Overclocking the 650 ti card. ⇡ Overclocking, temperature, power consumption

As you know, traditionally the highest demand among discrete graphics cards is used by products of the middle price segment, which cost 100-200 US dollars. Typically, graphics cards such as the current AMD Radeon HD 7850 and HD 7870 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 or 660 Ti support all modern technologies, and are able to provide the user with an acceptable level of performance in the latest gaming innovations. However, not everyone and not everywhere require such performance, so in order not to overpay extra money, many opt for simpler video cards.

These include AMD Radeon HD 7770 and HD 7750, which tested earlier and also recently appeared on the market NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti. Today's article will be devoted to the study of their features and performance testing. We were able to get our hands on a reference GeForce GTX 650 Ti, as well as three original graphics cards from EVGA, Gigabyte and ZOTAC. In addition, we will get acquainted with the GeForce GT 640 performed by ZOTAC, which is nominally the youngest gaming video card based on NVIDIA GPUs.

Specifications and cost

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1 GB

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2 GB was provided to us unpacked in a regular antistatic bag. Compact graphics card with a length of only 145 mm, it looks inconspicuous:

Black PCB textolite and black plastic of the cooling system are in perfect harmony with each other. It seems that the cooler is huge, but this is not at all the case, because you need to take into account the dimensions of the board itself, perhaps the most compact of gaming graphics cards.

The video card is equipped with two DVI (Dual-Link) connectors and one mini HDMI version 1.4a:

A six-pin connector is installed in its usual place for additional food:

According to the specifications, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti can consume up to 110 watts of electricity, and a system with one such video card requires a 400 watts power supply. Connector for creating SLI configurations for video cards of this class no.

The incredibly simple GeForce GTX 650 Ti printed circuit board has a three-phase power system, two of which are for the GPU, and one for the memory and power circuits:

All memory chips are installed on the front side of the board, although the contact pads for the chips can be seen on the back side as well.

The GK106 GPU does not have a protective frame, so be careful when removing and installing the cooling system on the chip. Our copy was released in Taiwan on week 30 of 2012 and is revision A1:

Unlike the GK106 found on the GeForce GTX 660, the GTX 650 Ti has only 768 unified shaders, 64 texture units, and 16 ROPs. Recall that the GTX 660 has the following GPU scheme: 960/80/24. In addition, the frequency of the GPU has been reduced. Now instead of 980 MHz in normal mode and 1033 MHz in forced mode, the frequency is 928 MHz, and there is no "afterburner" here. However, this did not prevent manufacturers from releasing overclocked versions of such video cards, which we will see more than once today.

The GeForce GTX 650 Ti can be equipped with either 1 or 2 GB of GDDR5 video memory. Our example of a video card is equipped with one gigabyte of memory, recruited with four chips in FCBGA-packaging manufactured by Hynix Semiconductor Inc. with marking H5GQ2H24AFR R0C:

These are the fastest Hynix chips to date, with a theoretical effective operating frequency of 6000 MHz. However, on the reference GeForce GTX 650 Ti, the memory operates at only 5400 megahertz, which, with a 128-bit bus width, gives a throughput of 86.4 GB / s, which is not at all impressive by modern standards. However, remember that this is just a budget video card and it is not very prudent to expect any outstanding performance from it.

So, here's what the specifications of the reference GeForce GTX 650 Ti look like:

The cooling system of the video card is the simplest: aluminum radiator and a plastic shroud with an 80mm fan:

The excessive amount of thermal paste does not surprise us anymore, as it seems to me.

Hereinafter, to check temperature regime As a load, we used five test cycles of a very resource-intensive game Aliens vs. Predator (2010) with maximum graphics quality at a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels with 16x anisotropic filtering and 4x MSAA anti-aliasing.

The program was used to monitor temperatures and other parameters. MSI Afterburner version 2.3.0 and GPU-Z utility version 0.6.6. All tests were carried out in a closed case of the system unit, the configuration of which you can see in the next section of the article, at a room temperature of about 23 degrees Celsius. Testing the efficiency of all cooling systems for video cards was carried out prior to its disassembly using a standard thermal interface.

Let's see how this simple GeForce GTX 650 Ti cooler cools in automatic fan mode and at its maximum power:

The results are quite decent for an aluminum "blank" from, in the literal sense, the last century: only 65 degrees in automatic mode, where the fan speed reached only 26% of power, and peak 57 degrees Celsius at maximum 100% power. Not bad at all. Traditionally, we will talk about noise a little later.

Testing the overclocking potential of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti was very interesting and effective. Increasing the video memory frequency step by step, we reached 7200 MHz or + 33.3%, and the GPU was able to please us with an additional 160 megahertz or + 17.2% to the nominal frequency:

The result for such a cheap video card is simply excellent, and in terms of cumulative memory and GPU overclocking, it is the best among the test participants. The frequencies of our NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti were 1088/7200 MHz:

After overclocking, the maximum temperature of the GPU increased by only 1 degree Celsius and reached 68 degrees Celsius:

At the same time, the fan of the cooler, if you believe the uninformative percentage of power, rotated at the same speed as without overclocking the video card.

Let's supplement the review of the reference NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1 GB with a link to its BIOS, and move on to studying the next participant in today's test.

EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti SSC 1GB (01G-P4-3652-KR)

EVGA products are easily recognizable on store shelves in terms of packaging design, and new EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti SSC 1GB not an exception:

The manufacturer, the model of the video card, the amount and type of memory, as well as the abbreviation SSC, which is not yet clear to everyone, are indicated on the front side of the box, and on the back you can find detailed technical specifications and key features of the product.

Together with the video card, a DVI-to-D-Sub adapter, an adapter from two PATA-type to a six-pin connector, a CD with drivers and utilities, a sticker with the EVGA logo, installation instructions and two memos are supplied:

The EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti SSC is manufactured in China and costs $ 149.9. An official three-year manufacturer's warranty is included in this price. Let's add that EVGA has four GeForce GTX 650 Ti in its assortment, and our copy is one of the two fastest cards in this line (the other has 2 GB of memory).

Externally, the EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti SSC differs from the reference sample only in a plastic casing, which indicates the name of the manufacturer and the model of the video card:

The length of the video card, as well as the printed circuit board, is 145 mm. Two-slot design, card thickness 38 mm.

The DVI (Dual-Link) and mini HDMI 1.4a connectors, which are common for the GeForce GTX 650 Ti, are adjacent to the maximum perforated grille for exhausting the air heated by the video card outside the case of the system unit:

Unlike the reference sample, the EVGA video card really throws out the bulk of the air, since the casing is open only from the side of the auxiliary power connector, and of course the fan, of course.

A six-pin auxiliary power connector is installed in the upper right corner of the PCB:

Despite the higher frequencies, the EVGA recommended power supply for this video card is 400 watts, and the peak power consumption should not exceed 110 watts. That is, in full compliance with NVIDIA specifications.

Before us is again a reference printed circuit board with power supply according to the "2 + 1" scheme and the location of memory chips only on the front side:

What sets EVGA apart from NVIDIA is the protective plastic frame on the GPU:

Its frequency has been increased from the nominal 928 MHz to 1072 MHz (+ 15.5%) and is the highest among the participants in our today's test, and the abbreviation SSC stands for "Super Super Clocked". The rest of the GPU configuration is no different from the reference.

The EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti SSC has 1 GB of GDDR5 memory in Hynix H5GQ2H24AFR R0C chips, that is, identical to those of the NVIDIA video card:

The engineers at EVGA did not increase the memory frequency and it is equal to 5400 MHz. In 2D mode, the video memory frequency drops to 648 MHz, and the GPU drops to 324 MHz.

The EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti SSC GPU-Z specs look like this:

There is even nothing to tell about the cooling system of the EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti SSC video card. Under the plastic casing is a conventional aluminum radiator with an 80mm Everflow fan, model T128015SH:

Apparently, EVGA considered its efficiency sufficient to cool the overclocked GK106, so let's see how such an "original" EVGA cooler copes with its task:

Automatic mode Maximum speed

Despite the significantly higher frequency of the GPU, its temperatures on the EVGA graphics card were even lower than those of the reference NVIDIA graphics card. Only 60 degrees Celsius in automatic mode and only 54 degrees at the maximum fan speed of the cooler. Moreover, judging by the monitoring data, the fan reached only 21% of its power in the automatic mode. I wonder why EVGA achieved an increase in efficiency in comparison with the reference video card, perhaps due to the plastic casing and the release of the entire volume of heated air outside the case of the system unit? Perhaps, at least, we do not find other explanations.

Since the frequency of the graphics processor EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti SSC is already increased at the factory, we did not expect miracles in its overclocking. And so it happened - we managed to increase the GPU frequency by only 55 MHz, with a total of 1127 MHz. As for the memory overclocking, it turned out to be excellent again - from 5400 effective megahertz the frequency was increased to 7200 MHz, or to the same level as the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti:

After overclocking, the memory bandwidth increased from 86.4 GB / s to 115.2 GB / s. The fill rate has also increased:

The overclocked EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti SSC still remained "cold", as the GPU in the automatic mode of the cooler fan only warmed up to 66 degrees Celsius:

In general, the EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti SSC left a very pleasant impression of itself, even though its memory capacity is only 1 GB. BIOS of the video card you can download from file archive.

Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2 GB (GV-N65TOC-2GI)

It's rare that our video card testing is complete without Gigabyte products. And for good reason. Video cards from this company are always interesting for original printed circuit boards, increased frequencies and unique cooling systems. The new one was no exception. Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2 GB, which will now be discussed.

The compact cardboard box is discreetly decorated, but contains all the necessary information about the video card:

She also does not lack reliability. The video card is located in the center of the box in an additional soft and antistatic bag, and a few accessories fit on top and side:

The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 Ti is manufactured in China and costs a little over $ 170. The warranty is 2 years.

At the first glance at the video card, it becomes clear that this is not yet another reference copy under the Gigabyte labels. The length of the graphics card is 249mm, although the PCB itself is as short as the two products just reviewed - 145mm:

The entire front side of the video card is covered by the WindForce 2X cooling system, about 40% of which goes beyond the PCB boundary.

Equipping the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 Ti with two DVI (Dual-Link), one HDMI and one D-Sub connectors looks quite original:

Remained on the panel with exits is a place and a grill for partial discharge of the air heated by the video card outside the case of the system unit. The air really goes through it.

One six-pin auxiliary power connector is mounted upward from the PCB:

To some, this option seems less convenient than when the power connector is oriented backwards, but it is obvious that Gigabyte simply had no other choice because of its cooling system. The power requirements are the same as the reference GeForce GTX 650 Ti - 110 watts for the video card and 400 watts for the system with it.

The printed circuit board of the video card differs from the reference only in the color of the PCB:

It also uses a 2 + 1 power circuit driven by the UPi Semiconductor uP6210 controller. Nevertheless, Gigabyte classifies this model as an Ultra Durable 2 series, which assumes the use of quality and extremely reliable components.

GPU released in the 34th week of 2012:

It differs from the GPU of a regular GeForce GTX 650 Ti in that its frequency is increased to 1033 MHz (+ 11.3%). It may be lower than EVGA, but overall pretty good overclocking.

The memory chips are exactly the same as those of NVIDIA or EVGA products, but there are eight chips, the memory capacity has been increased from one to two gigabytes:

Gigabyte did not increase the memory frequency (but in vain, as we will see later), and it is 5400 MHz. Therefore, the specifications of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 Ti differ from the reference only in terms of the increased frequency of the GPU and the characteristics that depend on it:

As you have already seen, in addition to the increased frequency of the GPU, the Gigabyte product is distinguished by the original WindForce 2X cooling system:

It is based on an aluminum radiator with two copper heat pipes 6 mm in diameter. The tubes are part of the base of the cooler, and judging by the imprint, the number of tubes is perfectly matched to contact the 221mm2 GPU die.

The radiator is made up of thin aluminum fins, which are pressed onto the tubes with a distance of 1 mm:

However, the heatsink itself is thin, about 10 mm, so it is not difficult to blow through such tightly fitted plates with two 90-mm impellers with PWM control, which is clearly confirmed by the results of tests of the temperature regime of the video card:

Automatic mode Maximum speed

As you can see, WindForce 2X copes with its task excellently: peak 47 degrees Celsius in automatic mode of two fans and only 43 degrees at their maximum speed. This is significantly better than the two products discussed above.

Despite such impressive efficiency of the original Gigabyte cooling system, the video card did not show any miracles in overclocking. We managed to increase the frequency of the GPU by only 45 megahertz, and the video memory by 1760 effective megahertz:

The final frequencies were 1078/7160 MHz:

Although the overclocking potential of the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 650 Ti did not impress us, the WindForce 2X cooling system was once again impressed with its efficiency, not allowing the GPU temperature to rise above 50 degrees Celsius:

And this is in the automatic mode of the fans, when their speed reached only 1680 rpm. In this regard, Gigabyte has no equal yet among the participants in today's test.

You can download the BIOS of the video card in question from file archive, well, we will move on to the next "contestant".

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 650 Ti AMP! Edition 2 GB (ZT-61103-10M)

ZOTAC has three GeForce GTX 650 Ti at once, and we got the fastest of them for our tests - ZOTAC GeForce GTX 650 Ti AMP! Edition... The front and back sides of a small cardboard box contain not only information about the video card, but also about NVIDIA technologies that are used in this product:

The package bundle is no different and includes the most popular adapter, cable for additional power supply, CD with drivers, and all sorts of instruction booklets:

The Chinese graphics card costs $ 169.9. The warranty period is two years.

Perhaps the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 650 Ti AMP! Edition is the most beautiful graphics card in today's test. The embossed, anodized metal cooling shroud and the bright orange fan, under which the aluminum heatsink is visible, make this graphics card very attractive:

I am glad that all these decorations did not affect the dimensions of the video card, they are equal to 145x100x38 mm. Noteworthy are the memory chips on the reverse side of the printed circuit board, and a different output circuit, where instead of one mini HDMI, two standard HDMI outputs are installed:

Both DVI Outputs in the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 650 Ti AMP Arsenal! Edition are also present.

The six-pin connector for additional power is in its usual place:

However, unlike other test participants, ZOTAC recommends a power supply unit with a capacity of 450 watts for a system with one such video card, instead of the standard 400 watts.

ZOTAC GeForce GTX 650 Ti AMP! Edition is based on the reference design PCB, but the total number of power phases here appears to be four, two of which are on the GK106 GPU:

After cleaning the latter from an excessive amount of thermal paste, we managed to find out that it was released on the 34th week of 2012 and belongs to revision A1:

The GPU frequency in 3D mode is 1033 MHz, which is 11.3% higher than the nominal and is equal to the GPU frequency of the Gigabyte graphics card. EVGA has a slightly faster chip, as you remember.

The number of exactly the same memory chips as on the three previous video cards is eight, and its total volume is 2 GB:

ZOTAC does not shun factory overclocking, so the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 650 Ti AMP! Edition, it was increased from 5400 to 6200 MHz (+ 14.8%), while the bandwidth was increased from 86.4 to 99.2 GB / s:

The radiator of the cooling system ZOTAC differs from NVIDIA and EVGA in only minor details, remaining, by and large, a simple aluminum "blank":

However, thanks to the more advanced fan from Everflow, the T129215SH, the GPU is cooled better than NVIDIA or EVGA:

Automatic mode Maximum speed

So in the automatic mode of the fan, when its power was only 23% of the maximum, the temperature reached only 58 degrees Celsius, and at 100% power it did not exceed 52 degrees Celsius. It is still far from Gigabyte's performance even by the standards of budget video cards, but in general, the ZOTAC video card can be classified as “cold”.

Unfortunately, when overclocking the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 650 Ti AMP! Edition, we were forced to limit ourselves to the modest +50 MHz, since further increase in the frequency led to freezes. Well, the memory frequency has been successfully increased by 960 effective megahertz:

After overclocking, the frequencies of the video card were 1083/7160 MHz:

It turns out that of the four GeForce GTX 650 Ti reviewed, the graphics processor was overclocked best by EVGA (1127 MHz), and the memory by the reference from NVIDIA (7200 MHz).

As for ZOTAC, after its overclocking, the maximum temperature of the GPU increased to 61 degrees Celsius:

Add a link to BIOS ZOTAC GeForce GTX 650 Ti AMP! Edition and move on to the last test participant.

ZOTAC GeForce GT 640 2 GB (ZT-60201-10L)

The smallest graphics card in the test - ZOTAC GeForce GT 640 - is sealed in the smallest box with an indication key features new items on the lid:

The package bundle here is almost the same as that of the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 650 Ti AMP! Edition, except for the cable for additional power, it is not needed here:

The graphics card manufactured in China comes with a two-year warranty. It retails for $ 89.

As befits an economy-class product, the ZOTAC GeForce GT 640 looks extremely simple. The short 145mm PCB is 50% covered by an aluminum heatsink with a small orange fan:

The design is single-slot, as it should be for video cards with such modest performance. Surely it will appeal to the owners of compact HTPC systems, who sometimes devote time to old games.

ZOTAC GeForce GT 640 is equipped with two DVI outputs(Dual-Link) and one mini HDMI output version 1.4a:

The power requirements of the GeForce GT 640 are so modest that even a short printed circuit board is mostly empty, although all the memory chips are located on its front side:

The power circuit is two-phase, and the GPU has a plastic frame so as not to accidentally chip off a fragile crystal with an area of only 118 mm2:

GK107 is exactly half of GK106. There are half the number of shader processors (384) and half the number of texture units (32). The number of ROPs left is 16. The GPU frequency is 902 MHz.

The ZOTAC GeForce GT 640 has 2 gigabytes of DDR3 memory. This volume is recruited by eight Micron chips (2EK12 D9PRS):

The memory frequency is 1782 MHz, and the other characteristics of the video card are as follows:

It makes no sense to describe the cooling system once again, this is a simple aluminum radiator with a 60 mm Everflow fan labeled T126010SU:

However, it copes with its task, cooling the graphics processor of the video card to 54 degrees Celsius at the peak of the load:

As for the overclocking potential, the ZOTAC GeForce GT 640 graphics processor was overclocked by 160 MHz, and the memory frequency was increased by only 200 MHz:

1062/2182 MHz is not so bad for such a simple and cheap video card based on DDR3 memory:

After overclocking, the GPU temperature rose by 5 degrees Celsius, with a final 59 degrees:

We will talk about the noise level of all cooling systems in the next section, and this one will end with a link to BIOS ZOTAC GeForce GT 640 2 GB.

Noise level

The methodology has not changed. The measurement of the noise level of the video card cooling systems was carried out using an electronic sound level meter CENTER-321 after 1 am in a completely closed room with an area of about 20 m² with double-glazed windows. The noise level was measured outside the case of the system unit, when the source of noise in the room was only the cooling system and its fans. The sound level meter, fixed on a tripod, was always located strictly at one point at a distance of exactly 150 mm from the fan / turbine rotor of the cooler. The motherboard, into which a video card with a cooling system installed on it was inserted, was placed at the very corner of the table on a polyurethane foam substrate. The lower limit of measurements of the sound level meter is 29.8 dBA, and the subjectively comfortable (not to be confused with low) noise level when measuring from such a distance is about 36 dBA. The fan speed was varied over the entire range of their operation using a special precise controller by changing the supply voltage with a step of 0.5 V.

Since the video cards NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti, EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti SSC and both ZOTACs do not have fan speed monitoring, we built their graphs based on the maximum speed of the cooling system fans. technical specifications, with subsequent interpolation depending on the applied voltage. We understand that this is not a completely correct approach, since the dependence of the fan speed on voltage is not linear, however, another option is this case we did not have. Let's see what happened:

Judging by the curves plotted according to the measurement data, the cooler ZOTAC GeForce GT 640 and ZOTAC GeForce GTX 650 Ti AMP are quieter than the others! Edition, but that's not entirely true. It is also necessary to take into account the speed of the fans during the temperature test. And if the ZOTAC GeForce GT 640 really works quieter than the other four video cards tested, then about the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 650 Ti AMP! Edition we can't say that. Subjectively, its noise level is almost the same as that of NVIDIA or EVGA, and all three video cards are louder than the subjective comfort limit. As for the original Gigabyte WindForce 2X cooling system, in automatic mode, the speed of its fans rises to 1600 rpm, so this video card is less noisy than others, including the ZOTAC GeForce GT 640. In idle mode it is not audible at all, although small, but annoying the fan of the same ZOTAC GeForce GT 640 stands out perfectly against the background of a quiet system unit, even without load on the graphics system.

Energy consumption

The energy consumption of the system with different video cards was measured using the Zalman ZM-MFC3 multifunctional panel, which shows the system consumption "from the wall" as a whole (excluding the monitor). The measurement was carried out in 2D mode, during normal operation in Microsoft Word or Internet "surfing", as well as in 3D mode, the load in which was created using a three-time test from the game Metro 2033: The Last Refuge at 2560x1440 with maximum graphics quality settings.

For a comparative assessment, we added the results of measuring the power consumption of systems with MSI GeForce GTX 660 2 GB, Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 2 GB and AMD Radeon HD 7770 1 GB to the diagram. Let's take a look at the results:

As you can see, even with an overclocked six-core processor, the systems with any video cards in the test met the total power consumption of 400 watts, and the system with the GeForce GT 640 turned out to be the most economical one - only 278 watts is enough. Both Radeon cards consume more power than their direct competitors, but the difference is not great. There are not many differences in power consumption between systems with different versions of the GeForce GTX 650 Ti, but we note that with an EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti SSC consumes even more than a system with an overclocked Gigabyte graphics card. In addition, we note that at the nominal frequencies of video cards, a system with a GeForce GTX 660 2 GB consumes 62 watts more power than a system with a GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1 GB. In idle mode, the power consumption of all systems is almost the same.

Test configuration, tools and testing methodology

The video cards were tested on a system with the following configuration:

Motherboard: Intel Siler DX79SI (Intel X79 Express, LGA 2011, BIOS 0537 dated 07/23/2012);
CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition 3.3 GHz (Sandy bridge-e, C1, 1.2 V, 6x256 KB L2, 15 MB L3);
CPU cooling system: Phanteks PH-TC14PЕ (2x140 mm, 860 rpm);
Thermal interface: ARCTIC MX-4;
RAM: DDR3 4x4 GB Mushkin Redline(2133 MHz, 9-10-10-28, 1.65 V);
System disk: SSD 256 GB Crucial m4 (SATA-III, CT256M4SSD2, BIOS v0009);
Disk for programs and games: Western Digital VelociRaptor (SATA-II, 300 GB, 10,000 rpm, 16 MB, NCQ) in a Scythe Quiet Drive 3.5 "box;
Archive disk: Samsung Ecogreen F4 HD204UI (SATA-II, 2 TB, 5400 rpm, 32 MB, NCQ);
Case: Antec Twelve Hundred (front wall - three Noiseblocker NB-Multiframe S-Series MF12-S2 at 1020 rpm; back - two Noiseblocker NB-BlackSilentPRO PL-1 at 1020 rpm; top - standard 200 mm fan at 400 rpm);
Control and monitoring panel: Zalman ZM-MFC3;
Power Supply: Seasonic SS-1000XP Active PFC F3(1000W) 120mm fan
Monitor: 27 "Samsung S27A850D (DVI-I, 2560x1440, 60 Hz).

In addition to the models from the review, we added three more video cards to testing. The first - MSI GeForce GTX 660 2GB - is included for comparison with the GeForce GTX 650 Ti to determine the lag of the latter. The second - Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 2 GB in retail is more expensive than the GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2 GB, but the difference is very small, so we took this video card as a potential competitor to the GeForce GTX 650 Ti 2 GB. And finally, the third - AMD Radeon HD 7770 1 GB in cost is exactly between the GeForce GT 640 and GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1 GB, so a comparison with it promises to be useful.

As usual, to reduce the dependence of the performance of video cards on the platform speed, a 32-nm six-core processor with a multiplier of 37, a reference frequency of 125 MHz and an activated "Load-Line Calibration" function was overclocked to 4.625 GHz with an increase in voltage Motherboard BIOS boards up to 1.49 V:

Hyper-Threading Technology is activated. At the same time, 16 GB of RAM operated at a frequency of 2 GHz with timings of 9-10-10-28 at a voltage of 1.65 V.

Testing, which began on December 25, 2012, was run by operating system Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1 with all critical updates on the specified date and with the installation of the following drivers:

chipset motherboard Intel Chipset Drivers - 9.3.1.1009 WHQL from 08.12.2012;
DirectX End-User Runtimes libraries, released on November 30, 2010;
graphics card drivers AMD processors – Catalyst 12.11 beta (9.010.8) from 02.12.2012+ Catalyst Application Profiles 12.11 (CAP2);
video card drivers on NVIDIA GPUs - GeForce 310.70 beta from 04.12.2012.

For the tests of the GeForce GTX 650 Ti, we considered it possible to limit ourselves to only one resolution - 1920 × 1080 pixels, since the cost of monitors with such a resolution today dropped even below the cost of individual GeForce GTX 650 Ti from the review. For higher resolutions, this class of video cards is no longer suitable due to low performance, and with resolutions lower than 1920 x 1080 pixels, test participants should cope without much difficulty.

We used two graphics quality modes: "Quality + AF16x" - the quality of textures in the drivers by default with anisotropic filtering at 16x level, and "Quality + AF16x + MSAA 4x (8x)" with anisotropic filtering at 16x level and full-screen anti-aliasing. 4x or 8x, in cases where the average frames per second remained high enough for comfortable gaming. Anisotropic filtering and full-screen anti-aliasing were enabled directly in the game settings. If these settings were absent in games, then the settings were changed in the control panels of Catalyst and GeForce drivers. Vertical sync was also disabled there. No further changes were made to the driver settings.

The list of test applications consists of two semi-synthetic packages, one techno-demo and 15 games updated to latest versions(as of the test start date):

3DMark Vantage(DirectX 10) - version 1.0.2.1, settings profiles "Performance" and "Extreme" (only basic tests were tested);
3DMark 2011(DirectX 11) - version 1.0.3.0, settings profiles "Performance" and "Extreme";
Unigine Heaven Demo(DirectX 11) - version 3.0, maximum quality settings, tessellation at the extreme level, AF16x, resolution 1280x1024 without MSAA and 1920x1080 with MSAA 8x;
S.T.A.L.K.E.R .: Call of Pripyat(DirectX 11) - version 1.6.02, “Improved dynamic lighting DX11” settings profile with additional manual setting of all parameters to the maximum, we tested our own demo-record “cop03” at the “Backwater” level;
Metro 2033: The Last Refuge(DirectX 10/11) - version 1.2, official test used, “Very High” quality settings, tessellation, DOF enabled, AAA anti-aliasing used, double sequential pass of the “Frontline” scene;
Just Cause 2(DirectX DX10.1) - version 1.0.0.2, maximum quality settings, “Background blur” and GPU water simulation ”methods are deactivated, double sequential pass of the“ Dark Tower ”demo recording;
Aliens vs. Predator (2010)(DirectX 11) - "Texture Quality" in "Very High" mode, "Shadow Quality" in "High" mode, SSAO technology enabled, two test cycles at each resolution;
Lost Planet 2(DirectX 11) - game version 1.0, maximum graphics quality settings, motion blur enabled, performance test "B" was used;
Sid Meier's Civilization V(DirectX 11) - game version 1.0.1.348, maximum graphics quality settings, double-run "diplomatic" test of the five most difficult scenes;
Total War: SHOGUN 2 - Fall of the Samurai(DirectX 11) - version 1.1.0, built-in test (battle at Sekigahara) at maximum graphics quality settings and using one of the MSAA 4x modes;
Crysis 2(DirectX 11) - version 1.9, used Adrenaline Crysis 2 Benchmark Tool v1.0.1.14 BETA, "Ultra High" graphics quality settings profile, textures high resolution activated, double cycle of demo recording on stage "Times Square";
Hard reset demo(DirectX 9) - test built into the demo version with Ultra graphics quality, one pass of the test scene;
Batman: Arkham City(DirectX 11) - version 1.2, maximum graphics quality settings, physics disabled, double sequential pass of the test built into the game;
Battlefield 3(DirectX 11) - version 1.4, all graphics quality settings to "Ultra", double sequential pass of the scripted scene from the beginning of the "On the Hunt" mission lasting 110 seconds;
Nexuiz(DirectX 11) - version 1.0, all graphics quality settings to "Ultra", a double run of the test built into the game on the profiles of the "High" and "Ultra" settings;
Sniper elite v2 benchmark(DirectX 11) - version 1.05, used Adrenaline Sniper Elite V2 Benchmark Tool v1.0.0.2 BETA maximum graphics quality settings ("Ultra"), Advanced Shadows: HIGH, Ambient Occlusion: ON, Stereo 3D: OFF, double sequential test run;
Sleeping dogs(DirectX 11) - version 1.5, used Adrenaline Sleeping Dogs Benchmark Tool v1.0.0.3 BETA, maximum graphics quality settings for all items, Hi-Res Textures pack installed, FPS Limiter and V-Sync disabled, double sequential test run with total smoothing at the "Normal" and "Extreme" levels;
F1 2012(DirectX 11) - Update 10, used Adrenaline Racing Benchmark Tool v1.0.0.13, graphics quality settings at "Ultra" level, Brazilian track "Interlagos" 2 laps, 24 cars, light rain, camera mode - "Bonnet";
Hitman: Absolution(DirectX 11) - version 1.0, built-in test with graphics quality settings at "Ultra" level, tessellation, FXAA and global illumination are enabled.

More detailed description test methods for video cards and graphics settings in some of the listed games you can find in a specially created for this branch of our conference, as well as participate in the discussion and improvement of these techniques.

If the games implemented the ability to fix the minimum number of frames per second, then it was also reflected in the diagrams. Each test was carried out twice, the best of the two obtained values was taken as the final result, but only if the difference between them did not exceed 1%. If the deviations of the test runs exceeded 1%, then the testing was repeated at least one more time in order to obtain a reliable result.

table with test results.

Pivot Charts

First of all, in our opinion, it is worth looking at the total lag of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1 GB from GeForce GTX 660 2 GB. Both video cards were compared at nominal frequencies, and the results of the older video card were taken as the starting point of reference:

It should be noted that the lag is pretty decent. On average, according to all tests, the GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1 GB is 37% slower than the GeForce GTX 660 in modes without anti-aliasing and by 40% in modes with anti-aliasing. Let us remind you that the difference in the recommended cost between these cards is 37%, which, as is quite rare, fully corresponds to the difference in their performance. As for a possible comparison with the two-gigabyte version of the GeForce GTX 650 Ti, it makes no sense, because according to the test results, the additional gigabyte of memory of the GeForce GTX 650 Ti does not give any advantage.

No less interesting is the difference in performance between the reference GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1 GB and the GeForce GT 640:

As you can see, the lowest card is twice (and more than twice) slower. Considering that the performance of the GeForce GTX 650 Ti itself is at a very mediocre level, it is impossible to refer to the gaming GeForce GT 640. It is a product for multimedia centers or simple display of 2D images on a monitor, or multiple monitors.

As we all know, the Radeon HD 7850 is not a direct competitor to the GeForce GTX 650 Ti, as it costs a little more. Nevertheless, taking the results of the fastest GTX 650 Ti we have, we have built a summary chart comparing these cards. So, ZOTAC GeForce GTX 650 Ti AMP! Edition 2 GB versus Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 2 GB (as a baseline):

The total superiority of the Radeon HD 7850 is evident in all tests, including even the very beloved NVIDIA benchmark Lost Planet 2. On average, AMD here wins 24% over NVIDIA in modes without anti-aliasing and 27% in modes with anti-aliasing enabled. The difference in retail price between the simplest Radeon HD 7850 and the compared product from ZOTAC is about 10%. Obviously, in such a situation, most of us will prefer the Radeon HD 7850.

In the comparison between the GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1 GB and the Radeon HD 7770 1 GB, the more expensive video card on the NVIDIA GPU naturally wins:

On average, in all games, the GeForce is 14 ~ 15% faster than the Radeon, but there are separate modes in 3-4 games, where the Radeon HD 7770 is quite capable of competing with the GeForce GTX 650 Ti.

Conclusion

About the performance of the GeForce GTX 650 Ti... To be honest, we are not impressed with the graphics card's gaming speed demonstrated today. No, do not think - it fits into its price niche as well as possible, because the level of its performance lies exactly between the Radeon HD 7850 2 GB and the Radeon HD 7770 1 GB. But, this is the whole problem. Who is the GTX 650 Ti going to compete with then? With yourself? After all, those who have a little more money will definitely prefer the Radeon HD 7850, and those who do not have enough will take the Radeon HD 7770 or the completely non-gaming GeForce GT 640. At the same time, as we have seen today, it makes sense to purchase a more expensive video card with two gigabytes of memory, there is no performance gain - they bring no performance gain to this card. That is, it turns out that the GTX 650 Ti is a video card "in itself" with a low price and a moderate level of performance. Unfortunately, with the release of this video card, NVIDIA could not compete with the Radeon HD 7850, so we will not wait soon for a reduction in prices for them. As for the Radeon HD 7770, it already costs less than the GTX 650 Ti 1 GB, so here we can only hope for a systematic decrease in market value until the next generation is released. GPUs.

About GeForce GT 640(since the term "performance" is not applicable here). This video card turned out to be twice as slow as the GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1 GB, although it obviously costs not half as much. You can play comfortably on such a video card only in 1280x1024 resolution and not new games with medium quality settings. In 1920 × 1080, which is today the de facto standard in games, the GeForce GT 640, with rare exceptions, produces more than 20 frames per second, and in the latest game hits, no more than 10 frames per second. Therefore, such a product can be recommended only with complete indifference to the gaming industry and hobby, for example, cinema (not black and white, do not be alarmed). In addition, recall that the GeForce GT 640, like all products based on the Kepler graphics architecture, can simultaneously connect up to four monitors.

About the participants of the review... With the exception of NVIDIA's reference graphics card, today we reviewed three original GeForce GTX 650 Ti products from EVGA, Gigabyte, and ZOTAC. Each of these video cards has its own characteristics. EVGA has the fastest GPU at 1072 MHz, impressive overclocking and lowest cost with just one gigabyte of memory. The 2GB Gigabyte has an extremely efficient cooling system with low level noise and D-Sub output. The compact ZOTAC traditionally delighted with the factory overclocking not only of the cores, but also of the video memory, which, according to the sum of all tests, makes this GeForce GTX 650 Ti the fastest of the four. They have in common: printed circuit boards and memory chips, DVI-outputs, comparable configurations, warranty and almost identical overclocking potential of video memory. In general, there is plenty to choose from, unless, of course, you really opted for the GeForce GTX 650 Ti.

In the section on the question Overclocking the GTX 650ti video card asked by the author Kashtanov Sergey the best answer is Well, if it has good cooling, then it remains stable at 1125 MHz on the core and up to 1875 (7500 effective) MHz in memory. With this overclocking, it becomes up to 20% faster than at standard frequencies (925/5400 MHz) and slightly outperforms the GTX 560 Ti, but it consumes no more than 100 watts and heats up no more than 85 degrees. But such an outcome is possible only in the best case. Usually, the GTX 650 Ti can easily race up to 1050 MHz in the core and up to 1750 MHz in memory. And these are not theoretical figures, but a real possibility of overclocking. And the maximum stable frequencies for each video card are different.

Answer from Dante[newbie]
I see the problem has already been resolved, but maybe someone can use my comment.
You should understand that when the computer is pushed, there is an increase in power consumption, heat dissipation, and in some cases this leads to video card malfunctions.
Therefore, more powerful cooling, because overheating is fraught with consequences. Most often, liquid cooling is used.
It is necessary to install software that allows you to monitor the temperature of PC components, not only the video card.
Then measure the heat dissipation of all components before overclocking. The increase in frequency must be done gradually and step by step. The step frequency is 5-15% of the initial frequency of the video card.
For overclocking, you can use free utility NVIDIA Inspector. This utility does not require installation and after downloading, you just need to run it.
On this site, a description of how all this is done correctly. And it is better not to use flashing the BIOS of a video card for overclocking, given view overclocking is very dangerous.

The video cards were tested on the following configuration:

Processor: Intel Core i7 3770K (3500 MHz);
Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 (passive mode);
Thermal interface: Arctic Cooling MX-4;
Motherboard: MSI Z77A-GD55, BIOS version 1.7;
Memory: 2 x 4GB DDR3 1333, Samsung M378B5273DH0-CH9;
ASUS GTX650 Ti-1GD5 1GB video card (928/5400 MHz (core / memory));
Gigabyte GV-N65TOC-1GI 1 GB video card (1033/5400 MHz (core / memory));
SSD storage: Corsair Performance Pro 256GB;
Information panel: Zalman ZM-MFC3;
Power supply: OCZ OCZZX1000 (1000W).
Case: Corsair Graphite 600T.

All fans, including those built into the PSU, were turned off during testing. The side wall of the case was open.

Standard frequencies and overclocking

The ASUS video card operates at the base frequencies recommended by nVidia, namely 928 MHz for the GPU and 1350 (5400) MHz for the memory.

In idle, the frequency drops to 324/162 MHz and the voltage drops to 0.875V. The picture changes slightly under load.

The frequencies take on the specified values, and the voltage becomes 1.075 V. Then we try to overclock the device for which we increase the voltage on the core by 0.05 V.

The result, to put it mildly, is not brilliant. And especially unlucky with memory. Judge for yourself - only 100 MHz gain. The result is 1098/1450 (5800) MHz (GPU / memory). In this case, the voltage under load was 1.125 V.

The Gigabyte video card was initially overclocked by the manufacturer to frequencies of 1033/1350 (5400) MHz.

In idle, the frequencies are also reduced to 324/162 MHz, and the voltage is 0.862 V. But as soon as you run the MSI Kombustor utility, it rises to 1.062 V.

But for overclocking, the voltage on the core had to be increased by 0.037 V.

As a result, we managed to achieve acceptable values: 1133 MHz for the chip and 1550 (6200) MHz for the memory.

So it turns out that a successful copy solves more than an excellent power and cooling system combined.

Temperature regime and noise level

Overclocking was carried out using the MSI Afterburner utility, and stability was checked not only with the MSI Kombustor test suite, but also by running the Unigine Heaven 3.0 application with maximum settings. The noise level was measured with a Becool BC-8922 instrument at a distance of 50 cm from the body. In addition, the device was mounted on a compact tripod. The background noise inside the room was 26 dB, the temperature was 24 ° C.

Let's start measuring the indicators with the operation of video adapters in idle or no load mode. Idle temperature
° C

Temperatures can vary both due to the difference in the base voltage of the GPUs and due to the efficiency of the cooling system. Let's see how the video adapters make noise in this mode: Noise level at idle
dB