14 DAY TRIAL // Whenever the marketing performance of a piece of hardware is threatened, either by competing products or simply because said product is “getting old,” the next logical step is for its maker to either launch a device meant to replace it or refine the existing one. The ATI Radeon HD 5550 may not exactly be getting old, but it does exist in a variety of versions. To make its own card more appealing than competing ones, PowerColor decided to boost its specs and give it a special cooler, essentially making it a part of the Professional Cooling System Series.
The new incarnation of the ATI Radeon HD 5550 is known as the PowerColor PCS+ HD 5550. Essentially, it is a factory overclocked adapter whose specially made fansink keeps it stable and cool. Said cooling module takes up two slots and features a copper base and a single 92mm fan. It was developed by Arctic Cooling and produces a maximum of 30dBA of noise.
For those interested in actual performance numbers, the PCS+ HD 5550 has a GPU clock of 650MHz, 512MB of GDDR5 operating at 3600MHz and a memory interface of 128 bits. There is, of course, support for DirectX 11 and ATI Stream technology. As for connectivity, the video controller comes with D-Sub, DVI and HDMI outputs. Basically, this video board is meant as a reasonably capable gaming solution for the value segment, though it cannot compare to the higher-end models.
“This is the very first time we are bringing the PCS+ series to the value segment,” Ted Chen, CEO of TUL Corporation, said. “With superior overclocking ability and advanced GDDR5 onboard memory, the PCS+ HD5550 creates out-of-the-box gaming performance. This will bring this value segment solution a new level.”
According to the official announcement, the PCS+ HD 5550 should already be selling, but there are, currently, no online listings to speak of. This means that budget users will have to wait a little while longer before they find out just how much this device costs.