Introduction

Started in March, launches of NVIDIA's GeForce Kepler line of GPUs on a near-monthly basis are now drawing to a close with the new GeForce GTX 650 Ti. A successor to the GTX 550 Ti, the new GPU helps NVIDIA seal a gaping price-point hole between the $119 GTX 650 and the $229 GTX 660. Positioned at roughly $150, the new chip is designed to yield a price-performance edge over two AMD Radeon models, the HD 7770 GHz Edition and HD 7850 1 GB.



Unlike the GK107-based GeForce GTX 650, the GTX 650 Ti is based on the GK106, the same silicon the GTX 660 is based on. The GK106 is configured with two graphics processing clusters (GPCs) and four streaming multiprocessors (SMXs) for a total CUDA core count of 768, with 64 texture memory units (TMUs), 16 raster operations processors (ROPs), and a 128-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface holding 1 GB of memory. The GTX 650 Ti retains the display IO configuration of its older siblings. This configuration supports up to four displays.



In this review, we're taking a look at the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 650 Ti AMP! Edition. Unlike the other GTX 650 Ti cards that we reviewed before, this card comes with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory, whereas the other boards only had 1 GB.

The AMP! Edition is also overclocked out of the box with a clock increase for both GPU and memory - the other cards tested were only GPU overclocked.

Due to these changes, pricing ends up being quite steep: ZOTAC is asking $185 for their card.

Packaging

Contents

You will receive:

• Graphics card
• Driver CD + Documentation
• DVI adapter
• PCI-Express Power Cable

The Card

ZOTAC's AMP! Edition is the shortest GTX 650 Ti that we reviewed so far, which makes it a prime candidate for a media PC gaming system.


The card requires two slots in your system.


Display connectivity options include two DVI ports and two full-size HDMI ports. I find it quite surprising to see two HDMI ports instead of 1x HDMI and 1x DisplayPort. Nevertheless, this could come in handy if you want to connect multiple monitors/TVs to the card. You may use all outputs at the same time.

The GPU also includes an HDMI sound device. It is HDMI 1.4a compatible, which includes HD audio and Blu-ray 3D movies support.


The GeForce GTX 650 Ti does not support SLI (I tried).


Pictured above are the front and back, showing the disassembled board. High-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods, etc., please include a link back to this site, or let us post your article.