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

By Igor Wallossek, Don Woligroski
published

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?

Zotac GeForce GTX 650 Ti AMP! Edition

Zotac's AMP! Edition cards are notorious for their aggressive factory overclocks, and the GeForce GTX 650 Ti in our possession is no exception. It sports a 1033 MHz core frequency, 108 MHz over Nvidia's reference spec, and memory operating at 1550 MHz, which is 200 MHz beyond Nvidia's design. The GDDR5 overclock, in particular, is expected to yield performance improvements in our graphics benchmarks.

This board also boasts 2 GB of memory, which is twice the capacity of Nvidia's stock config.

All of those tweaks make the GeForce GTX 650 Ti AMP! Edition Zotac's flagship model. It commands a $30 premium over the recommended price Nvidia gave us, though you should be able to find Zotac's standard 2 GB model for $170 and a reference-clocked 1 GB card for $155, if the extra memory isn't important to you.

As promised on the previous page, adding an extra gigabyte of memory to the GeForce GTX 650 Ti means populating the back of its PCB with modules. Although Zotac's PCB is the same size as our sample from Nvidia, its layout is slightly different.

Zotac exposes two full-sized HDMI and two dual-link DVI outputs on its AMP! Edition board, enabling four independent displays that you can arrange into one three-screen Surround array with a fourth desktop monitor. Unfortunately, we don't expect any vendor's GeForce GTX 650 Ti to deliver suitable three-screen gaming performance, so any multi-monitor arrangement is going to be for productivity purposes only.

One auxiliary six-pin power connector is found on the top of Zotac's card, similar to the reference model.

Zotac uses an 85 mm axial fan for its cooling solution, which is 10 mm larger than Nvidia's own design. Both boards feature a similarly-sized heat sink, though.

Igor Wallossek
150 Comments Comment from the forums
  • yialanliu
    Awesome, finally something that mainstream budget users can afford from Nvidia, been waiting for ages!
    Reply
  • jimbaladin
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    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
    another PhysX card I suppose..
    slightly too weak for a dedicated in my book.
    I said my book as in my opinion.
    Reply
  • Iastfan112
    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
    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