We have the 650 Ti card with us, which is something that looks great for users on a budget.
The Card
As usual, the ASUS look & feel.
Unlike the other cards, the most distinct feature (or not) is that the PCB does not stretch as far as the heatsink.
When placed in the casing, I see this as a helpful avenue for better heat dissipation as there’s no PCB blocking the airflow direction. SWEET!
Output connectors.
No SLI connectors.
Test Setup
The computer setup used for this review.
Processor | Intel Core i7-3770S |
RAM | Kingston Value RAM 4GB 1333 |
Motherboard | MSI Z77A-GD45 |
Cooler | Stock Cooler |
Monitor | 40″ LCD TV |
Power Supply | Xigmatek NRP-PC602 600w |
Operating System | Windows 8 Pro 64bit |
Below is the GPU-Z for the card.
The Performance
Metro 2033
Graphic Detail : AAA, 16 AF. No Physx. No DOF. Very High Quality.
Card | Average 1080p | Average 720p |
Asus GTX 650 Ti | 32.5 | 59.5 |
Asus GTX 660 | 48.00 | 83 |
Asus GTX 660 Ti | 54.00 | 88.5 |
ASUS HD 7870 | 51.00 | 76.50 |
Leadtek GTX 460 | 28.90 | 51.25 |
Quite a gap between the 650 Ti and the 660.
Lost Planet 2
Graphic Detail : Maximum
Card | Average 1080p | Average 720p |
Asus GTX 650 Ti | 39.1 | N/A |
Asus GTX 660 | 56.8 | 67.6 |
Asus GTX 660 Ti | 62.00 | 66.8 |
ASUS HD 7870 | 50.0 | 58.8 |
Leadtek GTX 460 | 36.9 | 50.9 |
Yet again we see a gap between the 650 Ti and the 660. No 720p benchmark, because LP2 on Windows 8 just refuses to allow me to select 1280×720.
Alien Vs Predator
Graphic Detail : Maximum
Card | Average 1080p | Average 720p |
Asus GTX 650 Ti | 46.6 | 89.5 |
Asus GTX 660 | 74.1 | 137.1 |
Asus GTX 660 Ti | 84.1 | 157.7 |
ASUS HD 7870 | 73.6 | 138.8 |
Leadtek GTX 460 | 42.2 | 77.9 |
Despite the rather old game engine, it’s still far behind. A little faster than the GTX 460 that’s some 2 generations back.
Heaven 3.0
AxAA, 16x AF, Tesselation Normal.
Card | Average 1080p | Average 720p |
Asus GTX 650 Ti | 33.7 | 58.7 |
Asus GTX 660 | 86.7 | 157.5 |
Asus GTX 660 Ti | 101.7 | 177.1 |
ASUS HD 7870 | 56.9 | 91.3 |
Leadtek GTX 460 | 30.4 | 47.3 |
Again it shows a huge gap between it and the 660, and performance wise it’s a little better than the GTX 460, which I reckon is around the GTX 470 range.
Operating Temperature
Furmark was used for graphic card stressing. Based on 720p preset.
Card | Idle (°C) | Stress (°C) |
Asus GTX 650 Ti | 30 | 50 |
Asus GTX 660 | 31 | 53 |
ASUS GTX 660 Ti | 31 | 63 |
ASUS HD 7870 | 29 | 80 |
Readings were taken when ambient temperature was around 25°C.
Conclusion
The 650 Ti has 768 CUDA cores, unlike the 660 that has 960. And that aside, the 650 Ti had only 1GB GDDR5 and memory interface width of 128bit, a huge bandwidth difference between both that is likely the cause of the much reduced performance.
Price gap between GTX 650 Ti and GTX 660 are usually about RM 250 apart (approx ~80 USD) – As you can see from the benchmark, the card is still more than capable of producing good gaming framerates. Bear in mind also that the 650 Ti runs at around 30w less power compared to the 660.
The card is expected to retail at around RM 750 range. Bear in mind that there’s the 650 version that’s about RM 500+ but it has only half the CUDA cores of the Ti variant.