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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti - The Budget Kepler With A Bite

By James Lu - 9 Oct 2012

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti - The Budget Kepler With A Bite

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti - The Budget Kepler With A Bite

Two weeks ago, NVIDIA released its most affordable Kepler graphics card to date, the GeForce GTX 650. Priced at just US$109, the GeForce GTX 650 was designed to provide a Kepler-based entry-level graphics solution for DX11 gaming at full HD 1080p resolution.

While we were generally satisfied with the GTX 650's performance, its GK107 core with just a single GPC (Graphics Processing Cluster) and two SMXs (Streaming Multiprocessor) resulted in a few lackluster scores and, ultimately, we recommended that gamers opting for the GTX 650 may want to compromise on some settings to achieve better frame rates.  

Today, NVIDIA is completing its Kepler lineup with the GTX 650 Ti, an affordable Kepler-based card that promises more power than the GTX 650. Priced slightly higher than the GTX 650 at US$149, the GTX 650 Ti looks to be aimed at gamers prepared to pay a bit more than the GTX 650 for some much needed extra firepower.

Meet the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti  

     The reference design GTX 650 Ti has a similar build to NVIDIA's GTX 650, but utilizes a larger fan. Overall, the card is still compact.

Despite its '650' moniker, the GTX 650 Ti is actually closer in specification to NVIDIA's GTX 660 card. Instead of the GK107 core found in the GTX 650, the GTX 650 Ti utilizes the same GK106 core found on the GTX 660. As such, it uses two GPCs compared to the GTX 650's single unit, and four SMXs compared to the 650's two.

As a result, the GTX 650 Ti utilizes 2.54 billion transistors, with 768 CUDA cores and 64 texture units, all twice that found on the GTX 650. However, like the GTX 650, it still uses 16 raster operating units. Core clock speeds are set at 925MHz.

NVIDIA's reference PCB is very compact and should fit in almost any case.

In terms of memory, the GTX 650 Ti uses the same 128-bit memory bus interface as the GTX 650, but has slightly higher clock speeds (5400MHz DDR), which raises memory bandwidth from 80GB/s to 86.4GB/s.

Unfortunately, like the GTX 650, the GTX 650 Ti lacks both GPU Boost (NVIDIA's dynamic overclocking technology), and multi-GPU SLI support. We tabulate how NVIDIA's latest SKU stacks up against the competition right after the photo break:-

NVIDIA's reference design GTX 650 Ti sports one HDMI port, one DVI-D port, and one DVI-I port.

GeForce GTX 650 Ti and competitive SKUs compared
Model NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti AMD Radeon HD 7750 AMD Radeon HD 7770 AMD Radeon HD 7850 AMD Radeon HD 7870 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti
Core Code GK106 GK107 GK106 GK104 Cape Verde Pro Cape Verde  Pitcairn Pro  Pitcairn XT GF104
Transistor Count 2.54 Billion 1.3 Billion 2.54 Billion 3.54 Billion 1.5 Billion 1.5 Billion  2.8 Billion  2.8 Billion 1.95 Billion
Manufacturing Process 28nm 28nm 28nm 28nm 28nm 28nm 28nm 28nm 40nm
Core Clock 925MHz 1058MHz 980MHz 915MHz 800MHz 1000MHz 860MHz 1000MHz 822MHz
Stream Processors 768 Stream processing units 384 Stream processing units 960 Stream processing units 1344 Stream processing units 512 Stream processing units 640 Stream processing units  1024 Stream processing units  1280 Stream processing units 384 Stream processing units
Stream Processor Clock 925MHz 1058MHz 980MHz 915MHz 800MHz 1000MHz  860MHz  1000MHz 1644MHz
Texture Mapping Units (TMU) or Texture Filtering (TF) units 64 32 80 112 32 40  64  80 64
Raster Operator units (ROP) 16 16 24 24 16 16  32  32 32
Memory Clock 5400MHz GDDR5 5000MHz GDDR5 6008MHz GDDR5 6008MHz GDDR5 4500MHz GDDR5 4500MHz GDDR5  4800MHz GDDR5  4800MHz GDDR5 4008MHz GDDR5
DDR Memory Bus 128-bit 128-bit 192-bit 192-bit 128-bit 128-bit  256-bit  256-bit 256-bit
Memory Bandwidth 86.4GB/s 80GB/s  144.2GB/s 144.2GB/s 72GB/s 72GB/s  153.6GB/s  153.6GB/s 128GB/s
PCI Express Interface PCIe ver 3.0 x16 PCIe ver 3.0 x16 PCIe ver 3.0 x16 PCIe ver 3.0 x16 PCIe ver 3.0 x16 PCIe ver 3.0 x16  PCIe ver 3.0 x16  PCIe ver 3.0 x16 PCIe ver 2.0 x16
Molex Power Connectors 1 x 6-pin 1 x 6-pin  1 x 6-pin 2 x 6-pin None 1 x 6-pin  1 x 6-pin  2 x 6-pin 2 x 6-pin
Multi GPU Technology No No SLI SLI No CrossFireX  CrossFireX  CrossFireX SLI
DVI Output Support 2 x Dual-Link 2 x Dual-Link 2 x Dual-Link 2 x Dual-Link 1 x Dual-Link 1 x Dual-Link  1 x Dual-Link  1 x Dual-Link 2 x Dual-Link
HDMI 1 1 (mini-HDMI) 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 (mini-HDMI)
DisplayPort None None 1 (version 1.2) 1 (version 1.2) 1 (version 1.2 HBR2) 2 (version 1.2 HBR2) 1 (version 1.2 HBR2) 1 (version 1.2 HBR2) None
HDCP Output Support Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  Yes  Yes Yes
Street Price Launch price: US$149 Launch price: US$109 Launch Price: US$229 Launch Price: US$299 Current Price: US$99 Current Price: US$119 Current Price: US$239 Current Price: US$299

Current Price: US$199

 

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