NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost Video Card Review @ [H]

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FrgMstr

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost Video Card Review - NVIDIA is launching the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost today. This video card is priced in the $149-$169 price range, and should give the $150 price segment another shakedown. Does it compare to the Radeon HD 7790, or is it on the level of the more expensive Radeon HD 7850? We will find out in today's latest games, you may be surprised.
 
Thanks for the review. From the review it looks like the obvious choice is the 7850.
When both cards are overclocked the 7850 is on par or ahead of the 650ti boost but the kicker is that it comes with 2 of the best triple A games this year (Bioshock:Infinite and Tomb Raider). Nvidia probably knew this and is why they priced it so low as they don't offer anything with the card.
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The 7850 overclocked figures are from a review of June last year before the November 2012 performance driver was released. I'd love to see how both of these cards stack up to each other at max overclock with the latest drivers.

This deal is absolutely killer:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150641
XFX Core Edition FX-785A-CNL4 Radeon HD 7850 2GB $179.99 - $20 rebate = $159.99 + Free Shipping + Free Bioshock: Infinite & Tomb Raider. You can sell the game coupons for $20 each easily and you have an amazing deal. Competition sure is heating up and consumers are winners in all this.
 
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Nice review. The 650Ti Boost is a very nice card for the price range it slots into.
 
I have a 2 GB 7850 card, which doesn't get included in a lot of benchmarks nowadays. Thanks for using it as a comparison, and I enjoyed seeing the results. I have no problems running it for 1080p gaming, and these results back it up.

However, if I were in for a new card at that price range, the 650Ti Boost definitely makes sense now. I usually spend $150-$200 on video cards, so this new entry hits a great sweet spot.

Terrific review, as always.
 
PC gaming is dying? :D
I love when products like this come out (especially before huge console launches); cheap gaming PC's just got even more attractive than they already were.
 
Looks like this card will shake up pricing in the sub $200 market. Hopefully AMD will respond soon seeing as how the 7790 can't provide the same performance as the same price point.
 
Lorien said:
Thanks for the review. From the review it looks like the obvious choice is the 7850.
When both cards are overclocked the 7850 is on par or ahead of the 650ti boost but the kicker is that it comes with 2 of the best triple A games this year (Bioshock:Infinite and Tomb Raider). Nvidia probably knew this and is why they priced it so low as they don't offer anything with the card.
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/MSI/HD_7850_Power_Edition/images/gpuz_oc.gif[
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_650_Ti_Boost/images/gpuz_oc.gif
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/MSI/HD_7850_Power_Edition/images/perf_oc.gif
http://tpucdn.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_650_Ti_Boost/images/perf_oc.gif

The 7850 overclocked figures are from a review of June last year before the November 2012 performance driver was released. I'd love to see how both of these cards stack up to each other at max overclock with the latest drivers.

This deal is absolutely killer:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150641
XFX Core Edition FX-785A-CNL4 Radeon HD 7850 2GB $179.99 - $20 rebate = $159.99 + Free Shipping + Free Bioshock: Infinite & Tomb Raider. You can sell the game coupons for $20 each easily and you have an amazing deal. Competition sure is heating up and consumers are winners in all this.
Click to expand...

There is sort of a game bundle being offered, but its free to play games, so technically they are all free games.

http://www./landing-page/free-2-play

http://promotions.newegg.com/VGA/13-0506/index.html

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?docId=1001029511
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Great review; this looks like a great card for the money. I am looking into the possibility of an HTPC, and this seems like a phenomenal choice.

fixed, thanks - brent
 
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It truly is phenomenal, and we are impressed at what has been delivered to gamers.
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Tell this to people who claim that PC gaming is too expensive. I agree with you wholeheartedly with the performance for the average Joe Gamer. The one area I'd like to see nVidia improve upon is their game bundles or lack thereof.
 
Wow, Nvidia took all of AMD's wind out of their sales. Oof.
Brilliant card there at its price.
Like the small tweaks you made to the apples charts.
 
DOOMHAMMA said:
Wow, Nvidia took all of AMD's wind out of their sales.
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QFT.
nVidia used to lag so far behind on budget....after adding a few cards, they've practically taken over that field as well.

AMD is going to really be hurting before too long. I love my 6950 but damn the resale on that just dropped in the toilet.
 
What I found most shocking is the nvidia prices listed in the article. It shows the 650 ti being 129 but current prices are 149/169 for the 1GB/2GB models. Also, found it strange that the article does not mention a 650 ti with 2GB but they are currently many of these for sale. So, the big question for me is when does this price cut take effect?
Maybe I missed it in the article, but when are the retail cards expected in stores?
 
Lorien said:
Thanks for the review. From the review it looks like the obvious choice is the 7850.
When both cards are overclocked the 7850 is on par or ahead of the 650ti boost but the kicker is that it comes with 2 of the best triple A games this year (Bioshock:Infinite and Tomb Raider). Nvidia probably knew this and is why they priced it so low as they don't offer anything with the card.

This deal is absolutely killer:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150641
XFX Core Edition FX-785A-CNL4 Radeon HD 7850 2GB $179.99 - $20 rebate = $159.99 + Free Shipping + Free Bioshock: Infinite & Tomb Raider. You can sell the game coupons for $20 each easily and you have an amazing deal. Competition sure is heating up and consumers are winners in all this.
Click to expand...

Yeah, saw this when looking at the currently available nvidia cards and pricing. For those buying today, the decision is an absolute no brainer. This is the card to get. Who knows when the nvidia prices will get to where this article says they should be at. Was looking at the 650 ti for a friend's computer. After seeing this article and what it said about pricing, purchasing an nvidia card right now in this price segment would be folly.
 
jcollett said:
What I found most shocking is the nvidia prices listed in the article. It shows the 650 ti being 129 but current prices are 149/169 for the 1GB/2GB models. Also, found it strange that the article does not mention a 650 ti with 2GB but they are currently many of these for sale. So, the big question for me is when does this price cut take effect?
Maybe I missed it in the article, but when are the retail cards expected in stores?
Click to expand...

You can get a Galaxy 1gb GTX 650Ti for $125 after rebate at the Egg.
 
I'm sorry if I missed any line in that review that stated that you were testing a 2GB card vs a 1GB card and how that may change things in terms of why you may not have been able to increase the settings of the AMD to match the Nvidia but I think it's an important thing to make note of.

I haven't owned an ATI card since the 9800 of old, and I understand that Nvidia sent you a reference 2GB card so you may not have had a 2GB 7790 to go up against it but you should mention it in your conclusion.
 
Jodo McFatty said:
I'm sorry if I missed any line in that review that stated that you were testing a 2GB card vs a 1GB card and how that may change things in terms of why you may not have been able to increase the settings of the AMD to match the Nvidia but I think it's an important thing to make note of.
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[strike=]They're not.[/s] I'm guessing you're talking specifically about the 7790 vs the 560 Ti Boost.

2 - Test Setup said:
Keep in mind throughout this evaluation the price points of each video card. The Radeon HD 7850 1GB starts at $179, and the 2GB model starts at $185. We are using the 2GB Radeon HD 7850, so it's the $185 model. The Radeon HD 7790 is priced at $149, and actually the model we are using is a slightly overclocked model, for $5 more. The new GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB model we are evaluating is the $169 model.
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This is 2GB vs 2GB.
The 7790 does not have a 2GB card available. [H] reviewed the Asus model, but even in the AT review they showed AIB designs for practically all manufacturers and none of them have a 2GB 7790 either.
OTOH the 1GB 650 Ti Boost cards are not available yet and won't be until later this spring/early summer (reportedly).
 
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Nice review guys, and looks like Nvidia brought a nice product to the market.


It wasn't mentioned in the conclusion (but was in the introduction), but I think it needs to be pointed out that the the card allows a 2x SLI configuration to be ran. Important for gamers who may want to have "upgrade" options available, and it might be a mini powerful thing for $300-$360 with the same number of cuda cores as a 680 gt.
 
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Fixed! Thanks for the extra eyes! - Kyle

Edit: I hate to be entirely negative when I have such a high opinion of the review. So, I need to add that beyond that, I really appreciate the review. Well done.
 
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the GTX 650 Ti Boost blows the HD 7790 out of the water. But AMD just needs to cut USD 20 and price the HD 7790 at USD 130. And then they are back on top .

also the conclusion of hardocp where they pick a GTX 650 Ti boost 2GB over a HD 7850 2GB is missing the important points. the HD 7850 runs at 860 mhz. even in the tests run by hardocp each card takes 3 games. the 3 games where the HD 7850 is slower it will catch up or exceed at same clocks. vice versa the 3 games where HD 7850 already leads at stock will be landslide wins once overclocked (will also allow higher gameplay settings in some cases).

HD 7850 has much more OC headroom and its scales very well with overclocking. at the same clocks HD 7850 is around 8 - 10% slower than HD 7870. At 1.15 Ghz HD 7850 matches a HD 7870. those are average overclocks which most users achieve. Throw in Bioshock infinite and Tombraider and the HD 7850 is a much better card / deal.

lets see a overclocked HD 7850 vs overclocked GTX 650 Ti boost . its a no contest. You can expect AMD to adjust prices. they definitely can sell a 160 sq mm HD 7790 at USD 130. the HD 5770 and HD 6770 sold at the same price with similar die sizes.

AMD missed a trick here. They should have launched with USD 130 pricing on HD 7790. the fact that they will be forced to cut prices proves they are not tactically as good as Nvidia. they are not pro active and more reactive
 
I was curious about the conclusion where you say the boost has slightly higher performance then the 7850. In your benchmarks, they tied 3 for 3 games and the 7850.

Tomb raider-boost wins
crysis-boost wins
far cry-boost wins
hitman-7850 wins
sleeping dogs-7850 wins
max payne -7850 wins
 
Fantasyalive said:
I was curious about the conclusion where you say the boost has slightly higher performance then the 7850. In your benchmarks, they tied 3 for 3 games and the 7850.

Tomb raider-boost wins
crysis-boost wins
far cry-boost wins
hitman-7850 wins
sleeping dogs-7850 wins
max payne -7850 wins
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tomb raider win is arguable because the developer is not done yet improving game performance. there is a patch going to be out soon which is going to improve performance further on AMD cards.
 
I would think that if you don't plan on overclocking that you'd choose the 650 Ti Boost (ffs let's figure out a nickname for it) but otherwise the 7850 is clearly the choice as they have been shown to have ridiculous overclocking headroom at times.

My still dead computer has a 7870 in it but the 650 Ti Boost would have been a great upgrade from my GTX460 768mb. Hope this shakes up the market a bit more
 
Great card. I always go Nvidia because of past experience and latency issues. This would be super for a second and inexpensive build.
 
$150, faster than a GTX 480 and it sips power?

It's a good time to be a PC gamer on a budget.
 
Its a good thing that [H] takes notice on the "low end" cards. You know, cards that people actually buy.

Kudos to AMD and Nvidia for releasing budget cards worth buying. GTX 470 performance for $150 is great.

IMO the real deal here is the GTX660 for $199.00.

Finally the prices that should be at launch
 
I'm wondering if I should sell my 660TI and get 2 of these for SLI....
 
How does the gaming performance of one (or two) of these compare to a single GTX 580 1.5gb?
 
jhtevans said:
How does the gaming performance of one (or two) of these compare to a single GTX 580 1.5gb?
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I'd guess performance sits between the GTX470 and GTX 580. For reference the 660 is a somewhat faster than a gtx580
 
I wonder if current rebates will still apply. It would be great to have a 650ti for a little over $100 AR
 
I would like to see an SLI review of this card compared to some of the higher end single gpu cards. It would help answer the question: "Should I buy a GTX680/670/660ti or two 650ti boosts in SLI"
I presume that there were no SLI numbers because of limited card availablity.
 
I too would like to some SLI figures. I currently have a GTX460 and I have been putting off upgrading. I am only going to run games at 1080p.
 
Great review Brent.
It's refreshing to see reviews of sub $200 video cards since I have a lot of friends and family that won't pay $200 for a card.
I like the clean look of the apples to apples but it would be nice if you mention which cards are playable at those settings.
 
It's tempting to buy one of these for the price with the intention of buying another in a month or two but looking at the raw performance numbers in GPU-Z on this vs my 560 Ti's i'd be downgrading in performance until i got the second card and even then the main performance increase will likely be the result of having 2 gb of ram vs the 1 on my 560 Ti's. so it looks like my upgrade path is still headed towards a 660 Ti or 670/680 and then maybe get another one for SLI later.

It would be nice however if folks would stick benchmarks from popular last gen cards in reviews so folks that are still running last gen can get a better real world idea rather than having to guess, i know for one thing i would be extremely disappointed if i was to "upgrade" only to find out that my older cards in SLI beat the newer single card handily and i bet that would be the case for me.
 
Stoly said:
I'd guess performance sits between the GTX470 and GTX 580. For reference the 660 is a somewhat faster than a gtx580
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overall the plain 660 is a wee bit faster than the 570 but is not faster than a 580. even my 660ti can lose to my 570 in a couple cases.
 
Looks like a good card. But compared to the massively under-clocked 7850 with AAA bundle @ similar $$? :(
 
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