NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost Review

[LinusTech]

INTRODUCTION

The biggest complaint I have about the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost is that it has a very strange product name. Sure it's GK106-based just like the GTX 650 Ti, and sure it's got GPU boost, which the previous card did not, but it's in a very different price bracket with very different performance characteristics.

If we look at the last few times NVIDIA did the whole "Product Name" + "Random Extra Bit" thing, it would be the 9800GTX+, GTX 260 Core 216, GTX 285, and GTX 560 Ti 448. All of these cards performed within a stone's throw of their namesakes.

The GTX 650 Ti Boost is a completely different animal from the non-Boost model.

TECH SPECS

The main things to note in the below graphic is the fact that the base clock of the card has been increased from 925 to 980MHz with a boost clock of 1033MHz (although NVIDIA is pretty conservative on these, and I'd imagine end-users will see higher typical boost clocks), the memory bus has been increased from 128-bit to 192-bit with a 6GHz clock speed, and the onboard memory has been increased from 1GB to 2GB.

There will be a 1GB version available later, but for the reasons that you'll see in the performance graph, I think I would recommend spending the extra couple bucks for the 2GB version.

SLI has also been added but (having not tested it yet) I still don't think I would recommend an SLI configuration with this card. That falls into GTX 660 Ti 3GB territory which will give you much more consistent performance across the board. GPU Boost is the more interesting feature of the two that has been added to this card, and actually I'm particularly excited about another thing that NVIDIA hasn't talked about much.

The GTX 650 Ti Boost supports the same 3+1 maximum display configuration as other high end Kepler cards. While you won't be able to game at 3x1080p in surround, it's nice for a casual gamer who will play games on only one monitor but may also want to take advantage of the productivity benefits of a multi-display configuration.

PERFORMANCE

Here's the obligatory listing of the hardware and drivers we're using to power our test bench.

All cards are run overclocked. We aim to achieve the same overclocks that *most* people can easily attain with a typical retail card, but as always YMMV. We are hoping to add a Radeon HD 7790 to our stable soon so we can bring you a comparison between that card and the 650 Ti Boost soon. You can see the settings that we use here: [url=http://bit.ly/11GiSHA]http://bit.ly/11GiSHA[/url=http://bit.ly/11GiSHA]

Far Cry 3 was one of those games where the average frame rate really doesn't tell the whole story. Unfortunately we don't really have a graph format that works to show everything yet. Both of the 1GB cards had horrendous dips in performance that made them pretty much unplayable. Other than that most of the cards fall in line with how they should perform compared to the others according to price. The exception here is the GTX 660 which loses marginally to the Radeon 7850.

Crysis 3 same story.

Our SKYRIM install has a bunch of mods on it, so your game might perform differently, but it's still interesting to see how the cards stack up. Our 650 Ti Boost was a little disappointing here compared to the similarly priced 7850.

Witcher 2 was another case of 1GB cards just not being able to hold up at the same settings as our 2GB cards.

Metro 2033 almost looks like the title NVIDA and AMD used to determine if their pricing was competitive with the other cards in the market, then price them accordingly. Everything lines up pretty well here with the 1GB cards struggling again.

WHY GEFORCE??

NVIDIA has been hard at work over the last few years creating value-add technologies that they believe make their cards a better option. Some of them are very applicable for this card, while others are not. SLI and 3D Vision, and Adaptive Vsync are more geared towards higher end cards, but TXAA is a "good enough" anti-aliasing algorithm that is much less demanding than MSAA, and provides "good enough" smoothing quality. There will obviously be a huge benefit to this kind of tech for mid-range cards.

GPU Boost is obviously the star of the show when it comes to this review though, and it delivers (along with the other tweaks) a performance improvement that "boosts" the GTX 650 Ti into a completely different performance league.

The GeForce Experience is another NVIDIA benefit targeted squarely at mainstream gamers who just want to buy a graphics card, put it in their system and then never think about it again. It automatically keeps your drivers updated (honestly though, why didn't we have this 5 years ago?) and more importantly scans your system specifications then optimizes the in-game settings according to your system type to deliver a solid balance between performance and visual quality. Very cool stuff!

I think this next slide is pretty self-explanatory. NVIDIA has wasted no time adding the new GTX 650 Ti Boost to their latest Gear Up promotion, which gives you $25 in each Planetside 2, World of Tanks, and Hawken

CONCLUSION

There are a couple of conclusions to draw here. #1 is that this is pretty much the minimum card I'd recommend buying to play games at high settings at 1080p. We are finally at the point where we are benefiting from 2GB of video RAM.

The second conclusion is that the 650 Ti Boost is well positioned against it's competitors and the existing products in the NVIDIA stack. There was a big gap before between the 650 Ti and the 660 that has been closed off nicely. The 7850 was a formidable competitor in that space with its monster overclocking capabilities, Crossfire compatibility, and native multi-display support, and NVIDIA has addressed each of those things nicely.

With that said, the 650 Ti Boost didn't outperform the 7850 once both were overclocked, but it also doesn't cost quite as much so it comes down to the individual customer's preference, and which graphics chipset maker has the more appealing bundle at the time of purchase. One thing is for sure, however, and that is that the $120 - $200 price bracket is NOT a one horse race anymore.

[LinusTech]

Unboxing link!

[LinusTech]

1080p review link

[everything count to life]

Sorry about the post

[iRandomize]

LINUS! I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED!

(Warning, my English is terrible, grammar mistakes incoming!)

Throughout the video, you keep mentioning a "price differential" between the AMD cards and the 650Ti Boost. Seeing that you continously correct lables on every single box you touch, you should atleast get your own language correct.

A "price differential" indicates different prices to different customers on THE SAME PRODUCT. For instance, NCIX might charge less for a CPU, when selling 100 3770K's to a company, than they would charge the average consumer, when he orders only one (second degree price discrimination).

Price differentiation is more commonly known as price discrimination.

What you should be saying is "price difference", while this might not sound as fancy, it is at least correct.

[LinusTech]

Sorry about the post

Oh it's fine. You were just waaaay too ninja for me :p

[rcarroll05]

To better understand your logic in the recommendation of this card. Can you post the pricing for each of the cards that you tested? It seemed your whole recommendation was based on that, but I don't see where the pricing is documented to back up your statements. I think this would help in keeping the "flames" down on people thinking you are an Nvidia "fanboy" and don't like AMD. Which I am sure is not the case.

[T1000]

Excellent review ^-^ (and i am a amd fan lol)

[LinusTech]

Good feedback on the videos. Thanks guys.

As for pricing. I don't like to include exact pricing in videos because it changes all the time, but based on the MSRP of the 650 Ti Boost and pricing we saw at NCIX for the 7770 and 7850, the 650 Ti Boost was supposed to come in a bit lower.

Factor in that there are never discounts at launch but they always come a couple weeks later, by the time things settle in, it should be a little cheaper.

[rcarroll05]

I agree that pricing can change all the time. Put a disclaimer in there of that. It just sounded like your basis of recommendation was mostly on the pricing and without giving the pricing it could look as if the recommendation is just being pulled out of thin air. See the anandtech review for what I am taking about. Very clear and concise on the pricing graph. Just my 2 cents which doesn't buy much usually. :)

[renalt130]

i would like to see the 7790 on the comparision tables sinde both cards were launched almost at same time

[kgilzzzqoq]

These days, bean bag chairs are available in a vast range of colors and styles.

Tremendous effort in media planning to decide the media vehicle and media buying negotiations leads to mere wastage of time and energy.

http://chanelbags0531a.weebly.com/ http://chanelbags0531b.weebly.com/

http://lvbags0503a1.blogspot.com/2013/05/anthropologie-handbags-people-are-using.html

http://lvbags0508b3.blogspot.com/2013/05/new-fall-looks-don-t-have-to-cost.html

http://lvbags0526a7.blogspot.com/2013/05/choosing-cornhole-bags.html

http://lvbags0503a4.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-perfect-equipment-for-womens-handbag.html

This wedding band can in all probability be the sole thing that your loved one will wear to the rest of his or her life.

Hobo purses are treasured by many young ladies since they at all times hold many items with them since it is not hard for them to hold those things in a hobo handbag because of its extended strap.

http://chanelbags0531c.weebly.com/ http://chanelbags0530c.weebly.com/

http://lvbags0518a7.blogspot.com/2013/05/balenciaga-handbags-one-of-most.html

http://lvbags0504a2.blogspot.com/2013/05/chanel-purses-forum-why-should-you-go.html

http://chanelbags0502d6.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-game-of-golf-bag-as-artwork.html

http://lvbags0526a5.blogspot.com/2013/05/sports-bags-pack-in-promotional-power.html

When it comes to paying for your used BMW, used Rolls or used Fiat Panda a bankers draft is advisable and any genuine seller will be ok with this.

The best places to shop at are those that stock classic and stylish fashion merchandise and have top-notch customer service.

http://lvbags0508b1.blogspot.com/2013/05/how-to-win-trinidad-and-tobago-536-game.html

http://lvbags0518a3.blogspot.com/2013/05/prada-gaufre-bag-exuding-saucy-and.html

http://lvbags0503a4.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-perfect-equipment-for-womens-handbag.html

http://lvbags0526a6.blogspot.com/2013/05/louis-vuitton-handbags-always-in-demand.html

http://www.bulkping.com/rss-feed-generator-creator/feed/22b71334b4cd43b19f3f37fbb8444f0d.xml It should also be pointed out that there are some other variations of this diet.

This Ritz handbag is perfect for work, too, because it has a roomy (and luxurious gold leather doesn't hurt) interior to carry the essentials any woman needs to transform from a working woman into the life of the party.