EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST Pro Reviews

EVGA has taken NVIDIA's newest GPU and launched a SuperClocked version that is unlikely to be beaten by any other GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB in pure performance terms. The inherent problem for EVGA in pushing the core frequency boat out - the memory remains at reference speeds, however - is a retail price that's just below £150. The current GeForce positioning is such that, for the same outlay, it's possible to purchase a partner-overclocked GTX 660 - a card that will provide at least 10 per cent more performance in all games. We continue to come away with the feeling that NVIDIA and its partners really need to take another look at the mainstream GeForce product stack and pricing, especially in the UK, and ensure the GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB has a chance to succeed. We'd definitely recommend this card at £120, but there's simply too much good competition, mostly from NVIDIA's faster GTX 660 GPU, for it to be on our shortlist at the current £150 price point.

NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost adds a strong sub-$200 option to the company's lineup. Thanks to the added Boost clock algorithm and a beefed up 192-bit memory interface, we see massive performance gains compared to the GTX 650 Ti without Boost. EVGA's GTX 650 Ti Boost SuperClocked comes with a 92 MHz overclock out of the box, which is amongst the largest on the market. This gives the card a 6% performance boost over the reference design, which is quite significant, putting the card just 3% behind GTX 660 non-Ti. Memory clock remains unchanged; it would have been nice to see an overclock here. Compared to other cards, we see a large 31% improvement over the original GTX 650 Ti, which definitely makes the difference between "slow" and very playable at 1080p. Compared to AMD's lineup, we see performance that is 9% higher than the HD 7850 and 27% higher than the just-released HD 7790.

EVGA’s entry into this roundup may have the highest temperatures and acoustics of the bunch but neither of these points was all that important in the grand scheme of things. It was still quiet and anything under 85° really doesn’t affect performance or longevity. Ironically, its temperatures didn’t hold back overclocking by one iota since NVIDIA only allows a limited amount of voltage tuning on the GTX 650 Ti Boost. The real point of distinction here is clock speeds. In most scenarios, EVGA’s Superclocked was nearly able to match the performance on NVIDIA’s GTX 660 2GB, a product that costs about $20 more. Unlike the ASUS and Gigabyte cards, a gamer will certainly be able to “feel” the difference between a stock GTX 650 Ti Boost and this card. EVGA also happens to have one of the best support structures around and when combined with the Superclocked’s performance, that’s a recipe for complete success.

Nvidia already had two GTX 650 cards before it decided to roll out the Boost edition. Although the GTX 650 and GTX 650 Ti share the same DNA, they can’t keep up with demanding titles in 1080p. The GTX 650 Ti Boost proves Nvidia was right when it claimed it could deliver a mid-range card capable of comfortable 1080p gaming. Nvidia originally claimed that the new card should outpace AMD’s Radeon HD 7850 1GB, but it turns out it is a good match for the Radeon HD 7850 2GB, both in terms of price and performance. At the moment you can pick up either of them for about €160. As far as performance goes, the differences are relatively small and the choice really comes down to which games you prefer more than anything else. It is also worth noting that AMD has EOLed HD 7850 1GB cards, but plenty of them will be in stock for a while longer. We are still not sure whether AMD will decide to drop the price of its HD 7850 2GB to counter Nvidia’s new card, but it is something worth considering if you are in the market for a mid-range upgrade. EVGA’s GTX 650 Ti Boost Superclocked card costs about 10 euro more than the reference card, but it also offers a bit more performance and a much better cooler. It is a sound investment in our book.

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST is basically a GeForce GTX 660 with one SMX unit disabled for $30 less money. The performance of the card is impressive, GPU temperatures are solid and it has some overclocking headroom available!