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Nvidia launches GeForce GTX 650 Ti
It's a GK106 GPU minus an SMX, a GPC, a memory channel, and 8 ROPs. It's thus anywhere between 2/3 and 3/5 of a GeForce GTX 660, depending on what hardware you're looking at. It also loses GPU turbo and some clock speed. Unfortunately, they're starting with a card that is heavily constrained on memory bandwidth (and possibly ROPs) and taking away 1/3 of each, so performance hovers around 2/3 of a GTX 660--and sometimes comes in below that, even.
Even so, don't be fooled by the name. The GeForce GTX 650 Ti has nothing to do with the disastrous GeForce GTX 550 Ti or GeForce GTX 650 cards. Or rather, the others weren't really bad cards, but they were substantially overpriced for their entire lifetimes to the degree that they only reasons to consider one were Nvidia fanboydom or cluelessness.
In contrast, the GeForce GTX 650 Ti is a decent value at its MSRP of $150. Well, assuming you can find one at $150; on New Egg, they start at $155 and go up from there. It's faster than a Radeon HD 7770 at nearly everything, and often by a lot. Meanwhile, it's slower than a Radeon HD 7850 at just about everything, and again, often by a lot. Not coincidentally, it's priced between its two nearest competitors.
There are both 1 GB and 2 GB versions of the card. No mismatched memory channels for marketing reasons this time, so the stated amount of video memory is what you get. While the world is shifting toward 2 GB cards (high resolution textures seem to be pushing that shift), if you genuinely need 2 GB, you likely have the budget for a higher end card.
Comments
"Nvidia's new GeForce GTX 650 Ti is designed to fill the gap between its GeForce GTX 650 and 660. Is the GK106-based board fast enough to outmaneuver classics like the GeForce GTX 460 and Radeon HD 6850? Or, should you be looking to a 1 GB Radeon HD 7850?
We've seen Nvidia launch three graphics cards in the last two months, all based on its Kepler architecture. Today, we bring you the fourth, and the last desktop-oriented introduction, Nvidia says, for 2012. Say hello to the GeForce GTX 650 Ti.
There's a fairly substantial price gap between the new $120 GeForce GTX 650 and $230 GeForce GTX 660, so this board's arrival is really not a surprise. After all, Nvidia needs something to do battle with AMD's Radeon HD 7770 and 7850, along with replacing its own GeForce GTX 560. The Radeon HD 6850 and 6870 are still floating around, too, and those cards remain attractive options in the same price range. The GeForce GTX 650 faces a formidable battle if it wants to prove its worth at $150.
Nvidia arms its new value-oriented contender with the same GK106 GPU we saw in Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 And 660 Review: Kepler At $110 And $230. Only, this time around, parts of the chip are disabled in order to create a performance profile that fits between the GeForce GTX 650 and 660."
So is this a good budget card?
It's really a question of what your budget is and what prices happen to be that day. Performance is about halfway between a Radeon HD 7770 and a 1 GB version of a Radeon HD 7850. If the price is halfway between them as well, then that's a decent value for the money. If it barely costs any more than a 7770, that's a great value. If it's barely cheaper than a 7850, then that's a poor value and you might as well get the 7850.
At the moment, the New Egg prices are $127, $155, and $165 before rebates, or $115, $155, and $160 after rebates. The GTX 650 Ti isn't a good value before rebates at those prices, and is a terrible value after rebates. But cards are often overpriced on launch day, and even moving the GTX 650 Ti to its MSRP of $150 would be a considerable improvement.