Overall and Final Verdict
In the ever changing video card market, the perfect card to suggest for a person on a budget is always changing. Before we jump into the details on the GTX 650 Ti Boost, I should point out that along with the launch of this card Nvidia is moving their price points around as well. Here is the Suggested price points as of this morning on their mid-range cards including the GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB card that we tested today, and the 1 GB version that will be shipping soon as well.
· $109 - GeForce GTX 650
· $129 - GeForce GTX 650 Ti
· $149 - GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST 1GB
· $169 - GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST 2GB
· $199 - GeForce GTX 660
Anyone on the market for a video card right now should be very excited as this announcement as every card listed there is a good deal. As for the GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB. I was extremely impressed with its performance, in game especially. This really is a sweet spot card that allows you to play anything at good settings and at 1920x1080. Really the only downsides I came across were in our cooling testing with it running warmer than I had hoped in our new cooling test. This included a little more noise that I would have hoped for. Beyond that my only complaint was with the name of the card itself being a little long with the Ti and Boost on it, frankly a very petty complaint. Its performance and a price point that is within almost everyone’s budget make up for its issues. At $169, the 2GB model is priced a little high against the HD 7790, but with a 1GB model soon to be available as well they will have a card to compete with it directly.
I spoke before about the in game currency that also comes with the card. If this is very important to you, it would still be a better deal to go with the slightly faster GTX 660 due to it coming with $150 vs. the $75 you get with the GTX 650 Ti Boost. But for most, the credits are really just a bonus. The card itself holds its own at its price point without any additional add-on’s.