Is my GTX 550 Ti underperforming?

[yoh3333]

I recentl thought i would upgrade my current PCs graphic card from it's old 500MB Nvidia GeForce 9800gt to a 1GB GTX550 ti.
My problem is this:
When i tried to test it on the 'can you run it' page for Battlefield 3 it said i had failed the minimum Video Ram for my graphic card which apparently only showed about 470 mb instead of the 1024 i was expecting.

My CPU is an Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 at 3.16 ghz and 4 gbs of ram (though because of 32-bit windows it only uses 3,5 i believe)
This is the motherboard: http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/Intel_Socket_775/P5QPLAM/
The machine came prebuilt with all of the above (with Geforce 9800 as the Graphics Card)

I am wondering as to what can cause this so if anyone has any idea i would greatly appreciate it. My own computer knowledge is very small so it might be a very obvious answer to this but i am very unsure if it was something with my CPU even though i doubt it.

 

[renz496]

if i'm not mistaken you will only pass the test if you have GTX560 or something with equivalent performance or more. your problem might caused by 32 bit windows. if you want to know your card have the right amount of RAM you can run gpu-z. you can get it here:

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

 

[yoh3333]

if i'm not mistaken you will only pass the test if you have GTX560 or something with equivalent performance or more. your problem might caused by 32 bit windows. if you want to know your card have the right amount of RAM you can run gpu-z. you can get it here:

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

I tried the program you suggested and i found something kind of odd. The bus interface my card is running is apparently PCI-E x16 1.1 when it should be useing 2.0, could that have anything to do with this? 😱

(Also, i made a mistake, the memory on the graphics card is 3gb of DDR3 memory)

 

[waxy_27]

You're problem lies with the 32 bit version. Had the same on my laptop before

Windows 32 bit can only use 4 gig max, including you're video memory. You have you're 3.5 gig from main mem and it takes the rest from the video memory. Upgrade to 64 bit 😉

 

[renz496]

The bus interface my card is running is apparently PCI-E x16 1.1 when it should be useing 2.0

because your mobo have PCI-E v1.1 so there is nothing wrong

Also, i made a mistake, the memory on the graphics card is 3gb of DDR3 memory

AFAIK all GTX550 Ti are using GDDR5 and most of the card should only have 1GB of memory. never heard the one using 3GB DDR3 before. can you post gpu-z screen shot or link the exact model of your card?

 

[yoh3333]

The bus interface my card is running is apparently PCI-E x16 1.1 when it should be useing 2.0

because your mobo have PCI-E v1.1 so there is nothing wrong

Also, i made a mistake, the memory on the graphics card is 3gb of DDR3 memory

AFAIK all GTX550 Ti are using GDDR5 and most of the card should only have 1GB of memory. never heard the one using 3GB DDR3 before. can you post gpu-z screen shot or link the exact model of your card?

http://www.club-3d.com/index.php/products/reader.en/product/geforce-gtx-550ti.html

 

[renz496]

lol. its really weird. i think they made 'green edition' of GTX550 Ti if you look at the maximum TDP for the card (70w). normal GTX550 Ti TDP is 116w. i assume this card should be a bit slower than the original GTX550 Ti. also those 3GB of VRAM is quite useless for the card

 

[FunSurfer]

I tried the program you suggested and i found something kind of odd. The bus interface my card is running is apparently PCI-E x16 1.1 when it should be useing 2.0, could that have anything to do with this? 😱

(Also, i made a mistake, the memory on the graphics card is 3gb of DDR3 memory)

3GB card with 32bit OS? you probably left with only half GB of RAM for the OS. What do you see in windows task manager under physical memory - total?

 

[yoh3333]

3GB card with 32bit OS? you probably left with only half GB of RAM for the OS. What do you see in windows task manager under physical memory - total?

3583

 

[FunSurfer]

3583

Thanx for the answer. You don't have any RAM issue.

 

[iam2thecrowe]

http://www.club-3d.com/index.php/products/reader.en/product/geforce-gtx-550ti.html

wow, that is a piece of crap. who in their right mind would pair 3gb ram with that GPU??? The GPU isnt fast enough to handle any display settings that would use up 3gb, let alone 1gb.

 

[FunSurfer]

wow, that is a piece of crap. who in their right mind would pair 3gb ram with that GPU??? The GPU isnt fast enough to handle any display settings that would use up 3gb, let alone 1gb.

Marketing gimmick: take a mainstream minus gpu and attach it the memory quantity of the top high end card. Maybe you are laughing now, but just wait for next year - you will probably see a 650 Ti with 6GB VRAM...

 

[yoh3333]

I got a mail from the Club3D support team and they didn't know what to do so they suggested i got a refund 😛
Guess i'll have to do that anyway. Thanks everyone for trying to help me :/ Guess i'll stick to my old GT 9800