Introduction
Previously we had a glimpse of this card, we did a simple unboxing of this particular sample. Like I said before, this card was provided to me by Asus, so a big thanks to them once again. GTX650Ti is one of the latest offerings from Nvidia,it is based on GK106 (Kepler) chip. This card is intended to fill the gap between GTX650 and GTX660. Unlike its elder brothers GTX650Ti lacks gpu boost (Nvidia has recently released a boost variant of GTX650Ti though). This card is a direct competitor to AMD’s HD7770 and HD7790. GTX650Ti is mainly targeted for mainstream gamers,i.e the category where most gamers belong.
The card is manufactured under 28nm fabrication process and consists a total of 2.4 billion transistors. The card consists a total of 768 CUDA cores,64 texture mapping units and 16 ROP units. Reference GTX650Ti has a core speed of 925mhz and memory speed of 5400mhz where as this particular sample is factory overclocked at 1033mhz on the core and the memory is unchanged and kept at 5400mhz. The card is powered by only one 6pin pci-ex connector and has a TDP of 110w. Memory consists of 1GB GDDR5 on a 128bit memory bus.
Lets have a look at the specification below:
| Model Name | GTX650TI-DC2T-1GD5 |
| Graphics Engine | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti |
| Bus Standard | PCI Express 3.0 |
| Video Memory | GDDR5 1GB |
| Engine Clock | 1033 MHz |
| CUDA Core | 768 |
| Memory Clock | 5400 MHz ( 1350 MHz GDDR5 ) |
| Memory Interface | 128-bit |
| Resolution | D-Sub Max Resolution : 2048×1536 DVI Max Resolution : 2560×1600 |
| Interface | D-Sub Output : Yes x 1 DVI Output : Yes x 2 (DVI-D) HDMI Output : Yes x 1 HDCP Support : Yes |
| Power Consumption | up to 150W additional 6 pin PCIe power required |
| Software | ASUS Utilities & Driver GPU Tweak |
| ASUS Features | DirectCU Series TOP Series Super Alloy Power |
| Dimensions | 10.79 ” x 4.72 ” x 1.3 ” Inch |
This is the DirectCU II TOP variant of form Asus which means its their flagship model for this particular gpu i.e GTX650Ti. Its worth mentioning that its currently the most aggressively clocked GTX650Ti out in the market.The card is equipped with powerful Direct CU II cooler which is famous for good overclocking and low temperature. The card has DIGI+VRM feature which reduces power transfer loss while increasing efficiency. Super Alloy Power technology is used on the card which means better chokes, capacitors, mosfets are used to increase the lifespan of the card. Asus has bundled their own overclocking software with this card which is known as Asus GPU Tweak,it’s a very efficient overclocking software.
The friendly overclocking tool from Asus aka Asus GPU Tweak:
Now lets proceed to the showcase section…
Product Showcase
Well not much to speak here lets enjoy the pictures.
The mighty Asus GTX650Ti Direct CUII Top:
As we can see the card comes with 1 pci-ex 6pin power slot.
The card with famous DCUII cooler,as we can see the card is pretty long measuring 10.79″ in lenth but it shouldn’t be a problem as the card will fit in most mid tower pc cases.
The card comes with two DVI-D output,one D-Sub output and a HDMI output.
The pcb length of the card is shorter than the cooler:
We can notice a green LED litting up at the back of the card which indicates the card is running absolutely fine however if anything goes wrong with the card a red LED will lit up which is located just beside the green LED:
Test Setup and Overclocking
We managed to overclock the processor to 4Ghz so as to remove any sort of cpu bottleneck. The Driver version used for all benchmarks is 314.22 WHQL.
| Processor | AMD Phenom II X4 960T overclocked at 4Ghz |
| Motherboard | Asus M5A97 Pro |
| Gpu | Asus GTX650Ti DirectCU II TOP |
| Ram | 2x2GB Gskill Ripjawa-X 1333 MHz CL9 |
| Psu | Corsair GS600 80+ Bronze |
| Cooling | Coolermaster Hyper 212 Plus |
| OS | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit SP1 |
| Gpu Driver | 314.22 WHQL |
Now before we proceed to the overclocking part let me remind you that each card will overclock differently i.e the overclocking potential of each card will be different so you guys should take this overclocking result as a reference. The card has a factory overclock speed of 1033mhz on the core and 5400mhz on the memory,I managed to take it to 1200mhz on the core and 5600mhz on the memory,had to make minor changes to voltage to achieve it,the voltage was set to 1.150v. The fan speed was at 60% so as to keep temperatures under control,I could have gone even further with the overclock however decided to settle at 1200mhz core for a safe 24/7 overclock. This is a beast in terms of overclocking,it already comes with a good factory overclock and we even took it further. Reference GTX650Ti has a core clock of 925mhz and this sample reached 1200mhz,it’s a 275mhz overclock in total over a card clocked at reference speed,simply amazing result,hats off to Asus.
The card at stock speed with default fan setting never crossed 53c while it never crossed 57c when it was overclocked to 1200mhz core,5600mhz memory with 60% fan.This is an excellent thermal performance and we can assume how much efficient the DCU II cooler is.
Now lets proceed to some benchmarking results…
Synthetic Benchmarks
Lets start the benchmark session with some synthetic benchmarks then we shall jump to the gaming performance part.
For the synthetic benchmark part I have used 3D Mark 11,3D Mark and Unigine Heaven V1.03 (the one used in HWBot). The card’s performance both in stock (1033mhz) and overclocked (1200mhz) settings has been mentioned in the following charts.
3D Mark:
“3DMark is a computer benchmarking tool created and developed by Futuremark Corporation (formerly MadOnion.com and initially Futuremark) to determine the performance of a computer’s 3D graphic rendering and CPU workload processing capabilities. Running 3DMark produces a 3DMark score,with higher numbers indicating better performance. The 3DMark measurement unit is intended to give a normalized mean for comparing different PC hardware configurations (mostly graphics processing units and central processing units),which proponents such as gamers and overclocking enthusiasts assert is indicative of end-user performance capabilities. Many versions of 3DMark have been released since 1998. As each 3DMark is based on a specific version of the DirectX API scores cannot be compared across the different releases.”
This is the card’s performance in 3D Mark 11. As we can see we gained a nice performance increase by overclocking the card,its 468 points increase over factory oc speed at 1033mhz.
Ice Storm is the DX9 benchmark test of the latest version of 3D Mark (2013 version):
Cloud Gate is the DX10 benchmark test of the latest version of 3D Mark (2013 version):
Fire Strike is the DX11 benchmark test of the latest version of 3D Mark (2013 version). From the score we can see that Fire Strike is pretty taxing and needs a lot of gpu power to achieve good score:
Unigine Heaven:
“Heaven Benchmark is a GPU-intensive benchmark that hammers graphics cards to the limits. This powerful tool can be effectively used to determine the stability of a GPU under extremely stressful conditions,as well as check the cooling system’s potential under maximum heat output. It provides completely unbiased results and generates true in-game rendering workloads across all platforms, such as Windows,Linux and Mac OS X. Heaven Benchmark immerses a user into a magical steampunk world of shiny brass,wood and gears. Nested on flying islands a tiny village with its cozy, sun-heated cobblestone streets,an elaborately crafted dirigible above the expanse of fluffy clouds,and a majestic dragon on the central square gives a true sense of adventure. An interactive experience with fly-by and walk-through modes allows for exploring all corners of this world powered by the cutting-edge UNIGINE Engine that leverages the most advanced capabilities of graphics APIs and turns this benchmark into a visual masterpiece.”
Unigine Heaven has two type of test,one is the Basic one i.e DX9 test while the other is Extreme i.e DX11. I have used the V1.03 i.e the one used in HWBot. The card gives some nice performance increase when it is overclocked.
Finally its time for some Gaming benchmarks!
Gaming Benchmarks
Alien vs Predator:
“Aliens vs. Predator is a first-person shooter video game developed by Rebellion,the team behind the 1999 original Microsoft Windows game and published by Sega for Microsoft Windows,PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game is based on the Alien vs. Predator franchise,a combination of the characters and creatures of the Alien franchise and the Predator franchise. The game is based on Asura Engine,its a DX11 title,the latest version of the game was released back in February 16,2010.”
In this game performance does increase when the card is overclocked.
Battlefield 3:
“Battlefield 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts. It is a direct sequel to 2005’s Battlefield 2,and the twelfth installment in the Battlefield franchise.The game was released in North America on 25 October 2011 and in Europe on 28 October 2011 for Microsoft Windows,PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game received critical acclaim from most game reviewers. It is the first game in the series that does not support versions of Windows prior to Windows Vista as the game only supports DirectX 10 and 11. The PC version is exclusive to EA’s Origin platform,through which PC users also authenticate when connecting to the game. In terms of visuals the game looks fantastic,the game is based of Frostbie 2 engine.”
Since the game doesn’t come with any in game benchmark or benchmark tool I had to play the game to take the performance figures. I have used the Operation Swordbreaker level for testing. The anti aliasing setting was turned off because at times I was experiencing huge frame drops however with anti-aliasing turned off the game runs very smooth even in 1920×1080. At 1920×1080 there is a nice performance increase when the card is overclocked.
Bioshock Infinite:
“BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter video game and the third installment in the BioShock series. Previously known as “Project Icarus”,it has been developed by Irrational Games and was released worldwide on Microsoft Windows,PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms on March 26,2013. BioShock Infinite is not part of the storyline of previous BioShock games but definitely features similar gameplay concepts and themes. The retail Windows version accommodates higher-resolution textures beyond the console versions and will support video cards capable of running DirectX 11 in addition to DirectX 10,allowing for further graphical improvements to the game.”
When DDOF is turned on in this game it gets a huge performance hit in 1920×1080 with minimum FPS being as low as 11.1 under stock settings. My advice is to turn off DDOF if you are having a 1080p monitor and a entry level mainstream gaming card.
Crysis 3:
“Crysis 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by the German Crytek Studios. It is running on the Cryengine game engine and is published by Electronic Arts for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and released in North America on February 19,2013. Officially announced April 14,2012,it is the third main installment of the Crysis series,a sequel to the 2011 video game Crysis 2 and runs on the CryEngine 3 game engine and its a DX11 title. It was one of the most anticipated upcoming games of 2013. Crysis 3 has won PC Gamer Most Valuable Game, Game Informer Best of Show and Electric Playground Best of E3 awards.”
The game is so demanding in terms of hardware that it was absolutely unplayable at very high settings so I had to turn down the settings to high and had to turn off anti alising to achieve decent frame rates. One more thing which I would like to inform is the game was getting bit hit in performance when anti aliasing was turned on even at lowest setting eg. SMAA 1x,we can blame the 128bit bus for this performance drop. I have tested the game with latest 1.3 patch which shows some nice performance increase and the game gives boost in performance when the card is overclocked. Visually the game looks absolutely stunning and is considered the best looking game ever made till date. With settings turned down to high along with anti alising off the game is playable in 1920×1080.
Dirt Showdown:
“Dirt: Showdown (stylised as DiRT: Showdown) is a video game published and developed by Codemasters for Microsoft Windows,Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It was released on May 25,2012 in Europe and on 12 June in North America. It is part of the Colin McRae Rally game series. The game is based on EGO 2.0 Engine and its a DX11 title.”
The card didn’t face any sort of problem handling this game even at highest setting. The card gives almost 10 fps boost when overclocked.
Hitman Absolution:
“Hitman: Absolution is an action-adventure stealth video game developed by IO Interactive and published by Square Enix. It is the fifth entry in the Hitman game series and runs on IO Interactive’s proprietary Glacier 2 game engine. Before release,the developers stated that Absolution would be easier to play and more accessible,while still retaining hardcore aspects of the franchise. The game was released on 20 November 2012,which is in the 47th week of the year (in reference to the protagonist,Agent 47). It received generally positive reviews upon release,with the general consensus being that while the game remains faithful to the stealth genre,the gameplay deviates too much from the previous installments.”
Turning on MSAA gave huge performance drops so I’ve turned them off for smoother gameplay. This particular game didn’t benefit from overclocking.
Mafia II:
“Mafia II is a third-person action-adventure video game,the sequel to Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. It is developed by 2K Czech,previously known as Illusion Softworks and is published by 2K Games. Originally announced in August 2007 at the Leipzig Games Convention,it was released on Microsoft Windows,PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in August 2010. The game is based on Illusion Engine with Physx.”
The card handled the game decently even with anti aliasing turned on.
Metro 2033:
“Metro 2033 is a first-person shooter video game,based on the novel Metro 2033 by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky. It was developed by 4A Games in Ukraine and released in March 2010 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360. A PlayStation 3 version was planned but ultimately cancelled. In March 2006,4A Games announced a partnership with Glukhovsky to collaborate on the game. The game was announced at the 2009 Games Convention in Leipzig;along with an official trailer. The game is based on 4A Engine.”
I have used the in game benchmark to measure performance,the game looks stunning. The game is so demanding in terms of hardware that I had to turn down the settings to high. I have turned on advanced physx which is a nvidia exclusive feature. The game is extremely taxing on the gpu part and at times the minimum fps drops to as low as 3fps. The game is almost unplayable at 1920×1080 even with high settings so I would recommend to turn down the setting to medium for this particular resolution.
Sniper Elite V2:
“Sniper Elite V2 is a 2012 tactical shooter video game developed by Rebellion Developments for Microsoft Windows,PlayStation 3,Wii U and Xbox 360. It is a remake of Rebellion’s 2005 game Sniper Elite. The game takes place in the same time frame and location—the Battle of Berlin in April–May 1945—but now the main character,an American Office of Strategic Services officer,must capture or eliminate the scientists involved in the German V-2 rocket program. The game is based on Asura Engine.”
The game produced extremely low fps with super sampling turned on. So I have decided to turn them off.
Tomb Raider:
“Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game. Published by Square Enix,Tomb Raider is the fifth title developed by Crystal Dynamics in the Tomb Raider franchise. As the first entry in a new Tomb Raider continuity,the game is a reboot that emphasises the reconstructed origins of the culturally influential lead character Lara Croft. Tomb Raider was released on 5 March 2013 for PlayStation 3,Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. The game is based on Modified Crystal Engine.”
Conclusion
Asus has done a great job with this card,they have used top quality components,the card is priced at 10300 INR. The performance this card card offers at this price range is very good in my opinion. After having a thorough look at the performance figures we can conclude that this card can deliver good performance upto 1680×1050,the card can also run games in 1920×1080 but you won’t get the smoothness in gameplay with high or ultra settings,you will often have to turn down settings to medium to achieve smooth fps. However if anyone is planning to get a new graphics card and have a 10k budget this is the card he should look for as it offers a great price performance ratio.
Pros:
. Great build quality
. Excellent overclocking potential
. Nice factory OC
. Quiet
. Low temperatures
. Low power consumption
Cons:
. Lack of SLI support
. Lack of Nvidia Boost
. Beyond 60% fan is a bit noisy
. 1GB Vram struggles a bit at times
. 128bit bus takes big hit in performance when SSAA/MSAA is turned on
Its time to wrap up things see you all next time.