Introduction

Over the last months AMD has presented a full lineup of DirectX 11 compatible products, from the high-end dual-GPU HD 5970, down to the low-end HD 5450. Only recently they have added another member to their lineup named Radeon HD 5550. It was a low key launch without big fanfare, for a product that tries to fill a gap in the $60-$75 segment, where NVIDIA's GT 220 and GT 240 are positioned.

HIS has developed their own HD 5550 PCB design equipped with GDDR5 memory, while many other AIBs use only slower DDR2 or DDR3 memory. The result is the HIS Silence HD 5550, a completely passive card that emits no noise, which makes it a prime candidate for a quiet media PC system. Unfortunately the memory and passive heatsink add quite a bit to the pricing, so the HIS card clocks in around $70. But 10 bucks extra for a noiseless experience doesn't seem too unreasonable?

Packaging

HIS uses their standard graphics card packaging for the HD 5550. It is quite compact which will help to reduce waste and keeps shipping cost down.

Contents

You will receive:

• Graphics card
• Driver CD + Documentation
• Battlefield 2: Bad Company 10% off coupon

The Card

HIS has designed a full size card that is mostly covered by the large passive heatsink.


The card requires two slots in your system, while this is more than other HD 5550 cards, it is necessary due to the passive heatsink design. See how the heatsink looks like a flying bird?


The card has one DVI port, one HDMI port and one DisplayPort. The HDMI interface includes a 7.1 channel audio signal that is generated by an HD audio device integrated in the GPU. Unlike NVIDIA cards which limit you to two active outputs at the same time, you may use all three outputs at the same time on ATI's latest cards.


A CrossFire connector is not present, but you may add another HD 5550 to run in CrossFire. In this case all the CrossFire data will be transferred via the PCI-Express bus.


Here are the front and the back of the card, high-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods etc, please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.