Another month and, surprise-surprise, it’s another new ATI 5000-series graphics card. The HD 5550 sits towards the lower end of the range, and it would be easy to dismiss as yet one more under-powered card. However, this Ultimate version does have the distinction of being the most powerful card in ATI’s current line up to use a passive heat sink.

The large silver heat sink makes the card itself completely silent in operation, which is great if you want to keep the noise down, such as for a media centre PC. It takes up a considerable proportion of the front of the card, but doesn’t stick out far, so it won’t foul the expansion slot below it. A pair of heat pipes runs from the GPU round to the top of the card, where the cooler extends over the rear. This could potentially block the expansion slot above the card, but the design means you should be able to fit a low-profile card in above it without the two clashing.

Speaking of low-profile cards, it’s a little disappointing that this card isn’t one. We can see that the cooler takes up a lot of room, but the lack of a low-profile option means this won’t fit in a number of media centre cases. On the other hand, passively-cooled cards like this one need decent airflow through the case to work properly, and so could cause problems in a low-profile chassis – or at the very least make your system fans work a lot harder, which would make the silent card a bit pointless.

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• READ MORE (Source): Sapphire HD 5550 Ultimate review | Expert Reviews