, heat pipes, and fins for maximum cooling. 00:01:48.960 --> 00:01:54.720 Nickelplated copper base rounded design. 00:01:52.640 --> 00:01:58.880 Okay. Oh, prevents dust accumulation. Okay, I did not know that. Ultimate low 00:01:56.720 --> 00:02:04.320 noise. Yes, that I knew. The cyclones of the our original Cyclone was a very very 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:08.560 uh low noise cooler. And propeller blade. So that provides up to 20% more 00:02:06.479 --> 00:02:12.800 air flow versus a traditional design. It's based on the same thermal mode with 00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:17.599 the same RPM. Interesting. Okay, so let's go ahead and get this box opened 00:02:15.280 --> 00:02:23.440 up. Don't see anything particularly fascinating on the back. Uh see, it's a 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:25.680 PCI Express 16X card. It requires a 00:02:23.440 --> 00:02:29.680 minimum 400 watt greater system power supply with a minimum 12vt current 00:02:27.840 --> 00:02:34.640 rating of 24 amps. And everything else on there is fairly 00:02:32.440 --> 00:02:38.800 irrelevant. Yeah. All right. This is an interesting way of 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:42.879 packing the card. I don't know if this is a retail card, just so you guys know. 00:02:40.720 --> 00:02:48.319 So, I I'm not quite sure if the retail cards will come like this. This is a uh 00:02:45.440 --> 00:02:53.120 a tech tips card, but there you go. It is. Well, you know what? Look, okay, 00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:56.800 let's not fault them for their methods. Let's let's evaluate based on what was 00:02:55.440 --> 00:03:01.200 the objective and did they achieve it. The objective was keep the card in place 00:02:59.120 --> 00:03:07.680 and protect it during shipping and they did achieve it, however inelegantly. All 00:03:05.239 --> 00:03:12.800 right, let's look at the accessories. We've got a two Molex to single six pin 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:17.920 PCIe power adapter. We've got one of them little mini HDMI to full size HDMI 00:03:15.760 --> 00:03:23.599 adapters. That could be useful as very few TVs have a native mini HDMI cable. 00:03:20.720 --> 00:03:27.599 We've got a DVI to VGA adapter, which by the way, I know I'm always knocking the 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:30.959 DVI to VGA adapter, but for this particular card, very appropriate 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:36.080 because you may have an older VGA monitor that you would want to run off 00:03:33.040 --> 00:03:39.440 this card because it's low res and this 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:42.080 card is going to be optimized for 1680x 00:03:39.440 --> 00:03:45.680 1050 or below. That's the kind of price point that this card exists in. So, hold 00:03:44.480 --> 00:03:51.120 on. Let's see if we got anything else down here. Yes, we do. MSI hides their 00:03:48.799 --> 00:03:54.319 driver CD since they know that you should probably not use it. You should 00:03:52.640 --> 00:04:01.439 throw it away and download the latest off the NVIDIA website. And we've also 00:03:57.599 --> 00:04:03.280 got a little guide for something. Yeah. 00:04:01.439 --> 00:04:06.720 Okay. And then a quick users guide which basically shows you how to install a 00:04:04.640 --> 00:04:10.319 PCIe card. But if you watch Linus Tech Tips, then you probably already know 00:04:08.239 --> 00:04:13.599 that because I have covered that in the past. All right. So, what I'm going to 00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:17.759 do is I'm just going to flip this over and that'll make a nice little platform 00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:23.160 for my card. and let's get the 560 TI or 00:04:21.560 --> 00:04:28.720 TI onto the platform so we can check it 00:04:26.400 --> 00:04:33.919 out. All right, so the first thing the most noticeable thing about this about 00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:36.160 this new Cyclone 2 cooler to me is that 00:04:33.919 --> 00:04:41.120 they've added like a little like blade style shroudy thing on it. So each one 00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:44.240 of these actually kind of looks like the like the blade of a curved sword or 00:04:43.280 --> 00:04:50.720 something like that. And I think that's the effect they're going for cuz they got like these little uh these little 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:53.840 jaggy things here, right there, which would be pretty nasty if you were 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:58.240 cutting someone open with them. So that's uh it's a very aggressive look to 00:04:56.000 --> 00:05:03.040 the cooler itself. The overall design of it looks fairly similar to the original 00:05:00.400 --> 00:05:07.039 Cyclone and in that it has the uh the normal flower heat sink here. It's got 00:05:05.040 --> 00:05:11.120 the heat pipes and then those heat pipes are used to carry heat out to this nice 00:05:09.440 --> 00:05:18.400 dense fin array. So, what that means is we're not wasting any of the cooling 00:05:15.039 --> 00:05:20.320 capacity of this fan. So, the any air 00:05:18.400 --> 00:05:24.639 that's blown downward is going to be cooling the GPU through the aluminum 00:05:21.919 --> 00:05:28.320 fins here. And any air that is blown out to the side is going to be cooling the 00:05:26.479 --> 00:05:32.240 GPU because the heat pipes are going to be carrying the heat up to these fins. 00:05:30.400 --> 00:05:38.800 And then it can carry the heat out this way, out this way, and in every which 00:05:35.680 --> 00:05:40.080 way. MSI over the reference design has 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:43.360 also added a couple other things. They've actually got a heat sink here on 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:48.560 the voltage regulators. And you're going to see that that's going to get a ton of 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:51.280 air flow from this fan. When it spins, it'll just be blowing over those heat 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:55.440 sinks. I don't think we'll have to worry about those running warm at all. And 00:05:53.840 --> 00:05:58.800 they've also added a little stiffening plate. So, this is interesting. You can 00:05:56.880 --> 00:06:02.880 see right here, a little MSI branded plate. And it looks like what that's for 00:06:00.960 --> 00:06:06.400 is just to hold the PCB rigid when you've got it installed in your case 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:11.199 because it's not really connected to anything else. And that's something that 00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:13.080 I've really felt should be included with 00:06:11.199 --> 00:06:17.600 more graphics cards. 00:06:15.000 --> 00:06:21.600 Sorry. Especially as they start to get heavier and 00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:28.400 heavier. All right, let's start taking off these little protective covers. 00:06:25.919 --> 00:06:32.479 off the DVI port. It's off the SLI connector, off the mini HDMI. There we 00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:35.840 go. Okay. So, another thing I wanted to point out about this card right here is 00:06:33.919 --> 00:06:39.680 that you can see that some of the pins on the PCI Express connector appear to 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:42.800 be missing. This is by design. This is not a defect in your card. These are 00:06:41.280 --> 00:06:48.720 unnecessary for performance and bandwidth, and NVIDIA has deemed them to 00:06:45.680 --> 00:06:50.720 be perfectly fine to remove. The card is 00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:56.720 still PCI Express compliant, so you don't have to worry about any motherboard compatibility issues or 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:59.520 anything like that. The Cyclone 2 fan is 00:06:56.720 --> 00:07:02.720 actually a four pin PWM controlled fan. And uh I don't know what the noise 00:07:01.280 --> 00:07:08.960 characteristics of it are like, but if it's anything like the old one, it's probably a pretty pretty 00:07:06.039 --> 00:07:12.000 dec. Here we've got a six pin PCI Express power connector. That's all 00:07:10.479 --> 00:07:18.960 we're going to need as far as external power goes for the GTX 550 TI or TI. On 00:07:17.520 --> 00:07:23.360 the back of the card, we actually see one of the cooler innovations that 00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:28.880 NVIDIA has brought about with the GTX 550 TI. They've actually given their 00:07:25.360 --> 00:07:31.680 board partners the capability of mixing 00:07:28.880 --> 00:07:35.520 and matching different capacities of memory on the card. So, I'm not sure 00:07:34.000 --> 00:07:43.280 which ones are which, but my guess would be that these four are all totaling up 00:07:39.039 --> 00:07:45.520 to uh 512 megs and these two together 00:07:43.280 --> 00:07:51.599 are 512 megs to give us our 1 gig capacity. Because the 550 Tai has a 00:07:49.199 --> 00:07:55.639 192bit memory interface, which is significantly more than any other 00:07:53.199 --> 00:08:00.960 previous generation card in this price bracket, but it only has six memory 00:07:58.080 --> 00:08:04.639 modules. So, how does it have a 1 gig capacity, which would imply that it 00:08:02.960 --> 00:08:07.680 would have to have either four or eight memory modules? Well, it's because 00:08:06.479 --> 00:08:12.800 they're mixing and matching the capacities to give us that extra 00:08:09.759 --> 00:08:14.800 bandwidth, but also that extra that nice 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:19.680 round even capacity. So, that's a pretty neat thing that NVIDIA has brought about 00:08:17.039 --> 00:08:23.199 on this generation of cards. Here at the back, we find something we're pretty 00:08:21.039 --> 00:08:28.479 used to seeing on MSI cards and NVIDIA cards in general. We've got two DVI 00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:32.240 ports, one HDM, one mini HDMI port. And these, only two of these three can be 00:08:30.080 --> 00:08:36.959 used at any given time. If you do run two 550 ties, you can run three monitors 00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:42.159 off of the two cards together. But for an individual card, you're either using 00:08:38.719 --> 00:08:44.800 DVI DVI, DVI Mini HDMI, or DVI Mini 00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:49.040 HDMI. We've also got our typical MSI branded exhaust port here. Although with 00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:53.680 Cyclone cooler, not a whole lot of the exhaust is going to be going to the 00:08:51.040 --> 00:08:58.959 outside of the case anyhow due to the design of the cooler. The 550 is a 00:08:55.440 --> 00:09:00.959 fairly um low power consumption, low 00:08:58.959 --> 00:09:04.640 heat out heat output card though, so I wouldn't worry too much about the 00:09:02.560 --> 00:09:09.959 overall case temperatures being affected by having the exhaust going out into 00:09:06.880 --> 00:09:12.040 your case. The SLI connector is up 00:09:09.959 --> 00:09:16.000 here. And as you can see, there's only one of 00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:21.519 them. So, that's going to support two-way SLI, but not 3-way or 4-way SLI. 00:09:19.760 --> 00:09:26.080 I mean, really, honestly, those features would be pretty unnecessary on a card at 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:32.880 this price point. Anyway, so, thank you for checking out my unboxing and first 00:09:27.760 --> 00:09:36.240 look at the GeForce GTX 550 Ti from MSI 00:09:32.880 --> 00:09:38.240 featuring the Cyclone 2 cooler. Don't 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:42.760 forget to subscribe for more unboxings, reviews, and other computer videos.