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GeForce GTX 650 Ti Review: Nvidia's Last Graphics Card For 2012

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Nvidia's new GeForce GTX 650 Ti is designed to fill the gap between its GeForce GTX 650 and 660. Is the GK106-based board fast enough to outmaneuver classics like the GeForce GTX 460 and Radeon HD 6850? Or, should you be looking to a 1 GB Radeon HD 7850?

OpenCL: GPGPU Benchmarks (Basemark CL)

Fluid Operations

The performance delta between the GeForce GTX 650 Ti and the GTX 660 is very slim indeed. Stepping up the GTX 660 Ti and the 670 yields a much bigger boost. Indeed, the lower-end model wins out over its bigger sibling in this discipline thanks to a higher clock rate.

Interestingly, the factory-overclocked GeForce GTX 650 Ti shows no such improvement. Only the pricier cards with more shader processors appear to benefit from higher frequencies.

Wave Simulation

Wave simulations also aren't the GeForce GTX 650 Ti’s forte, regardless of clock rate. Actually, the extra frequency does surprisingly little to help performance.

Julia Rendering

Julia fractal rendering allows the Kepler architecture shine a bit, and all three GeForce GTX 650 Ti models are able to squeeze in between the Fermi-based GeForce GTX 580 and 570.

Mandelbulb Rendering

Whereas the Julia fractal test looked pretty bleak for Nvidia, the situation flips when it comes to Mandelbulb rendering. Within the GeForce portfolio, Nvidia’s newest release is not only able to beat the Fermi-based cards, but the factory-overclocked variants also take on the lower-clocked OEM version of the GeForce GTX 660. Meanwhile, AMD can’t come anywhere near the GeForces cards' performance

150 Comments Comment from the forums
  • yialanliu 09 October 2012 20:24
    Awesome, finally something that mainstream budget users can afford from Nvidia, been waiting for ages!
    Reply
  • jimbaladin 09 October 2012 20:25
    40% slower than the 7850 while costing 10-20% less, and 10% faster than the 7770 while costing 25% more.

    That looks like a fail to me, and don't even get me started on how late this is.
    Reply
  • unionoob 09 October 2012 20:26
    Would be awesome if you would include HD 5770 in benchmarks vs this one too, sure its old card but would love to see how powerfull is that one compered to this one.
    Reply
  • Mike-TH 09 October 2012 20:27
    Why would you not include the GTX 660 Ti in the tests? After all, the 650 Ti and 660 Ti should be the options of the day for upgrades - why not compare them?
    Reply
  • outlw6669 09 October 2012 20:34
    nVidia, you really need to stop gimping your bandwidth!
    Seriously, such a waste of silicon that could perform quite a bit better if you just gave it a little more breathing room....
    Reply
  • tomfreak 09 October 2012 20:37
    I assume the place where it cripple the 650TI is the 16ROP as well as the 128bit bus. But the 16ROP is probably the biggest bottleneck of the card, this is the only place where u cant be fix by any OCing at all.

    With 128bit bus, they could have just leave the memory speed @ 6GHz. 5400 is pretty much ruin the thing.

    Edit: btw, this is probably one of the most useful review I see for a while. 6870/6850/560/460/7770 are all there, with benchmark of AA on and off. thumbs up for u author!
    Reply
  • Wisecracker 09 October 2012 20:45
    jimbaladin40% slower than the 7850 while costing 10-20% less, and 10% faster than the 7770 while costing 25% more.That looks like a fail to me, and don't even get me started on how late this is.
    The HD7850 and GTX 650ti are essentially the same price on New Egg.





    Reply
  • proffet 09 October 2012 20:49
    another PhysX card I suppose..
    slightly too weak for a dedicated in my book.
    I said my book as in my opinion.
    Reply
  • Iastfan112 09 October 2012 20:54
    Mike-THWhy would you not include the GTX 660 Ti in the tests? After all, the 650 Ti and 660 Ti should be the options of the day for upgrades - why not compare them?
    Because comparing cards in the ~150 dollar range to a card thats +280 dollars is asinine?
    Reply
  • cknobman 09 October 2012 21:29
    AnandTech has already released an article covering AMD officially dropping the price of the 1GB 7850 to $169 for the fall season
    This means we will easily see $150 or less after rebates and officially makes this Nvidia 650ti product a total fail. I see no reason to purchase this.
    Reply