Every year, companies release more and more new and powerful graphics cards. Among them, you can find both budget products for office PCs and expensive video cards designed to handle complex three-dimensional images. These video game accelerators cost a lot of money, and not everyone can afford such a purchase. But what can users with a more modest budget do, but want to try out all the latest in the gaming industry? For these purposes, there are budget graphics cards that can handle most of the most complex tasks. Among the variety of these products, special attention was paid to the mid-range graphics card Geforce GTX 650 TI, an overview of which we provide in this article.
Features
This graphics card uses nVidia GPUs made with Kepler architecture. It was one of the first video accelerators using this technology. The video card has become one of the latest sixth-series GTX models released by nVidia. The main task of the Geforce GTX 650 TI was to compensate for the gap between 650 and 660 graphics cards, which were very different from each other in terms of performance and price. To do this, it was strengthened 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 to the video card was AMD Radeon HD 7770. The price difference is minimal, and the test results for these video accelerators are almost identical.
Comparison of 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 refinement of video cards and their subsequent implementation. In terms of characteristics, these products practically do not differ from the reference sample, except that some of them are subjected to additional “overclocking”.
The refinement 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, which occupy a leading position in this direction. But on the products of Palit and Manli, you can find a lot of negative reviews. This does not mean that if, for example, you buy a Palit Geforce GTX 650 TI graphics card, then it will immediately fail. The likelihood of such an outcome is negligible, but nevertheless, these manufacturers have not quite an impeccable reputation.
Appearance and main characteristics
Compared to more expensive devices, the GeForce GTX 650 TI has compact dimensions. The length of the video card itself 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 relevant video outputs today, including VGA, DVI and mini HDMI.
Now let's move on to a more detailed look at the Geforce GTX 650 TI. The graphics card is significantly better than the standard GTX 650, mainly due to the use of Kepler architecture. It is equipped with a GK106 graphic chip, which has a core clock frequency of 925 MHz. Performance is provided by 1 or 2 GB of GDDR5 video memory at a frequency of 1250 MHz and a 128-bit bus. There is a connector for connecting additional power. Recommended for use with power supplies 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. In the test bench we will use a processor from Intel, namely the Core i7 3770K with a clock frequency of 3.5 GHz, the motherboard MSI Z77A-GD55, 8 GB of RAM Samsung M378B5273DH0-CH9 (with a frequency of 1333 MHz), a power supply unit OCZ OCZZX1000 (with a capacity of 1000 W) and Corsair Performance Pro 256GB SSD. All tests were carried out using a 30 "DELL 3008WFP monitor. Before starting work, you need to check the PC hardware and software. In order for nothing to affect the results, you need to install the latest drivers for the tested video card. You can find them on the official nVidia website.
Synthetic tests
The GeForce GTX 650 TI runs on DirectrX 11, so in the test we will use the 3D Mark 11 benchmark developed by Futuremark. The results showed quite good graphics card performance. Its closest 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 handles current games, as well as how much it heats up.
Temperature and acceleration
When checking the cooling system, we used video cards from MSI and Asus. To load the GTX 650 TI, the test was carried out using the Battlefield 3 video game. During 15 minutes of operation, the temperature of both models did not exceed 63 ° C, and the air in the room was warmed up to 21 ° C. Despite the increase in load, the cooling system stably coped with all difficulties, and the fans worked quite quietly, which was pleasantly pleased.
During overclocking, the GeForce GTX 650 TI did not show high results. As a result, it turned out to improve processor performance by an average of 22.5% and beat the mark at 1137 MHz. The performance of video memory was only increased by 7-8%. With further acceleration, the system began to work unstably. As a result of these manipulations, it was necessary to increase the speed of rotation of the coolers, but even this did not help much, and the temperature of the video card increased to around 70 degrees.
Game tests
Now it remains to check how well the GeForce GTX 650 TI behaves in games. Fraps was used to measure frames per second. First, let's see how it will prove to be in one of the most technologically advanced shooters of Battlefield 3. At maximum graphics settings and FullHD-resolution, the frame rate was 27-33 FPS. For a single game, such indicators are still acceptable, but in multiplayer this will be clearly not enough, because other players will have a significant advantage compared to you. The situation can be corrected a little if you lower 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 graphics card did an excellent job. With ultra-settings and maximum smoothing, the average frame rate was at the level of 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 the Metro 2033, which 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 this is forgivable, because even the more expensive GTX 660 showed slightly better results. The situation improved only after reducing the parameters. At high settings, the number of frames increased to 40-45 FPS, which is quite enough for a comfortable game.
How popular is the Geforce GTX 650 TI? Video card customer reviews
The test results, of course, are important when choosing a video card, but it is interesting to know the opinions of those people who purchased and tested this product. After reviewing reviews from many gaming forums and electronics stores, we can say with confidence 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 budget price. According to customers, 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 impeccable, prevents the video card from overheating, while the coolers work quite quietly and do not cause much discomfort.
Value for money
Judging by the results of the above tests and customer reviews, the video card copes well with all the resource-intensive games that were released before 2014. But is the Geforce GTX 650 TI worth the 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 you should think carefully before making such a purchase. Of course, the video accelerator proved to be excellent in tests, as for a device of its class, but we must remember that all of the above games were released before 2013. And if we talk about such innovations as GTA V, Watch Dogs or Battlefield Hardline, then the maximum you can count on is 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 about 10% more productive than its counterpart from the 6 series. It must be remembered that almost 3 years have passed since the release of the GTX 650 TI, and this is a long lifespan for this technology, 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 lower demand for it. So soon it may completely disappear from the store shelves.
findings
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 begin to upgrade the standard GTX 650, but rather curtailed the capabilities of the faster GTX 660. As a result, the Geforce GTX 650 TI appeared on the market, with processors based on Kepler architecture and a memory bus reduced to 128 bit. But it's not bad, because it has become the most budget gaming video card of the sixth series of nVidia GTX. Of course, there were even more budget 650, 640 and other models, but they were able to cope only with office applications, and not with games. And among video accelerators costing less than $ 200, she was a great solution. The closest competitor is the 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 managed to appear. In general, the sample considered by us was an excellent solution for its time, but now for this money you can make a better purchase.