GeForce GTX 650 Ti (video card): features and reviews

Every year, companies are releasing more and more new and productive graphics adapters. Among them you can find both budget goods for office PCs and expensive video cards designed for processing complex 3D images. These gaming video accelerators are worth a lot of money, and not everyone can afford such a purchase. But what to do to users with a more modest budget, but willing to try out all the novelties of the gaming industry? For these purposes, there are budget graphics adapters that can cope with most complex tasks. Among all the variety of these products, special attention was paid to the Geforce GTX 650 TI mid-range video card, the review of which is provided in this article.

Features

This graphics card uses nVidia graphics processors made on the Kepler architecture. It was one of the first video accelerators using this technology. The video card has become one of the latest GTX models of the sixth series, released by the company nVidia. The main task of the Geforce GTX 650 TI was to compensate for the gap between 650 and 660 video cards, which differed greatly from each other both in performance and in price. To do this, it was enhanced by a large number of stream processors (compared to the standard 650 version), but left a 128-bit memory bus. Did the new Geforce GTX 650 TI meet the expectations of the developers? Customer reviews say yes. With a relatively budgetary cost, it copes well with the tasks assigned to it. The closest competitor of the video card was AMD Radeon HD 7770. The difference in price is minimal, and the results of tests for these video accelerators are almost identical.

Comparing video cards from different manufacturers

As you know, there are only two companies that produce graphics processors - nVidia and ATI / AMD. But they cooperate with a number of companies that are engaged in the finalization of video cards and their subsequent implementation. By characteristics, these products practically do not differ from the reference sample, except that some of them are subjected to additional "acceleration".

The finalization consists in changing the design and equipment of the video card with its own cooling systems. When choosing a video card, in this case GeForse GTX 650 TI, it is better to pay attention to products from MSI, Gigabite and Asus companies, which occupy a leading position in this direction. But on the products Palit and Manli you can find many negative reviews. This does not mean that if, for example, you purchase a video card Palit Geforce GTX 650 TI, then it will immediately fail. The likelihood of such an outcome is negligible, but nevertheless these producers have not quite an impeccable reputation.

Appearance and main characteristics

Compared to more expensive devices, the GeForce GTX 650 TI has a compact size. The length of the video card is 15 cm, but due to the cooling system this parameter can reach 18-22 cm, depending on the manufacturer. The standard model is equipped with a radiator and one cooler, but there are modifications with two fans (for example, Gigabyte Geforce GTX 650 TI). The video card has a standard PCI-Express x16 3.0 port and is equipped with all the current video outputs, including VGA, DVI and mini HDMI.

Now let's move on to a more detailed review of the Geforce GTX 650 TI. The characteristics of the video card are much better than the standard GTX 650, mainly due to the use of the Kepler architecture. It is equipped with a graphic chip GK106, which has a core clock frequency of 925 MHz. The working capacity is provided by 1 or 2 GB of video memory GDDR5 at a frequency of 1250 MHz and a 128-bit bus. There is a connector for additional power. It is recommended to use with power supplies with a power of at least 450 W.

PC configuration for testing

To test the video card you need to take the most productive PC to fully reveal the full potential of the video accelerator. We will use Intel's processor, namely Core i7 3770K with clock speed 3.5 GHz, MSI motherboard Z77A-GD55, 8 Gb RAM Samsung M378B5273DH0-CH9 (with frequency 1333 MHz), power supply OCZ OCZZX1000 (power 1000 W) and SSD-drive Corsair Performance Pro 256 GB. All tests were carried out using a 30 "DELL 3008WFP monitor.With the beginning of the work, you need to check the hardware and software of the PC.To do nothing to affect the results, you need to install the latest version of the drivers for the tested video card.

Synthetic tests

The Geforce GTX 650 TI runs on DirectrX 11, so we'll use the benchmark 3D Mark 11, developed by Futuremark, in the test. The results showed quite good performance of the video card. The nearest competitors were GTX 560, AMD Radeon HD 6870, AMD Radeon HD 6850 and AMD Radeon HD 7770. Now it remains to check how the video card copes with the current games, and also how much it is heated.

Temperature and acceleration

When testing the cooling system, we used graphics cards from MSI and Asus. To load the GTX 650 TI, the test was conducted using a video game Battlefield 3. During 15 minutes of operation, the temperature of both models did not exceed 63 ° C, and the air in the room was warmed to 21 ° C. Despite the increased load, the cooling system stably coped with all Difficulties, and the fans worked quite quietly, which was pleasantly pleased.

When overclocking Geforce GTX 650 TI did not show good results. As a result, the processor's performance turned out to improve by an average of 22.5% and beat the mark at 1137 MHz. The video memory could only be increased by 7-8%. With further overclocking, the system began to operate unstably. As a result of these manipulations, we had to increase the rotation speed of the coolers, but even this did not really help, and the temperature of the video card increased to 70 degrees.

Game Tests

Now it remains to check how well Geforce GTX 650 TI behaves in games. To measure the number of frames per second, Fraps was used. First, let's see how it manifests itself in one of the most technologically effective shooters Battlefield 3. With the maximum graphics settings and FullHD-resolution, the frame rate was 27-33 FPS. For single player, such indicators are still acceptable, but in multiplayer this will obviously not be enough, because other players will have a weighty advantage compared to you. The situation can be slightly corrected if you reduce the graphics settings. At high settings, productivity will increase by about 15-20%.

The second game was Far Cry 3, with which the Geforce GTX 650 TI perfectly coped. With ultra-settings and maximum anti-aliasing, the average frame rate was at 40 FPS, sometimes sagging to 35. This is a very decent result for a video card of this class.

The last test was conducted on Metro 2033, which was unpleasantly surprised. Here the video card clearly did not cope with its tasks. At a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels and maximum settings, the frame rate sometimes dropped below 20 FPS. But it's forgivable, because even the more expensive GTX 660 showed little better results. The situation improved only after the parameters were reduced. At high settings, the number of frames has increased to 40-45 FPS, which is quite enough for a comfortable game.

How popular is the Geforce GTX 650 TI? Customer feedback on the video card

The test results, of course, are important when choosing a video card, but it is interesting to know the opinion of those people who purchased and tested this product. After reviewing reviews from many gaming forums and electronics stores, it's safe to say that most users are happy with their choice and do not regret buying a GTX 650 TI.

Particularly pleased with its fairly high performance at a relatively low price. According to buyers, the video card at a decent level copes with all the most demanding games of 2012.

In addition to high performance, users noted the excellent build quality of this model. The cooling system is flawless, does not allow the graphics card to overheat, while the coolers work quite quietly and do not cause any special discomfort.

Value for money

Judging by the results of the above tests and customer feedback, the video card copes with all the resource-intensive games released before 2014. But is Geforce GTX 650 TI worth its money? The price of the video card at the time of release in 2012 was $ 150. Now it can be purchased for 120-130 dollars. But it's worth thinking about before making such a purchase. Of course, the video accelerator performed well in tests, as for the device of its class, but it must be remembered that all the above games were released before 2013. And if you talk about such innovations as GTA V, Watch Dogs or Battlefield Hardline, then the maximum, what can you expect, so it's on low graphics settings. In addition, for such money you can make a much more profitable purchase. For example, the same Geforce GTX 750, which is more productive than its colleague from the 6 series by about 10%. It should be remembered that since the release of the GTX 650 TI it has been almost 3 years now, and this is a long life for this equipment, because during this time nVidia managed to release 3 series of video cards. Some manufacturers have already removed the GTX 650 TI from production due to a decline in demand for it. So soon it can completely disappear from the shelves of stores.

conclusions

The prefix TI in the name of the video accelerator indicates a more improved copy of the original model. But here the developers did not upgrade the standard GTX 650, but rather, cut down the capabilities of the faster GTX 660. As a result, the market appeared Geforce GTX 650 TI, with processors on the Kepler architecture and reduced to 128 bit memory bus. But it's not bad, because it became the most budget-friendly gaming video card of the sixth series of NVIDIA GTX. Of course, there were even more budgetary 650, 640 and other models, but they were able to cope only with office applications, and not with games. And among the video accelerators costing less than $ 200 it was an excellent solution. The nearest competitor is Radeon HD 7770, which showed almost identical results.

At one time, the GTX 650 fully justified the money spent on its purchase. Judging by the test results and user reviews, she coped with all resource-intensive games without problems. But we must remember that three years have passed since its release, and during this time several generations of video cards have appeared. In general, the sample we examined was an excellent solution for our time, but now for this money you can make a more profitable purchase.