650 ti review: The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Review, Feat. Gigabyte, Zotac, & EVGA

Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost Review

Just days after AMD released the HD Radeon 7790 built on a new iteration of the company’s Graphics Core Next architecture, Nvidia has released its own new graphics card for the mainstream market—the Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window). From our tests, it shows itself to be a potent challenger for AMD’s new GPU. The new GTX 650 Ti Boost borrows capabilities and performance from the up-market GTX 660. The end result is a great consumer card at the same price point the GTX 650 Ti formerly occupied. It’s our new Editors’ Choice for mainstream graphics cards.

Unfortunately, all the additional horsepower is hiding under a confusing name. The new GTX 650 Ti Boost is the third graphics card to carry the «GTX 650» designation. There are now three flavors—the Nvidia GTX 650, Nvidia GTX 650 Ti, and GTX 650 Ti Boost. The problem with this nomenclature scheme is that the GTX 650 Ti Boost is much more than just an up-clocked version of the GTX 650 Ti. Here’s the full breakdown:

Clock Speed: The 650 Ti tops out at 925MHz, the TiB is clocked at 980MHz, an increase of 6%. The TiB supports Nvidia’s GPU Boost technology (the Ti doesn’t) and will increase its clock speed up to 1033MHz if thermal headroom allows it to do so, for a total increase of 11.6%.

Core Count: Both chips have 768 shader cores and 64 texture mapping units (TMUs). The Nvidia GTX 650 Ti has 16 raster operators (ROPs), however, while the GTX 650 TiB has 24. This means the new GTX 650 Ti Boost’s pixel fillrate is 23.5 GPixels per second, compared to 14.8 GPps for the GTX 650 Ti.

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Nvidia GeForce GTX 660

Multi-GPU Support: The GTX 650 Ti doesn’t support multi-GPU configurations. The GTX 650 Ti Boost does.

Memory Bandwidth: The GTX 650 Ti has a 128-bit memory bus clocked at 1350MHz, for a total of 86.4GBps of memory bandwidth. The GTX 650 TiB has a 192-bit memory bus clocked at 1500MHz, for a total of 144.2GBps of RAM bandwidth. That’s 1.67x what the GTX 650 offers.

We tested the card on an Intel DZ77GA-70K motherboard with an Intel Core i7 3770K CPU and 8GB of DDR3-1600. Windows 7 64-bit w/ SP1 and all available patches was used. We compared the GTX 660, GTX 650 Ti Boost, and AMD’s new Radeon 7790 in a suite of games running at 1,920 by 1,080, as both Nvidia and AMD have emphasized this mode as the new sweet spot for their respective cards. Also included are results between the Radeon HD 7790 and GTX 650 Ti Boost in our older test suite of DiRT 3, Aliens vs. Predator, and Just Cause 2. All of our games use DirectX 11 and 16x anisotropic filtering.

The GTX 660 starts at $214, which makes it significantly more expensive than either of the midrange cards; it’s included here to give perspective on how much additional performance can be gained by stepping up to the next performance tier.

In Civilization V (High Detail, 4x MSAA), the AMD 7790 and GTX 650 TiB essentially tied, at 58.6 and 57.8 frames per second (fps), respectively. The Nvidia GTX 660 hit 70 fps. The the Nvidia solutions In Batman: Arkham City’s test (DX11, Normal Tessellation, High Detail, 4X MSAA), the GTX 650 Ti Boost hit 80fps, while the GTX 660 managed 88 fps and the HD 7790 fell sharply behind with a score of 52 fps.

We tested the cards in Shogun 2: Total War at Very High Detail with tessellation enabled. The Nvidia GTX 650 Ti Boost scored 60fps , compared with the 49.7fps for the AMD 7790 and 74.5fps for the GTX 660. Metro 2033 (AAA antialiasing, High Detail) continued this trend, with the Nvidia GTX 650 Ti Boost scoring 32.33fps, compared with 24fps for the AMD 7790 and 36.2 fps for the Nvidia GTX 660.

Our older game suite showed a similar pattern. Aliens vs. Predator, DiRT 3, and Just Cause 2 were tested at 1,680 by 1,050 with all details set to maximum. In AvP, the GTX 650 Ti Boost outperformed the AMD 7790 by 19% (39 fps vs. 32.8 fps). DiRT 3 favored AMD; the AMD HD 7790 outperformed the GTX 650 Ti Boost by 14% (56.74 fps vs. 64.7 fps). In Just Cause 2, Nvidia again won past AMD, with a Concrete Jungle frame rate of 54.47 vs. AMD’s 43.23.

These figures are the reason why we were dubious of the HD 7790 1GB’s $149 price point last week. The HD 7790 is still a far better card than the AMD Radeon HD 7770 that launched in 2012, but the GTX 650 Ti Boost at $169 is only 13% more expensive. The GTX 650 Ti Boost offers 1.19 times the performance of the 7790 if you average all of our results.

Some judicious price cuts will keep the new AMD HD 7790 cards in the fight, but the GTX 650 Ti Boost re-establishes Nvidia’s ownership of this price point.

This is a great deal for consumers, and news on the pricing front is even better. Right now, the standard GTX 650 starts at $145 for a 1GB card, with 2GB cards at $164. Nvidia’s recommended pricing on the GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB is $169, with a 1GB version of the card available at $145 starting in mid-April. The additional clock speed, memory bandwidth, and higher pixel fillrates make the GTX 650 Ti Boost an excllent option for gamers on a budget. The $149/$169 price points make it a drop-in replacement for the GTX 650 Ti series—but at a much better price/performance ratio. Thus, it earns our Editors’ Choice for mainstream graphics cards.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost

4.0

Editors’ Choice

The Bottom Line

The Nvidia GTX 650 Ti Boost graphics card offers substantially better performance at a great price.

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Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost review

Our Verdict

A quality 1080p GPU marking a return to gaming form for the lower-caste Kepler cards.

A sure sign that Spring has sprung, aside from frolicking bunnies and chocolate-egg-induced sugar-comas, is the sudden abundance of new GPU slews. From AMD we get the disappointing Radeon HD 7790 , while Nvidia retort with the new, improved GTX 650 Ti Boost.

Based on the same GK 106 GPU as the standard GTX 650 Ti — and the straight GTX 660 — this Boost version comes with a much quicker base clock. The original GTX 650 Ti landed with a modest clock of 928MHz where this Boost version is hitting 980MHz, but with the addition of the GPU Boost tech allowing it to push beyond 1GHz in most games.

If it was simply a matter of overclocking the standard GK 106 GPU, I wouldn’t be quite so fussed about Nvidia’s latest graphics card, but they have also taken the important step of widening out the memory bus. Going from a miserly 128-bit up to a 192-bit bus gives this new iteration of the GTX 650 Ti much better performance in-game and finally allows Nvidia to deliver some proper 1080p power down at the sub-$200/£150 price point.

They’ve also boosted the memory speed up to the now-standard 6GHz that the top cards are all now sporting. Nvidia has essentially based the reference design on the same PCB as the pricier GTX 660, giving it the same number of ROPs as well as the same memory bus. That also means you’re able to SLI this GTX 650 Ti Boost — something you couldn’t do with the original design. That’s not a terribly attractive option, however: a pair of these cards would only be slightly cheaper than buying a single HD 7970 GHz Edition, and — I can’t stress this enough — you’re far better off spending your money on a better single card than attempting a notoriously unreliable multi-GPU set-up.

Nonetheless, the GTX 650 Ti Boost is a very impressive card and represents a complete reversal of form for the two hardware giants AMD and Nvidia. Formerly the budget card masters, AMD have ended up replacing their excellent HD 7850 1GB with the mediocre HD 7790 for the same price. That’s not quite the refresh we were hoping for. Nvidia, on the other hand, have improved on the existing silicon in practically every area and aren’t charging any more than they were for the original GTX 650 Ti.

«Nvidia have improved on the existing silicon in practically every area and aren’t charging any more than they were for the original GTX 650 Ti.»

The only real fly in the ointment for Nvidia is the fact that AMD’s HD 7870 XT — the Tahiti LE-based card — is only a little more expensive and a far more capable card. But if you’re sticking rigidly to the sub-£150/$200 price-category, it’s now all about the GTX 650 Ti Boost. Compared with the similarly priced HD 7790 it really is no contest and, for the most part, it bests even the HD 7850 2GB card in my tests too.

The only place where the AMD cards can still claim some superiority is in the minimum frame rate scores. Of course, that’s arguably as important as the average frame rate: when a game drops to its lowest ebb you really notice poor performance. But while the HD 7850 2GB still has higher minimum frame rates across the board, the HD 7790 is generally on a par with the GTX 650 Ti Boost. When the Boost is also hitting higher FPS on average then it’s still the card I’d choose.

It’s a rare triumph for Nvidia in this volume segment, with a quality 1080p card and some very sensible, and very welcome, design improvements.

A whole lotta benchmarks…

DirectX 11 tessellation performance

Heaven 4.0 (2560×1600) – FPS: higher is better

EVGA GTX 660 SC – 16.2

GTX 650 Ti Boost – 14.2

HD 7850 2GB – 12.7

Sapphire HD 7790 – 9.9

DirectX 11 high-res gaming performance

Batman: Arkham City (2560×1600) – FPS: higher is better

EVGA GTX 660 SC – 50

GTX 650 Ti Boost – 44

HD 7850 2GB – 39

Sapphire HD 7790 – 30

Bioshock Infinite (2560×1600) – FPS: higher is better

EVGA GTX 660 SC – 33

GTX 650 Ti Boost – 28

HD 7850 2GB – 23

Sapphire HD 7790 – 19

DirectX 11 1080p gaming performance

Crysis 3 (1920×1080) – FPS: higher is better

EVGA GTX 660 SC – 34

GTX 650 Ti Boost – 28

HD 7850 2GB – 26

Sapphire HD 7790 – 22

DiRT Showdown (1920×1080) – FPS: higher is better

HD 7850 2GB – 57

Sapphire HD 7790 – 51

EVGA GTX 660 SC – 48

GTX 650 Ti Boost – 41

Max Payne 3 (1920×1080) – FPS: higher is better

HD 7850 2GB – 37

EVGA GTX 660 SC — 36

GTX 650 Ti Boost – 32

Sapphire HD 7790 – 32

Read our review policy

Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost review

A quality 1080p GPU marking a return to gaming form for the lower-caste Kepler cards.

Dave has been gaming since the days of Zaxxon and Lady Bug on the Colecovision, and code books for the Commodore Vic 20 (Death Race 2000!). He built his first gaming PC at the tender age of 16, and finally finished bug-fixing the Cyrix-based system around a year later. When he dropped it out of the window. He first started writing for Official PlayStation Magazine and Xbox World many decades ago, then moved onto PC Format full-time, then PC Gamer, TechRadar, and T3 among others. Now he’s back, writing about the nightmarish graphics card market, CPUs with more cores than sense, gaming laptops hotter than the sun, and SSDs more capacious than a Cybertruck.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti review

Manufacturer: Nvidia
UK Price (as reviewed): MSRP £120 (inc. VAT)
US Price (as reviewed): MSRP $160 (ex. Tax)

The recent release of the GTX 660 2GB and GTX 650 1GB saw Nvidia finally release its Kepler based cards for the mid and lower ranges of the market. We found the GTX 660 2GB to be very competitively positioned, with its price and performance both highly competitive against the HD 7870 2GB and HD 7850 2GB. Sadly, though, the news wasn’t so good for the GTX 650 1GB, which saw its performance failing to match that of the equally priced HD 7770 1GB.

With the GTX 660 2GB hitting retailers at £180, and the GTX 650 1GB at £90, this still left a sizeable chunk of the market left uncovered for Nvidia. Enter the GTX 650 Ti 1GB, which finally completes Nvidia’s Kepler lineup, and is set to retail for around £120, at least for reference cards. Its price puts it closer to the GTX 650 1GB than the GTX 660 2GB, but also means that it slots in right between the HD 7770 1GB and the HD 7850 2GB.

Click to enlarge

Unfortunately, we’ve not been able to get our hands on a reference GTX 650 Ti 1GB in for testing. Instead, we’ll be looking at EVGA’s SSC edition of the card, as well as Zotac’s amp! Edition, which both feature factory overclocks and are detailed on their respective pages. Due to GPU limitations, underclocking the cards back to stock frequencies is not possible just yet, so while we can supply a run-down of its specifications, for now we’re unable to provide benchmarks for the GTX 650 Ti 1GB at it’s fairly restrained stock frequencies.

GeForce GTX 650 Ti – The card
Despite being closer in name and price to the GTX 650 1GB, the GTX 650 Ti 1GB is actually based on the same GPU as the GTX 660 2GB, GK106. This is a 28nm Kepler GPU, and naturally has been slightly cut down from its form in the GTX 660 2GB for its implementation in the GTX 650 Ti 1GB, although the transistor count of 2.54 billion remains the same.

Click to enlarge

The GPU clock has been reduced from the GTX 660’s 980MHz to 925MHz, which is fairly low, especially given that Nvidia’s boost technology is missing from the GTX 650 Ti 1GB, meaning that manual overclocking is the only way you’ll be able to increase this. As standard, the card ships with 1GB of GDDR5 memory clocked at 1.35GHz (5.4GHz effective), although there is support for 2GB of memory should board partners wish to include it.

The GTX 650 Ti 1GB actually ships with two slightly different GPUs as it features either two or three graphics processing clusters (GPCs). This is because the GTX 650 Ti 1GB is essentially a GTX 660 with one of its streaming-multiprocessors (SMs) disabled. So you’ll either have three GPCs sub-divided into one, one and two SMs, or two GPCs with two SMs each.

Click to enlarge — The GK106 GPU of the GTX 660 2GB has been scaled down, with one fewer SM , one less memory 64-bit controller and fewer ROPs

With each SM housing 192 stream processors and 16 texture units, the GTX 650 Ti 1GB has a total of 768 stream processors and 64 texture units, which is double the count of the GTX 650 1GB. Four SMs also equates to four of Nvidia’s polymorph engines per chip, so the GTX 650 Ti has a total of four tesselators. With a raster engine assigned to each GPC, some cards will feature three raster engines, and some two, although Nvidia ensures us that performance is uniform across the range since it is limited by the number of SMs rather than the number of GPCs.

Memory wise, the difference between the GTX 650 Ti 1GB and the GTX 660 2GB is quite pronounced. The third 64-bit memory controller has been disabled, leaving the GTX 650 Ti 1GBwith just two, and consequently a 128-bit memory interface and 16 ROPs. With the memory clock of 5.4GHz effective then, the GTX 650 Ti 1GB has a total memory bandwidth of 86.4GB/s – much less than the 144GB/s of the GTX 660 2GB and only marginally more than the GTX 650’s 80GB/s.

Click to enlarge

The reference GTX 650 Ti 1GB PCB measures 146mm in length, and Nvidia specifies that the card has a dual slot form factor, a TDP of 110W and requires a single 6-pin PCI-E connection to run. The standard set of rear connections includes two dual-link DVIs and a single mini-HDMI for three-screen support out of the box, although four simultaneous screens are supported by the card, so board partners are able to add a fourth connection should they wish.

	Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 1GB	Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB	Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 2GB	Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2GB	Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 2GB	Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 2GB
GPU
Codename	GK107	GK106	GK106	GK104	GK104	GK104
Base Clock	1,058Mhz	925MHz	980Mhz	915MHz	915MHz	1,006MHz
Boost Clock	NA	NA	1,033MHz	980MHz	980MHz	1,058MHz
Stream Processors	384	768	960	1344	1344	1536
Layout	1 GPC, 1SM	2/3GPCs, 4 SMs	3 GPCs, 5 SMs	4 GPCs, 7 SMs	4 GPCs, 7 SMs	4 GPCs, 8 SMs
Rasterisers	1	2/3	3	4	4	4
Tesselation Units	2	4	5	7	7	8
Texture Units	32	64	80	112	112	128
ROPs	16	16	24	24	32	32
Transistors	1. 3 Billion	2.54 Billion	2.54 Billion	3.54 Billion	3.54 Billion	3.54 Billion
Die Size	118mm²	221mm²	221mm²	294mm²	294mm²	294mm²
Process	28nm	28nm	28nm	28nm	28nm	28nm
Memory
Amount	1GB GDDR5	1GB/2GB GDDR5	2GB GDDR5	2GB GDDR5	2GB GDDR5	2GB GDDR5
Frequency	1.25GHz (5Ghz Effective)	1.35GHz (5.4GHz effective)	1.5GHz (6GHz effective)	1.5GHz (6GHz effective)	1.5GHz (6GHz effective)	1.5GHz (6GHz effective)
Interface	128-bit	128-bit	192-bit	192-bit	256-bit	256-bit
Bandwidth	80GB/sec	86.4GB/sec	144/GB/sec	144 GB/sec	192 GB/sec	192 GB/sec
Card Specifications
Power Connectors	1 x 6-pin PCI-E	1 x 6-pin PCI-E	1 x 6-pin PCI-E	2 x 6-pin PCI-E	2 x 6-pin PCI-E	2 x 6-pin PCI-E
Stock Card Length	152mm	152mm	NA	240mm	240mm	257mm
TDP	64W	110W	140W	150W	170W	195W
Typical Street Price	£90	£120	£180	£230	£280	£380

1 — Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Review2 — EVGA GeForce 650 Ti SSC 1GB Review3 — Zotac GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2GB amp! Edition Review4 — Test Setup5 — GeForce GTX 650 Ti — Battlefield 3 Performance6 — GeForce GTX 650 Ti — Crysis 2 Performance7 — GeForce GTX 650 Ti — Skyrim Performance8 — GeForce GTX 650 Ti — The Witcher 2 Performance9 — GeForce GTX 650 Ti — Unigine Heaven 3. 0 Benchmark10 — GeForce GTX 650 Ti — Power and Thermals11 — GeForce GTX 650 Ti — Overclocking12 — GeForce GTX 650 Ti — Performance Analysis and Conclusion

Review and testing of ASUS GTX650TI-1GD5 video card on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti GECID.com. Page 1

::>Video cards
>2013
> ASUS GTX650TI-1GD5

12-03-2013

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In the last months of 2012, NVIDIA launched a number of solutions based on the Kepler architecture. The last of these was a desktop video processor called the GeForce GTX 650 Ti (NVIDIA GK106 chip). This product was designed to replace the obsolete NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 chip, as well as to compete with the successful solutions of its opponent — AMD Radeon HD 7770 and AMD Radeon HD 7850. In addition, the new graphics processor was able to fill the price gap between the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660. NVIDIA 9 based graphics card starting price0007 GeForce GTX 650 Ti was on par with AMD Radeon HD 6850 and AMD Radeon HD 6870, that is, about $150.

The «inferior» NVIDIA GK106 graphics processor has repeatedly come across to us in the reviews of video cards, for example ASUS GTX650Ti-DC2T-1GD5 and ZOTAC GeForce GTX 650 Ti AMP! edition. Recall that in this version of the chip, one 64-bit memory interface and one graphics processing cluster were disabled. As a result, only three streaming multiprocessors (SMX), 64 texturing units, 16 raster operations units and 768 CUDA cores remained. The memory bus is 128-bit wide. The graphics core is designed to work with GDDR5 memory, the bandwidth is only 86.4 GB / s. The table shows the characteristics of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti in relation to other cores of the same «weight» category.

	GeForce GTX 650	GeForce GTX 650 Ti	GeForce GTX 660	Radeon HD 7750
Kernel name	GK107	GK10 6	GK106	Cape Verde
Technological process, nm	28	28	28	28
Number of stream processors	384	768	960	512
Number of Raster Operation Blocks (ROPs)	16	16	24	16
Number of texturing units (TMU)	32	64	80	32
Memory bus width, bit	128	128	192	128
Core frequency, MHz	1058	928	980 / 1033	800
Memory frequency (type), MHz	1250 (GDDR5)	1350 (GDDR5)	1502 (GDDR5)	1125 (GDDR5)
Recommended price, $	130	150	230 / 250	100

Similar to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 graphics processor, this solution does not provide a dynamic clock growth function — GPU Boost, and there is no SLI connector. But like other GPUs based on the Kepler architecture, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti can simultaneously work with four screens. The power consumption of the chip reaches 110 W, so video cards based on this solution need an additional six-pin power connector.

ASUS GTX650TI-1GD5 is the simplest model in a series of products from this manufacturer based on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti graphics processor. The video adapter is equipped with 1 GB of memory, supports DirectX 11 and PhysX and has a proprietary Digi + power system. Its appearance is very different from the proposed «reference» design, but the core and memory frequencies correspond to those recommended by NVIDIA. More detailed technical characteristics of the product in question can be found in the presented specification.

Model	ASUS GTX650TI-1GD5
GPU	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti
Number of shader processors	768
Number of texture processors	64
Number of raster operation blocks	16
Core operating frequency, MHz	928
Size (type) of memory, MB	1024 (GDDR5)
Real (effective) memory frequency, MHz	1350 (5400)
Memory exchange bus width, bit	128
Bus interface	PCI Express 3. 0 16x
Output sockets	2x DVI-D 1x HDMI 1x D-Sub
Cooling system	Dual slot active
Supported APIs	DirectX 11 OpenGL 4.2
Supported Technologies	NVIDIA PhysX, CUDA, NVIDIA 3D Vision
Dimensions, mm	220 x 122
Minimum power supply requirement, W	400
Drivers	The latest drivers can be found on the graphics card manufacturer’s website.
Manufacturer website	http://www.asus.ua/

All prices for ASUS+GTX650TI-1GD5

The ASUS GTX650TI-1GD5 video card comes in a large cardboard box with a standard colorful design for the company.

The front of the package shows a dual fan cooling system. From the above inscription it becomes clear that the air flow has increased by 11%, and the noise produced has decreased by 14%. Unfortunately, nothing is said about the cooling system with which the comparison was made, we dare to assume that with the «reference». It also indicates: the type of graphics processor and the amount of memory used by the Digi + power system, as well as support for DirectX 11 technology and the ability to overclock using the proprietary GPU Tweak utility.

There is even more useful information on the reverse side. The advantages of the cooling system and the quality components used in production are again mentioned. The pictures show the graphics adapter itself and its video outputs, information about the support of four monitors is indicated. Plus, a brief specification is attached.

Inside the cardboard box is the graphics card itself, surrounded by polyethylene foam and wrapped in an antistatic bag. In addition, you can find a black case decorated with the company logo, which contains a disk with software and instructions. There are no other accessories included.

The height of the video card in question is 122mm. The length of the textolite reaches 210 mm, but the cooling system protrudes beyond the edges by another 10 mm. In terms of dimensions, the video adapter is relatively small, but the «reference» solution is even smaller. Along the top edge of the ASUS GTX650TI-1GD5 is a stiffening rib made of aluminum alloy with the company logo. This part is not related to the cooling system and is attached to the back panel and the back of the board with four screws. There is no SLI bridge connector.

On the reverse side of the printed circuit board, you can see empty seats for memory chips. Most likely, the 2 GB VRAM version of the video card uses the same circuit board.

The ASUS GTX650TI-1GD5 video card has three different output connectors:

Additional power is supplied to the graphics adapter via a six-pin connector located at the top of the board. The power of the power supply must be at least 400 watts.

After removing the cooling system, it became possible to take a closer look at the front side of the printed circuit board, which, by the way, is matte black. The design is completely different from the reference one, the power section is noticeably more complicated, higher quality components are used.

Near the center of the PCB is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti GPU. Its area is 221 square mm, and the number of transistors reaches 2540 million. The full marking of the chip is GK106-220-A1. On the video card, this GPU runs at NVIDIA’s recommended frequency of 928 MHz.

Gigabyte of memory for the ASUS GTX650TI-1GD5 video card is assembled from four 256 MB Hynix chips marked H5GQ2h34AFR R0C. Judging by the specifications, these memory chips are designed for a frequency of 6 GHz, while on a video card they operate at a frequency of 5.4 GHz, i.e. there is reasonable hope for some overclocking. The bus width is 128 bits.

The graphics processor and memory chips are powered by a four-phase regulator based on the ASP1212 PWM controller marked DIGI+. Transistor assemblies are represented by 87350D chips from Texas Instruments.

To remove heat from the ASUS GTX650TI-1GD5 video adapter, a proprietary two-slot active cooling system is used, consisting of a radiator and a plastic casing with two fans. The long, heavy heatsink is entirely made of aluminium. The black stickers at the base are not thermal pads for memory chips, which, like power components, are cooled only by air currents. A gray-silver thermal paste is used for contact with the GPU. The heatsink is secured to the back of the PCB with four spring-loaded screws. The casing with fans is held on it thanks to four latches. This model uses 75mm Everflow T128010SH (12V, 0.25A) fans.

The cooling system of the GTX650TI-1GD5 will be evaluated by a series of tests conducted using the MSI Kombustor software package, and monitoring was carried out using the proprietary ASUS GPU Tweak v2. 3.0.2

full power with automatic fan speed control. At the same time, the rotational speed reached 51% (or 1830 rpm) of the limit value, and the core temperature was fixed at around 64 degrees. The noise level produced did not stand out against the background of other devices in the system.

During the second test, the fan speed was increased to the maximum (3120 rpm), which led to a decrease in the temperature of the graphics core by 7 degrees. I had to pay at times with an increased noise level, which, although it did not exceed the comfort threshold, however, became the most audible sound in the system.

In idle mode, the core and memory frequencies dropped to 324 and 648 MHz, respectively, and the chip temperature stopped at around 30 degrees. Fans dropped to 17% or 960 rpm. Yet they were barely audible.

Testing

Review and testing of ASUS GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST DirectCU II OC GECID.

com. Page 1

::>Video cards
>2013
> ASUS GTX650TIB-DC2OC-2GD5

03-05-2013

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In this article, we will introduce you to ASUS’ vision of exactly how a video card based on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST should look and function. As of the beginning of May 2013, the company has only two versions of accelerators based on this GPU: ASUS GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST DirectCU II OC and ASUS GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST DirectCU II. The main, and perhaps the only, difference between them is the presence of factory overclocking in the version we tested with the OC index. Recall that in more detail with the characteristics and features of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST graphics processor you can find in one of our previous reviews, but for now we suggest you go directly to review ASUS GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST DirectCU II OC .

Specification:

Model	ASUS GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST DirectCU II OC (ASUS GTX650TIB-DC2OC-2GD5)
Graphics core	NVIDIA GK106 (Kepler)
Number of universal shader processors	768
Supported APIs	DirectX 11.1 (Shader Model 5.0), OpenGL 4.2
Proprietary technology support	GPU Boost, Adaptive V-Sync, PhysX, SLI, NVIDIA Surround, 3D Vision, CUDA
Graphics core frequency, MHz	1020 (1085 MHz with GPU Boost)
Memory frequency (effective), MHz	1502 (6008)
Memory size, MB	2048
Memory type	GDDR5
Memory bus width, bits	192
Tire type	PCI Express 3. 0 x16
Maximum resolution	Digital — up to 2560×1600 (up to 3840×2160 DisplayPort) Analog — up to 2048×1536 (via adapter)
Display interfaces	DVI-D DVI-I HDMI DisplayPort
Support for HDCP and HD video decoding	Yes
Minimum power supply requirement, W	450
Dimensions, mm	217 x 120
Drivers	The latest drivers can be downloaded from the ASUS website or the GPU manufacturer’s website.
Manufacturer website	ASUS

All Asus+GeForce+GTX650Ti+BOOST

prices (1085 MHz including GPU Boost), improved element base and alternative DirectCU II cooling system.

Packaging and bundle

Since the ASUS GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST DirectCU II OC box does not stand out from the packs of other video cards from this company, we will not dwell on it in detail. You can only highlight the presence of a mark that the video card belongs to the OC Edition series (video cards overclocked at the factory).

The reverse side of the package is reserved for the video output connection diagram, as well as for a brief technical specification of the video card and a picture of the DirectCU II cooling system.

Based on the system requirements of ASUS GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST DirectCU II OC, your PC power supply must have a power of at least 450W and be capable of delivering up to 24A via the +12V line.

We note a very good bundle, as for a budget product, because in the box, in addition to the disk with drivers and utilities and a quick guide, we found two adapters, one from DVI-I to VGA, and the second from two 4-pin peripheral connectors power supply to one 6-pin video card power connector.

ASUS GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST DirectCU II OC video card is equipped with the following full range of display ports:

• 1x DVI-D;

• 1x DVI-I;

• 1x HDMI;

• 1x DisplayPort.

If you need to connect an analog monitor, you can use the included DVI to VGA adapter.

The following resolutions are supported:

• Digital — up to 3840×2160;

• Analog — up to 2048×1536.

Appearance and element base

The ASUS GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST DirectCU II OC video card is made on a textolite with a unique design 193 mm long. Despite the larger dimensions than the «reference» sample, the logic of the location of the main elements remained unchanged, with the exception of only the connector for connecting CO and solid capacitors in the GPU power circuit, which are located somewhat differently.

The ASUS GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST DirectCU II OC video card power stabilization system is made according to the 4 + 1 phase scheme for the GPU and memory chips, respectively. All power circuits use exclusively solid capacitors and ferrite core chokes.

The core power system is based on Richtek’s 4-phase RT8867A controller, which supports active phase switching depending on the load to optimize the power consumption of the video card.

In addition to the PCI-Express connector, power is provided through one 6-pin power connector, which is located on the side of the graphics accelerator. Thanks to its good upside-down arrangement, connecting and disconnecting the power cable is very easy.

Like other modifications of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST, the ASUS version supports NVIDIA SLI technology. For its implementation, there is a corresponding connector on the textolite, with which you can combine two video cards for joint calculation of graphic effects.

On the reverse side of the textolite there are four of the eight memory chips, as well as several elements of the power system.

The ASUS GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST DirectCU II OC is based on the NVIDIA GK106 (Kepler) graphics chip manufactured using the 28nm process technology. It contains 768 universal shader pipelines (or CUDA cores in NVIDIA terminology) and 24 ROPs. The frequency of the graphics core, as we already mentioned, has been increased relative to the recommended NVIDIA 980 MHz and is 1020 MHz. Thanks to the support of GPU Boost technology, in turbo mode, the frequency of the graphics core can reach 1085 MHz. Data exchange between the graphics core and memory is carried out via a 192-bit bus.

The memory of the video card, the total amount of which is 2 GB, is assembled using 8 chips of 256 MB each manufactured by Hynix. The chips are marked H5GQ2h34AFR-R0C and, according to the documentation, their recommended frequency is 6 GHz, so since they operate at the nominal frequency, we have good chances to achieve at least some significant increase in frequency as a result of overclocking.

Cooling system

NVIDIA GK106 graphics core is cooled by proprietary DirectCU II cooler, already very familiar to us from a large number of tested ASUS video cards. The video card, with CO installed, occupies two expansion slots and has a total length of 217 mm.

Unlike the previous versions of DirectCU II, which used standard radiators made up of 42-48 thin plates, in this case the cooling system consists of a radiator, which is a solid aluminum bar, divided into sections along the edges. Also available are two fans with a diameter of 75 mm, mounted on a casing that covers the entire structure from above.

Two copper heat pipes with a diameter of 6 mm are used to evenly distribute heat over the entire area of ​​the radiator.

Also note that solder is used between the base of the heatsink and the heat pipes for more efficient heat transfer, while there is no solder at the edges where the pipes contact the fins.

A proprietary feature of DirectCU II is the technology of direct contact of heat pipes with a graphics chip through a small layer of thermal paste.

With automatic fan speed control, in the maximum load mode, the graphics core heated up to 63 degrees, and the cooler, judging by the monitoring readings, worked at half of its maximum power. The noise level in this case can be described as «below average».

In the maximum fan speed mode, the temperature of the GPU drops to 52 degrees. At the same time, the video card still continues to be quite quiet.

When there is no load, the graphics core and memory frequencies are automatically reduced to reduce the power consumption and heat dissipation of the graphics core. In this mode, the GPU temperature does not exceed 27 degrees, and the cooling system is silent.

For greater clarity and evaluation of the efficiency of the ASUS GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST DirectCU II OC cooling system, let’s make a small comparison with the previously tested versions of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST:

	ASUS GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST DirectCU II OC	ZOTAC GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost	Palit GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST OC
Type of cooling system	Axial	Axial	Axial
Number of fans	2	2	2
Blade diameter	75 mm.	74 mm.	75 mm.
GPU frequency	1020	993	1006
GPU Turbo boost frequency	1085	1059	1072
Load temperature (automatic cooler adjustment)	63	66	71
Load temperature (maximum cooler speed)	52	57	56
Noise at maximum speed	Below average	Below average	Below average

Although the ASUS GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST DirectCU II OC has the highest factory overclock of the three graphics cards, its cooler handled the GPU cooling better than its competitors while remaining as quiet as it was less productive CO.

Review of GeForce GTX 650 Ti

NVIDIA continues to build its line of graphics cards based on 28nm Kepler architecture GPUs. The most demanding enthusiasts, as well as thrifty gamers, already have plenty to choose from, but now the Californians are throwing into battle a solution for those who take a balanced approach to choosing a video card, not considering it necessary to spend a serious amount on a «gaming» piece of iron. It is for such users that NVIDIA offers GeForce GTX 650 Ti . Let’s see what a new product with a price tag of $150 is capable of?

Zmist

• 1 GeForce GTX 650 Ti
• 2 ZOTAC GTX650TI 2GB AMP! Edition (ZT-61103-10M)
• 3 Price
• 4 in the work
• 5 Test results
• 6 Results
  • 6.1 Testing device provided by zotac, www.zotac.com

17

For GeForce GTX 650 Ti uses the graphic processor GK106 , the same as in the case of the older model GeForce GTX 660. The nominal value of the operating clock frequency of the chip is 925 MHz. In this case, GPU Boost technology is not supported, therefore, the graphics core does not accelerate above the specified value during operation.

Recall that the GK106 uses the Kepler architecture, is manufactured using a 28-nanometer process technology and contains 2.54 billion transistors. In the case of the GeForce GTX 650 Ti, the chip has some simplifications. First of all, we note the reduction in the number of SMXs modules from 5 to 4. Each of them carries 192 compute units, which means that their total number has decreased from 960 to 768. The number of texture units has also decreased proportionally — from 80 to 64, but now there are 16 ROP units instead of 24.

For GeForce GTX 650 Ti is used 128-bit memory bus, which can already be considered a certain limiter for an adapter of this level. However, to compensate for the possible lack of memory bandwidth (BPS), the clock frequency of GDDR5 chips has a rather high recommended value — 5400 MHz, which provides a memory bandwidth of 86. 4 GB / s.

The GeForce GTX 650 Ti uses the same PCB design as the GeForce GTX 650. This means that the reference cards are very compact. The cooling system is two-slot, although its design is very simple. It is obvious that the cooler was developed taking into account the low power consumption of the video card. The declared TDP level is 110 watts. The adapter requires additional power; a six-pin connector is placed on the PCB to connect it. For systems with quad-core processors and GeForce GTX 650 Ti, the manufacturer recommends using a 400W PSU.

Like other members of the Kepler family, the GeForce GTX 650 Ti supports PhysX, Adaptive VSync, NVIDIA Surround and TXAA, FXAA anti-aliasing modes, however, it does not allow you to use the SLI mode. The loss is small, yet adapters of this level do not often perform in doubles. But, nevertheless, we note for ourselves that in the lines of the previous generation, lower-speed video cards also had the ability to use two accelerators.

Video card specifications:

	GeForce GTX 660	GeForce GTX 650 Ti	GeForce GTX 650	GeForce GTX 560	GeForce GTX 550 Ti
Crystal name	GK106	GK106	GK107	GF114	GF116
Manufacturing process, nm	28	28	28	40	40
Chip area, mm²	221	221	118	367	238
Number of transistors, billion	2.54	2.54	1.3	1.95	1.17
GPU clock speed, MHz	980/1033	925	1058	810	900
Number of stream processors	960	768	384	336	192
Number of texture units	80	64	32	56	32
Number of ROPs	24	16	16	32	24
Memory (type, size), MB	GDDR5, 2048	GDDR5, 1024/2048	GDDR5, 1024	GDDR5, 1024	GDDR5, 1024
Memory bus bit	192	128	128	256	192
Memory frequency, MHz	6008	5400	5000	4008	4100
Memory bandwidth, GB/s	144	86. 4	80	128	98.4
Power consumption, W	140	110	64	150	116
Recommended price	$229	$149	$109	$170-190*	$110-125*

* — according to hotline.ua catalog

ZOTAC GTX650TI 2GB AMP! Edition (ZT-61103-10M)

Traditionally, modifications of AMP video cards! Edition from ZOTAC have an improved frequency formula. In this case, factory tuning has a serious scale. The chip frequency was increased from 925 to 1033 MHz (+11.7%), while the memory runs at 6200 MHz (+14.8%) instead of the recommended 5400 MHz.

The video card is very compact. The top of the cooler is covered with a black plastic cover. The cooling system is based on an aluminum radiator of a simple design, which is blown through 90mm axial fan. The blades of the latter are made of translucent plastic and have an orange color. In combination with a black printed circuit board and a protective cover of the same color, it looks quite impressive.

PCB length 145 mm, overall length of adapter including slightly protruding top cover 155 mm. The adapter barely exceeds the dimensions of the PCI-Express x16 slot, so there will be no problems with installing a video card, even in a compact case.

PCB is very similar to the reference, but has its own characteristics. The stabilizer is made according to a three-phase scheme (2 + 1). AMP modification! Edition, in addition to having increased clock speeds, carries 2 GB of memory on board. At the same time, 4 chips are located on the top and right near the GPU, and the same number of chips is on the back of the board.

The reference adapter is equipped with three video outputs — a pair of DVI and mini-HDMI, while the video card from ZOTAC has four interface connectors on the mounting panel: two DVI, and the same number of full-length HDMI.

The package bundle of the video card is not anything out of the ordinary: a manual, a quick installation brochure, a CD with drivers, an adapter from a pair of Molex to a six-pin connector for connecting additional power, and an adapter from DVI to VGA.

Price

The recommended price of the GeForce GTX 650 Ti for the US market is $149 for a model with 1 GB of memory, reference circuit board and clock speeds. For Ukraine, the declared value is UAH 1399 . The price of the boosted video card with 2 GB of memory from ZOTAC at the initial stage is indicated at the level of $189 . In the latter case, the difference from the original is significant, however, in our opinion, the retail price will still be determined by the real demand in the market.

In progress

In terms of cooling efficiency, the used cooler has proven itself quite well. Despite the modest design, its capabilities turned out to be enough to remove heat from the GK106 and do it without much anguish.

Note that the fan is connected using two pins, which means that the speed of its rotation is not controlled by PWM, but by changing the voltage. However, it is very difficult to evaluate the algorithm of its work. The fact is that at almost any load the fan stably rotated at 23% of the maximum value, and only after the merciless Furmark warmed up the GPU to 66 degrees, the rotation speed increased to 25%. It is difficult to talk about quantitative indicators, since the actual revolutions in this case are not monitored, however, such a moderate increase in the rotational speed did not affect the general tone of the CO operation. The cooler works quite quietly regardless of the conditions. In general, there are no serious complaints about the cooling system, but, of course, a more flexible control algorithm would be very appropriate here. In rest mode, it would obviously be possible to get by with more modest speeds

Test results

Unfortunately, at the time of the tests, the available utilities for adjusting video card parameters did not allow correct control of the GPU clock speed. For this reason, the diagrams show the results of only the overclocked modification from ZOTAC in its normal mode (1033/6200 MHz). The performance of the GeForce GTX 650 Ti with reference frequencies will be on average 10-15% lower than that of the boosted video card. This should definitely be taken into account during the overall evaluation of a new device based on the GK106 chip. At the same time, let’s not forget that the retail sale of the GeForce GTX 650 Ti from many vendors will be in a tuned form, with increased clock speeds, while the reference formula will be used only for the most affordable modifications.

Due to the above reason, we can only preview the performance of the GeForce GTX 650 Ti. However, even the obtained data still give an idea of ​​the potential of the new solution. So, after additional overclocking, the GeForce GTX 650 Ti manages to compete almost equally with the GeForce GTX 560 and Radeon HD 6870. Even if we omit the very optimistic results in 3DMark 11 and Lost Planet 2 synthetics, the new GK106 on average shows very decent results. It is noticeably ahead of the Radeon HD 7770, however, given the cost of the latter at $120, this is not surprising.

It is also interesting to compare the capabilities of the GTX 650 Ti and the formal predecessor of the GTX 550 Ti. The predecessor is not only inferior to the new product on the GK106. Between them, if not an abyss, then a very tangible difference. Owners of GF116-based video cards who want to change their video card should already look towards faster solutions in order to fully experience the contrast and get satisfaction from the upgrade. At the same time, the figures obtained are evidence that technologies do not stand still.

If we compare GeForce GTX 650 Ti video cards with the younger model without the «Ti» index, it is obvious that these are adapters of different levels. Double the number of processors and texture units allows the new product to break away from the younger model in terms of performance. Moreover, the difference is so great that one might wonder if the device based on the GK107 chip as a whole should be attributed to the GTX family? However, the difference in the cost of the adapters is also significant, because the parity in terms of price / performance is generally maintained, it is only important to remember that in the case of the GTX 650, the “Ti” index has a significant weight.

Summary

The GeForce GTX 650 Ti is a compact, cost-effective solution that can provide acceptable Full HD speeds in medium or even high graphics quality modes in any modern game. The performance of the boosted video card is very worthy compared to the offers on the market in the same price category. With a retail price of ~$150-160, the novelty will surely be very popular.

Making a short historical digression, we note that the GeForce GTX 550 Ti at the time of its announcement (March 2011) was also offered for $150. A year and a half later, for the same money, we get a device with a significantly increased level of performance, which, moreover, has become noticeably more economical. Of course, the period of «console stagnation» affects the pace of development of graphics adapters for PCs, but the slogan «more functional, faster, more energy efficient» is still relevant.

With the introduction of the GeForce GTX 650 Ti , NVIDIA has stepped into an operational space where its main competitor still doesn’t currently have alternative offerings based on modern GPUs. AMD will certainly try to respond to such an attack. It is likely that her partners will help her to take this step, as they are finishing sales of video cards based on Barts chips (HD 6850/6870) and cannot currently offer interesting options in the most popular price category. One of the stages will be the reduction in the cost of the Radeon HD 7850, which, in the version with 1 GB of memory, will possibly fall in price to $169.. However, this is a higher-level solution, while AMD’s lineup lacks a more affordable model based on the Pitcairn chip to directly compete with the GeForce GTX 650 Ti. Is it time for the announcement of the Radeon HD 7830 and a new battle of irreconcilable competitors?

Test device provided by ZOTAC, www.zotac.com

Test bench configuration

Processor	Intel Core i7-3770K @ 4.5GHz	Intel, www.intel.ua
Cooler	Thermalright Archon Rev.