Today, around six and a half months after the launch of the first Kepler-based GPU from Nvidia, we have the final piece to the 600 series product line. Just under a month ago we took a look at the GTX 660, and a month before that the GTX 660 Ti. Along with the GTX 660, Nvidia introduced the GTX 650. With the focus being on the GTX 660, there were only a few reviews of the GTX 650 to be found. Today we are going to take a look at the card that fits right in between the GTX 660 and the GTX 650, the GTX 650 Ti. With a price point just between the $109 of the GTX 650 and the $229 of the GTX 660, Nvidia is hoping to bring in people looking for decent performance that don’t have it in their budget to throw down over $200 for a single component. Let’s take a closer look.Cooling and Noise
With a TDP of only 110 Watts, the GTX 650 Ti puts out considerably less heat than the GTX 660 and above. Of course because of that Nvidia went with a much smaller heatsink. When we put the card through its paces in Furmark I wasn’t sure what to expect. As a whole, the Kepler reference cards that we have tested have been on the warm side, the lower TDP of the GTX 650 Ti will help it though.
Surprisingly the GTX 650 Ti came in at 64 degrees, nearly dead center between the five HD 7770’s that we have tested. I wouldn’t consider it cool by any means, but being right in line with its direct competition is a good sign.
As far as noise, the smaller fan of the GTX 650 Ti’s heatsink was a little noisier than previous reference cards, even at idle temperatures. But remember this is on our open test bench. In an enclosed case the idle sound levels wouldn’t be noticeable at all. Under load the noise picked up slightly to a light hum, on par with what you would expect from a GPU. Because the card doesn’t vent outside of the case I would actually expect the noise level in an enclosed case to be a little less than normal GPU sound levels.
