Bought this card to upgrade my 8800 GTX for my Dell XPS 720 (purchased in late 2007) running Windows XP-32 bit OS. As you probably know, the 8800 GTX is a great (albeit outdated) card, but draws a ton of power (229 watts idle/321 watts loaded) and generates a lot of heat even at idle (55� at idle/ 75� loaded). The Asus 550TI is not a top of the line card by any means, but it is a nice upgrade from my GTX8800 in terms of performance as well as temperature/power draw.

I also managed to overclock the 550TI using EVGA's precision utility from base numbers of 910mhz core clock, 1820mhz shader clock, and 2052mhz memory clock to overclocked numbers of 1001mhz core clock, 2002mhz shader clock, and 2258mhz memory clock without any voltage adjustments. Anything above these numbers caused instability on my system. I haven't tried using any of the ASUS software thus far.

Even overclocked, the 550TI stays relatively cool (36� at idle/ 75� loaded) with a power draw of 104... Read more

As far as the card is concerned it seems to be working fine for me with the exception that my card sometimes shuts down and then recovers giving me the Graphics error "display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered" Forums are full of posters stating that this is a Vista / Nvidea incompatibility issue that has been around for years and that the problem is not being addressed. The main problem I have with the card is with the company ASUS. The advertised rebate for $20 is virtually unobtainable as the volume of paperwork, back and forth e-mails, form downloads and deadlines ect.. is akin to filing a tax return. I suspect this is by design so don't bother.

I fell in love of the big fan and 8 mm heat pipes because i live in central america, so our problem is the heat, with a 32 or 34 celcius envireoment temperature, it is normal to reach a 55 celcius on iddle, or 80 o 90 on full gamming. With this card i got 43 in iddle and 69 on crysis running at gammer config. I strongly recommend this card for people who live in warm places.

I am not talking about a 560, but is a good performance for its price.