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.Overall and Final Verdict
When the GTX 650 Ti came in, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I mean, my wife ran over and started talking about how cute the card was because of its size. From past experience, cute doesn’t normally come with any performance so you can understand my surprise when the GTX 650 Ti stepped up and played everything I through at it very smoothly. Cooling performance could only be called average, I would have liked to see it out cool its competition, but it came out with the same temperatures altogether. My biggest complaint about the card itself is actually that it lacks an SLI bridge all together. Considering the HD 7770 supports crossfire, I found this to be an interesting choice.
Where it does get interesting is trying to calculate price and performance. AMD’s closest card performance wise is the HD 7770. A quick look on a few online retailers shows the HD 7770 selling for between $110 and $140 after rebates. The GTX 650 Ti outperformed the HD 7770 in all of our testing by a comfortable margin, but with the GTX 650 Ti launching at $149 it really depends on if you are looking for more performance or a better value. I feel that at almost $40 less the HD 7770 offers a slightly better value, but the GTX 650 Ti is offering performance at a price point that AMD doesn’t really have any competing cards at. Of course something that I didn’t figure into that calculation that changes things considerably is NVidia’s choice to bundle the upcoming game Assassin’s Creed 3 with the GTX 650 Ti. When add that into the equation, you are basically buying a $60 game and a video card for $89. When taking that into account, the GTX 650 Ti is a steal. The only downside to that is if you weren’t planning on getting the game in the first place, you aren’t getting as good of a deal. But ether way you still end up with one of this years most anticipated games for free at launch!
