Nvidia’s GTX 650 Ti arrives to round out the Kepler line-up

Test Configuration – Hardware

• Intel Core i7-3770K reference 3.50 GHz/Turbo to 3.7GHz, overclocked to 4.8 GHz; HyperThreading is on, supplied by Intel.
• EVGA Z77 FTW motherboard (latest Beta BIOS, USB/PCIe 3.0 specification; CrossFire/SLI 16x+16x), supplied by EVGA
• 8 GB OCZ DDR3 PC 1866 Kingston RAM (2×2 GB, tri-channel at 1866 MHz; supplied by Kingston)
• Nvidia reference GTX 650 Ti, 1 GB (reference clocks of 925/1350MHz and also overclocked, +175MHz/+250MHz), supplied by Nvidia
• Galaxy GTX 660, 2 GB reference clocks, supplied by Galaxy.
• Nvidia GTX 550 Ti, 1 GB reference design and clocks, supplied by Nvidia
• Sapphire HD 7750 Low Profile edition, 1GB reference design and clocks, supplied by Sapphire
• Sapphire Vapor-X HD 7770 GHz Overclock edition (1GB overclocked design and clocks, supplied by Sapphire)
• HIS IceQX Radeon HD 7850, 2 GB with custom cooling at stock clocks (860/4800MHz)
• Onboard Realtek Audio
• 2 x 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200-12 HDDs; one for AMD and one for Nvidia
• Thermaltake ToughPowerXT 775W power supply unit supplied by Thermaltake
• Thermaltake Overseer RX-I Full Tower case, supplied by Thermaltake
• Thermaltake Water2.0 Pro CPU watercooler, supplied by Thermaltake
• Philips DVD SATA writer
• HP LP3065 2560×1600 thirty inch LCD.

Test Configuration – Software

• Nvidia GeForce 306.02 Beta drivers for all GTXes except for the GTX 650 Ti – 306.38. High Quality
• AMD 12.8 WHQL Catalyst drivers; latest CAPs. High Quality – optimizations off; use application settings
• Windows 7 64-bit; very latest updates
• Latest DirectX
• All games are patched to their latest versions.
• VSync is off in the control panel.
• AA enabled as noted in games; all in-game settings are specified with 16xAF always applied; 16xAF forced in control panel for Crysis.
• All results show average, minimum and maximum frame rates except as noted.
• Highest quality sound (stereo) used in all games.
• Windows 7 64, all DX10 titles were run under DX10 render paths; DX11 titles under DX11 render paths.

The Benchmarks

Synthetic

• Vantage
• 3DMark 11
• Heaven 3.0

• Left 4 Dead 2
• Serious Sam 3 BFE
• Alan Wake: Ameican Nightmare

• Crysis
• Far Cry 2
• Just Cause 2
• World-in-Conflict Soviet Assault
• Resident Evil 5

• BattleForge
• Alien vs. Predator
• STALKER, Call of Pripyat
• Metro 2033
• F1 2010
• H.A.W.X. 2
• Lost Planet 2
• Shogun II
• Civilization V
• Crysis 2
• Dirt 3
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution
• Batman: Arkham City
• Battlefield 3
• Max Payne 3
• the Secret World
• Borderlands 2

Before we get to the GTX 650 Ti’s performance charts, let’s look at overclocking, power draw and temperatures.

Overclocking, Power Draw, Noise and Temperatures

Overclocking the GTX 650 Ti is just as easy as overclocking the GTX 660/660 Ti, 670, 680 and 690.  It is even less complicated because there is no GPU Boost.  We were able to add an additional +175MHz over the base clocks that Nvidia set for the reference GTX 650 Ti.  On top of that, we were able to get +250MHz on the memory; overall, a very good overclock.

We did not adjust the GTX 650 Ti’s voltage nor fan profile. Temperatures were never an issue and the fan profile remained at stock which meant that the GTX 650 Ti is also extraordinarily quiet at maximum load – the fan profile rarely went over 40% and the temperatures remained under 60C under the most stressful conditions and highest load in gaming. Similarly, the Sapphire Vapor-X HD 7770 is also quiet and cool under load as it also uses custom cooling.

We max the PowerTune slider for AMD cards and usually for Nvidia cards although there is no power adjustment for the GTX 650 Ti.

Let’s head to the performance charts to see how the GTX 650 Ti compares with the GTX 660 as well as the last generation GTX 550 Ti as well as against the stock and overclocked AMD HD 7770 with the HD 7750 and HD 7850 added in to compare performance.