GIGABYTE GTX650 Ti OC Review

GIGABYTE unleash yet another Windforce card, this time in the guise of the newly released NVIDIA GTX650 Ti. Is this a cool customer or overkill? Find out inside…

Product on Review: GV-N65TOC-2GI
Manufacturer and Sponsor: GIGABYTE
Street Price: £135

In our second review of the GTX650Ti, we see that the GIGABYTE version features a full length cooler. We have lauded over the Windforce cooler before in all of their NVIDIA range and hold it in high regard as one of the best GPU cooling designs currently available. We have seen the Windforce x2 cooler before on the GTX560 Ti so it is a welcome addition to the GTX650 Ti. We do however wonder if the Windforce cooler is overkill for an entry level GPU. Sure it will be silent and hopefully cool but as you will see, it adds a third to the size of the card which may be enough to deter some prospective buyers.

As an entry level GPU, the GTX650Ti is a card which needs to strike a fine balancing act between price and performance. Too much and people will inevitably spend their money elsewhere. If too many cuts have been made then performance may suffer. In some ways, an entry level card is presents more of a quandary to the manufacturers than a flagship ‘cost no objective’ graphics card. Add to this the fact that many budget gamers looking to break into the DirectX 11 gaming arena will not have huge enclosures nor massive power supplies and the headache soon turns into a migraine. So the question has to be asked: Have GIGABYTE managed to create a balanced card? Is this the entry level card you should go for?

Let’s find out…

GIGABYTE introduces WINDFORCE™, the latest cooling technology that differentiates the brand’s graphics cards from the rest. GIGABYTE understands that a fan is crucial to the graphics card, so only the fan with the most efficiency is selected for WINDFORCE.

To qualify for WINDFORCE™, a cooling solution must be equipped with anti-turbulence inclined fans, ultra quiet PWM fan and pure copper heat pipe. Inclined fins help to reduce excessive heat and turbulence. Depending on its orientation, there are 4 types of inclined-fan designs: outward-inclined, 3D-inclined, parallel-inclined, and mirroring-inclined. Each type generates excellent exterior airflow for efficient heat dissipation from the interior GPU core.

Specification

Rather than trim back the GK104 found on the GTX680/670, the GTX650 features the same GK106 core found in the GTX660, a totally new processing unit.

The GK106 core still retains many of the features found on the flagship GK104 processor. SMX performance features are still there offering more shader, texture and processing performance while consuming less power than previous DX11 GPU’s. Indeed, NVIDIA claim that the new Kepler core is capable of delivering twice the performance/watt ratio than the 1st gen DX11 graphics cards!

The new GTX650 contains four of these SMX units which gives us a total of 768 CUDA cores and 64 texture units. The GTX650 ships with a 128-bit memory interface spread over two 64-bit memory controllers, which allows NVIDIA to support mixed density memory modules (2GB instead of 1.5GB). The reference design ships with just 1GB of GDDR5 however, our GIGABYTE edition has twice this amount.

Missing Feature
Sadly, the GPU Boost feature found in higher end GeForce offerings is disabled so overclocking the card, at least at the time of this review was not available. This is discussed more in the ‘Overclocking’ section of the review.

GIGABYTE GTX650 Ti Specification

Graphics Processing Clusters 3
SMXs 4
CUDA Cores 768
Texture Units 64
ROP Units 16
Base Clock 1033 MHz
Boost Clock NA
Memory Clock (Data rate)6200 MHz
L2 Cache Size 256KB
Video Memory 2048MB GDDR5
Memory Interface 128-bit
Total Memory Bandwidth 99.2 GB/s
Fabrication Process 28 nm
Transistor Count 2.54 Billion
Connectors 2 x Dual-Link 2 x HDMI
Form Factor Dual Slot
Power Connectors 1 x 6-pin
Recommended Power Supply 400 Watts
Thermal Design Power 110 Watts
Thermal Threshold 98° C

Features

SMX
Kepler GPUs feature our next-generation Streaming Multiprocessor, SMX. To improve performance, SMX features substantially more shader, texture, and geometry processing units, while the double speed processor clock present in prior GeForce GPUs has been eliminated in favor of more CUDA cores operating at the lower-speed graphics clock. This change dramatically improves Kepler’s performance per watt.

Anti-Aliasing
NVIDIA FXAA technology harnesses the power of the GPU’s CUDA Cores to reduce visible aliasing. It is applied with other post-processing steps like motion blur and bloom. For game engines making use of deferred shading, FXAA provides a performance and memory advantage over deferred shading with multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA). FXAA reduces but does not completely eliminate shader aliasing. FXAA’s chief advantage over traditional MSAA is higher performance. In many cases, FXAA can be applied at a cost of 1ms per frame or less, resulting in frame rates that are often 2x higher than 4xMSAA with comparable image quality.

TXAA is a new film-style AA technique that’s designed to exploit GeForce GTX600 series high texture performance. TXAA combines the raw power of MSAA with sophisticated resolve filters similar to those employed in CG films. TXAA is available with two modes: TXAA 1 and TXAA 2. TXAA 1 offers visual quality on par with 8xMSAA with the performance similar to 2xMSAA, while TXAA 2 offers image quality that’s superior to 8xMSAA, with performance comparable to 4xMSAA.

NVIDIA 3D Vision
NVIDIA® 3D Vision™ technology is a combination of Graphics Processor Units (GPU), specialized 3D glasses, software, and certified displays and projectors that deliver an immersive 3D experience on your PC or workstation. For a complete list of system requirements for NVIDIA 3D Vision Technology

NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround
NVIDIA 3D Vision Surround expands your field of view across three 3D monitors for Breathtaking panoramic gaming. At an ultra-wide resolution of 5760×1080, games like Battlefield Bad Company 2 have to be played to be believed.

CUDA
CUDA is NVIDIA’s parallel computing architecture that enables dramatic increases in computing performance by harnessing the power of the GPU to speed up the most demanding tasks you can run on your PC.

SLI
NVIDIA SLI technology links multiple GeForce GPUs together for dramatically improved graphics performance. With over 1000 supported applications and used by over 94% of multi-GPU PCs on Steam, SLI is the technology of choice for gamers who demand the very best.

NVIDIA PureVideo
Blu-ray and HD DVD movies are bringing a new level of movie-viewing experience; with high-definition image quality far surpassing standard-definition DVDs. NVIDIA PureVideo™ HD2 technology provides unsurpassed Blu-ray and HD DVD movie picture quality.

Dual Link DVI
Dual-link DVI convertible output supports Video/Audio signal integration through DVI to HDMI interface, which drivers resolution of a digital display up to 1920×1200 or higher.

PhysiX
PhysX™ is designed specifically for hardware acceleration by powerful processors with hundreds of cores. Combined with the tremendous parallel processing capability of the GPU, PhysX™ will provide an exponential increase in physics processing power and will take gaming to a new level delivering rich, immersive physical gaming environments

Packaging & Accessories

Box Front

The GIGABYTE box has the familiar striking design of the luminescent eye staring out at you. To the right is a small picture of the graphics card along with ‘OC’ version and Windforce emblem. This version of the GTX650 Ti also arrives with 2048MB of GDDR5.

Box Rear

Flipping the box over we find the main features along with an explanation of just what makes the Windforce cooling design so good. The components that make up the card are from GIGBAYTE’s Ultra Durable 2.

Accessories

The accessory list is nothing to write home about, indeed it could be accused as being sparse as all you get is a paper pamphlet guide along with a MOLEX to 6 pin power adapter and of course the obligatory driver CD. NVIDIA do state however that participating e-tailors will bundle in a copy of Assassins Creed III.

Let’s take a look at the card…

First Look

Card Top

The Windforce cooler dominates the top of the GPU with its smoked black plastic fans and surrounding gloss black bracket. There is quite a gap in the fans coverage compared to the heatsink which is a waste however, the heatpipes jutting out from the edge will benefit. We do however feel a larger heatsink would have been even more efficient here. The blue PCB

Card Rear

While the NVIDIA reference PCB design shows the GTX650 Ti to be a small graphics card, the additional length provided by the Windforce cooling design ensures that this graphics card measures some 235mm from tip to toe, 90mm longer than the PCB itself.

I/O Backplate

The I/O backplate of the card features a twin DVI ports, HDMI and a VGA output which is nice to see and explains why there is no DVI-VGA adapter included with the accessories.

Profile

The card looks a little odd from this angle due to the oversized cooler. The striking blue PCB may not be everyone’s cup of tea but it is synonymous with GIGABYTE’s graphics cards. The two copper heatpipes had signs of oxidisation on our sample which was a shame but they are easily polished up. Perhaps most strange of all though is the power port location…

Power Port

The card is powered by a single 6pin PCIe power plug which most modern PSU’s should have at least one of. The positioning of the power port on the GIGABYTE design is in an odd position, being found in the middle of the card however this is due again to the large heatsink.

Let’s delve a little deeper and take a closer look at today’s sample…

Closer Look

Heatsink

The ZOTAC design we reviewed earlier had a basic, yet effective cooling design which is in contrast to GIGABYTE’s extravagant Windforce heatsink. This heatsink dwarfs the card so much so that it actually adds 33% to the cards length. It certainly looks the business though with twin heatpipes matched up to an aluminium finned array which in turn is cooled by twin fans.

Naked GTX650 Ti

With the main heatsink removed via 4 spring loaded screws, we can see that the GIGABYTE design is near identifiable to the reference design save for the blue PCB. More telling here is how small the actual PCB is compared to the length of the cooler.

Voltage Regulation Module

Each of the three R60 chokes are matched with 2 MOSFETs making a 2+1 phase power design for the voltage regulation module.

Memory

The memory modules hail from Hynix with a product line of H5GQ2H24AFR ROC. This memory is rated to 1500MHz at 1.6vdd yet GIGABYTE have elected to keep the memory to its reference speed of 1350MHz (5400MHz effective).

Core

Finally we see the core of the GIGBAYTE GTX650Ti which is overclocked from a reference 925MHz to 1033MHz The GK106. Built on the same 28nm manufacturing process as the rest of the Kepler family. It also happens to have a massive 2.54billion transistor count so without further discussion, I think it’s time we put the card through it’s paces…

Test Setup

With the latest Intel chipset release we decided to update our ageing X58 setup to the new X79 chipset. Not only that but we will be using the flagship Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition processor clocked to 4.5GHz to ensure we have no CPU bottlenecks. With 16GB of ram on board there should be minimal paging so the benchmarks we run today will hopefully give a true reflection of the graphics card’s performance.

Some of the components for our test bench were kindly donated by CORSAIR who provided the majority of components without whom we would not have been able to bring you this review so a big thanks to them.

Graphics cards on test:
GIGABYTE GTX650 Ti 2GB GDDR5

ZOTAC GTX650 Ti 2GB GDDR5
AMD HD7770 1GB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX660 2GB GDDR5
GIGABYTE GTX680 Super Overclock
MSI GTX680 Twin Frozr 2GB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX660Ti AMP! Edition 2GB GDDR5
MSI R7870 Hawk 2GB GDDR5
EVGA GTX680 SuperClocked Signature 2GB GDDR5
GIGABYTE GTX680 Windforce 2GB GDDR5
NVIDIA GTX670 2GB GDDR5
HIS HD 7870 IceQ Turbo 2GB GDDR5
MSI HD 7870 Twin Frozr III OC 2GB GDDR5
GIGABYTE HD7850 OC WindForce x2 2GB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX680 2GB GDDR5
AMD HD7870 2GB GDDR5
Zotac GTX580 AMP2! 3GB GDDR5
XFX R7970 Black Edition 3GB GDDR5
XFX R7770 Black Edition ‘S’ 1GB GDDR5
AMD HD7750 1GB GDDR5
HIS HD7970 3GB GDDR5
XFX DD Radeon R7950 3072MB GDDR5
PowerColor PCS+ Radeon HD7950 3072MB GDDR5
AMD Radeon HD7950 3072MB GDDR5
AMD Radeon HD7970 3072MB GDDR5
ZOTAC GTX570 AMP! 1280MB GDDR5
NVIDIA GTX570 1280MB GDDR5
MSI GTX560Ti-448 Twin Frozr III 1280MB GDDR5
MSI GTX560Ti-384 Twin Frozr III 2GB GDDR5
AMD HD6990 4GB GDDR5

***NOTE*** Pre-release Forceware drivers (306.28) were used with the ZOTAC GTX650Ti.

Motherboard: MSI X79 Big Bang X-Power II
CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition @ 4.5GHz
RAM – 16GB (4x4GB) Corsair Vengeance (Red) DDR3 @ 1866MHz 9-10-9-27
Power Supply – ANTEC High Current Pro 1200W
Hard Drive – Kingston HyperX 240GB
Cooler – Corsair H100

Benchmarks
Normally we would run the tests at four settings however at 2560×1600 both the NVIDIA GTX650 Ti and AMD HD7770 could not produce adequate (playable) frames per second at 2560×1600 so these tests were omitted as they served no purpose other than to state that 1920×1080 is the maximum resolution one could hope to utilise these two cards for.

Battlefield 3
Crysis 2
Crysis Warhead
Metro 2033
Batman: Arkham City
Elder Scrolls: Skyrim
DiRT 3
Futuremark 3DMark 2011
Unigine: Heaven 2.5

Let’s see how today’s graphics card performed…

Overclocking (Lack of GPU Boost)

The introduction of the GTX650Ti see NVIDIA beginning to lock down overclocking with the omission of GPU Boost. Incredulously, NVIDIA have taken this step clearly to boost profits. Why buy a GTX680 when you can overclock a GTX670. Why buy a GTX670 when you can overclock a GTX660Ti? Why buy a GTX660 when you can overclock…..you get the picture.

In the case of the GTX650Ti we received a few weeks back, we tried overclocking and while overclocking tools allowed the movements of sliders, only the memory clockspeeds would latch. The GPU clockspeed just wouldn’t increase at all. After chatting with our contacts and receiving the white paper, it was confirmed that GPU Boost would not be a ‘feature’ of the GTX650Ti.

We did eventually manage to get the card to overclock using precision X but nothing to write home about (+78Mhz) with the card already overclocked from the factory.

NVIDIA Reference Design

This will undoubtedly cause huge debate as it appears NVIDIA are following in the footsteps of Intel, by locking overclocking, forcing people to buy higher end equipment with ‘unlocked’ features. This is perhaps not the best move by NVIDIA as it goes against the ethos of overclocking. Those who have been in the game for as long as we have will understand that people overclocked to get similar performance out of older hardware to compete with the new. Now it appears you need a barrel load of money to overclock which has evolved into a competition of who has the biggest bank balance, not who had the greatest skill. So while we can understand NVIDIA’s business case for locking overclocking on entry level cards, overclocking purists will certainly not be happy at all by the direction NVIDIA have taken.

Temperature, Acoustics and Power Consumption

Power Consumption

To test for power consumption we do not use anything too technical, just a wall meter which measures the total system power draw minus the monitor.

A 400w power supply with a single 6pin PCIe power cable is all that’s required to power the GTX65 0Ti and as you can see from the graph above, low power consumption is one of the GTX650 Ti’s main attractions. That said in could not quite match the AMD HD7770, consuming around 30W more under load and just a tiny bit more than the ZOTAC GTX650 Ti perhaps due to the additional fan used on the GIGABYTE variant.

Temperature

To test temperatures we measured idle temperatures after booting windows, letting all applications finish loading and ran a few benchmarks. Once the benchmarks were complete we left the card to reach a cooling plateau where we then took the idle temperatures. For the load tests, we would normally run Furmark for 20 minutes, taking the absolute maximum temperature attained however we found that this throttled the card and resulted in spurious results. So we set Heaven running continuously for 20 minutes and used this as a temperature result as the card did not throttle with this application.

WOW! The GIGABYTE Windforce cooler managed to top our cooling charts making an already cool running card much cooler. Sadly this additional cooling power is wasted due to the fact the GTX650 Ti’s overclocking is locked. That said there are still benefits to be had from a cool running GPU. Lifespan for one and silence for another because the hotter a card runs, the faster the fans will spin and faster fans usually equates to an increase in volume.

Acoustics

The GIGABYTE GTX650 Ti, thanks in part to the extremely cool running, was virtually silent. No noise could be detected at idle and throughout our benchmarking tests the card never became noticeable. Under manual control with the fans set to 100%, the card was audible but not intrusively so. So not only is the GIGABYTE GTX650 Ti the coolest card on test, it is also one of the quietest.

Let’s move on to our suite of gaming and synthetic benchmarks…

Battlefield 3

Battlefield 3 leaps ahead of its time with the power of Frostbite™ 2, the next instalment of DICE’s cutting-edge game engine. This state-of-the-art technology is the foundation on which Battlefield 3 is built, delivering enhanced visual quality, a grand sense of scale, massive destruction, dynamic audio and incredibly lifelike character animations. As bullets whiz by, walls crumble, and explosions throw you to the ground, the battlefield feels more alive and interactive than ever before. In Battlefield 3, players step into the role of the elite U.S. Marines where they will experience heart-pounding missions across diverse locations including Paris, Tehran and New York.

Average and minimum frames per second were measured using Fraps during the parking lot scene on Operation Sword Breaker. High and Ultra presets were loaded at both resolutions.

Crysis 2

Crytek took an internet beating from its loyal fans due to the fact that they pandered to the console masses and dumbed down the graphics to DirectX 9. Fortunately, fans of the PC version of Crysis managed to force Cryteks hand and they have since developed a DX11 patch and have also enhanced the textures with added tesselation. It is for this reason that we have decided to include it in our suite of benchmarks.

To test the cards we used the Crysis 2 benchmark courtesy of Adrenaline with both the 1.9 patch, DX11 update and Hi-res texture pack. Settings were manually placed to Ultra, DX11 and tessellation enabled with the Central Park map being run 3 times per resolution benchmark test.

Crysis Warhead

Following the success of Crysis, the stand alone expansion “Warhead” was hotly anticipated to bring more game play, more weapons, improved visuals whilst maintaining better performance, the latter being what gamers wanted most. After all how many people upgraded their rigs just to play this game… In the game, you play as the upbeat Brit Sergeant “Psycho” Sykes, chasing down a Korean nuclear warhead. Throw in some ice shooting aliens and we’re bound to have a great game. It sure delivered.

Testing was done using Framebuffer’s Crysis Warhead benchmarking tool. The tests were configured to DirectX 10 at Enthusiast levels. Each test on the Ambush map was looped three times from which the average FPS was recorded.

Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham City builds upon the intense, atmospheric foundation of Batman: Arkham Asylum, sending players soaring into Arkham City, the new maximum security “home” for all of Gotham City’s thugs, gangsters and insane criminal masterminds. Set inside the heavily fortified walls of a sprawling district in the heart of Gotham City, this highly anticipated sequel introduces a brand-new story that draws together a new all-star cast of classic characters and murderous villains from the Batman universe, as well as a vast range of new and enhanced gameplay features to deliver the ultimate experience as the Dark Knight.

The results below were obtained from the built-in benchmark utility from the game.

The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

Skyrim is not a direct successor to the very popular Oblivion. Instead it takes place 200 years after the events of Oblivion. The non-linear playing that made the Elder Scrolls such a popular series does however make a return along with the beautiful scenery the encompasses the world of Skyrim.

Average and minimum frames per second were measured using Fraps during the drop down passage to Riverwood. V-sync was disabled to allow fluctuating (higher the 60) FPS for these runs. It is however recommended that v-sync is left enabled during normal gameplay due to the games dynamics.

DiRT 3

As players race to elevate their global standing, DiRT 3 is back delivering mud, sweat and gears world over: from the intense weather-beaten rally stages of Europe, Africa and the US, to executing performance driving showcases and career challenges where car control is pushed to spectacular limits.

The in-game benchmarking tool was used to test performance. All the display settings were set to the maximum available and DirectX 11 was applied. The average FPS was recorded at the end.

Metro 2033

Based on the novel by the same name, Metro 2033 is a first person shooter with elements of survival horror. As Artyom, you trawl through the mutant infested metro systems of post-apocalyptic Moscow. The game delivers presents a grim ambience that reflects on the overall atmosphere of the underground setting. Metro 2033 uses the setting as a back drop to showcase some of the best visuals of any games out now, making it the ideal benchmark for those looking for the best graphics card.

The bundled benchmarking tool was used on Metro 2033, configuring the settings to High and making use of DirectX 11. The frontline scene was looped 3 times for each configuration. The average FPS was recorded at the end.

Futuremark 3DMark 11

3DMark 11 is the latest version of the world’s most popular benchmark. Designed to measure your PC’s gaming performance 3DMark 11 makes extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. The benchmark was run in both Performance and Extreme presets.

Unigine: Heaven 2.5

Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine™ engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk.

Conclusion

At the beginning of this review we asked the questions: Have GIGABYTE managed to create a balanced card? Is this the entry level card you should go for?

The first can simply be answered no. The cooler is overkill that much is clear. We may be being too harsh here and it may well seem odd criticising something that does the job exceedingly well. The fact is the GTX650Ti doesn’t need this extravagant cooling design. First impressions suggest that the GK106 core is cool running and coupled with the fact that the GTX650Ti has no GPU boost and therefore no extra heat to deal with, makes the whole charade of using such a powerful cooler all the more pointless. Sure it is very cool, which in turn has an effect on keeping the noise down which to be fair is no bad thing but as we have seen with a competitors more basic design, large coolers are simply not required to keep this particular cards temperatures and noise levels to a minimum.

The large Windforce cooler also adds to the size of the card. If you have an ATX sized case this won’t be an issue but potential buyers of this may have a HTPC or similar small form factor enclosure so space will be at a premium. As this card is a full size GPU, this may be detrimental to the appeal of the card considering that the reference cooling design is more than a third smaller than the GIGABYTE GTX650 Ti.

If however size is not an issue then the above statements won’t concern you. What everyone will be intrigued to know is that this card comes pre-overclocked to 1033MHz from 925MHz reference so while there is no GPU boost, you do get a boost from the factory to compensate and the card can be pushed a little more if you are willing to experiment. It’s extremely quiet, extremely cool and capable of playing games with DirectX 11 compatibility so long as you game at 1920×1080 or below. Should you buy this variant? If FPS is everything then the ZOTAC card may be the better buy…just. This is thanks to the overclocked memory which adds an average single frame per second to most games. The ZOTAC is however £10 more expensive. If however you have the space, yearn for near silent, occasional gaming and want a cool (in sense of the word) entry level graphics card then the GIGABYTE GTX650 Ti should be high on your shopping list as it’s really good entry level graphics card.

Pros:
+ Kepler Architecture
+ DirectX 11
+ Very Quiet
+ Class leading cooling power
+ Significantly faster than a HD7770
+ Direct VGA port

Cons:
– Don’t buy this card to play games above 1920×1080 resolution
– No GPU Boost Feature
– Poor (but unavoidable) PCIe power port placement
– Longer than average GTX650Ti
– No SLI