# NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost SLI



## W1zzard (Mar 29, 2013)

With GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost having just been released last week, at amazing pricing, we were curious to see how two of these cards in SLI handle our test suite of 17 games. Scaling worked very well and performance easily matched the GTX 680 and HD 7970 GHz Edition, with a much better price/performance ratio.

*Show full review*


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## Fluffmeister (Apr 3, 2013)

Very impressive, great bang for your buck right there.

The GTX 650 Ti Boost is proving to be a little gem of a card.


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## dj-electric (Apr 3, 2013)

500$ worth of performance for 340$. Simple


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## Ikaruga (Apr 3, 2013)

Wow, nice scaling at 1200p there. Another review well done by W1zzard, was a good read.


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## RCoon (Apr 3, 2013)

37.1fps on metro 2033. How cute xD


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## LAN_deRf_HA (Apr 3, 2013)

When I see this stuff I have to wonder is it really cheaper for nvidia to make two whole low end cards than it is to make one 680? If so that's a much more efficient way to get those performance numbers. Maybe they should be more liberal with dual gpu solutions. Throwing two of these already small, dense, and low power midrange parts on one PCB can't be that hard and I'd wager it could be cheaper for them to make, so why don't they?


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## W1zzard (Apr 3, 2013)

LAN_deRf_HA said:


> is it really cheaper for nvidia to make two whole low end cards than it is to make one 680?



it's not cheaper for them, you're just paying a price premium


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## Tonduluboy (Apr 3, 2013)

Well well well, now im thinking of buying this card for SLI, lucky i havent buy the GTX 670.
Unfortunately, nobody selling this card YET in my country, have to wait 1-2 months maybe.


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## Major_A (Apr 3, 2013)

SLI question here.  I seem to recall when nVidia brought back SLI you were only able to use the memory from 1 card.  Is this still the case?  I.E.  Does this setup only have 2GB available or the entire 4GB?


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## Ghost (Apr 3, 2013)

major_a said:


> sli question here.  I seem to recall when nvidia brought back sli you were only able to use the memory from 1 card.  Is this still the case?  I.e.  Does this setup only have 2gb available or the entire 4gb?



2GB.

stupid anticaps protection


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## W1zzard (Apr 3, 2013)

Major_A said:


> SLI question here.  I seem to recall when nVidia brought back SLI you were only able to use the memory from 1 card.  Is this still the case?  I.E.  Does this setup only have 2GB available or the entire 4GB?



that's correct. it has 2 GB available which seems enough even for 2560x1600 with 4xAA. Check the BF3 results


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## Dimi (Apr 3, 2013)

I am seriously impressed.


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## EarthDog (Apr 3, 2013)

W1zzard said:


> that's correct. it has 2 GB available which seems enough even for 2560x1600 with 4xAA. Check the BF3 results


BF3 appears to scale with the amount of vram you have available though. About the only time I have seen it choke at 1080p is with 1GB cards. Even then it seems its more of a frame time thing than FPS thing.

Are you jumping on the (expensive) bandwagon and doing frame time testing now? Its all the new rage, LOL!


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## Ikaruga (Apr 3, 2013)

Major_A said:


> SLI question here.  I seem to recall when nVidia brought back SLI you were only able to use the memory from 1 card.  Is this still the case?  I.E.  Does this setup only have 2GB available or the entire 4GB?



The memory of the two cards can't be shared because the sharing would need to happen using the "slow" PCI-E bus in that case, which would only make things worse.


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## vega22 (Apr 3, 2013)

what about micro stutter and frame latency issues?


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## wingzero (Apr 3, 2013)

the result is not clear.. the SLi 650Ti boost uses 314.21 driver and it has performance boost compare to the outdated driver 310.70 which was use by the 680 and 690 in the test. 314.07 and 314.22 is already release ..


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## EarthDog (Apr 3, 2013)

wingzero said:


> the result is not clear.. the SLi 650Ti boost uses 314.21 driver and it has performance boost compare to the outdated driver 310.70 which was use by the 680 and 690 in the test. 314.07 and 314.22 is already release ..


Were there any performance increases from the 310.70 to 314.22 listed in the release notes? I recall nvidia also launching a 'performance' driver too, but not sure where it was.


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## wingzero (Apr 3, 2013)

EarthDog said:


> Were there any performance increases from the 310.70 to 314.22 listed in the release notes? I recall nvidia also launching a 'performance' driver too, but not sure where it was.



I think there is  http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/articles/nvidia-geforce-314-22-whql-drivers-released


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## badtaylorx (Apr 3, 2013)

ok Wizz...

2nd time in a month ive seen you do this.....or was it dave???


how does $10 make the difference between more expensive and "MUCH" more expensive???


really good findings tho....makes the titan look stupid


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## OneCool (Apr 3, 2013)

Wish I could see the HD7850 in crossfire beside it.


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## anoobarak (Apr 3, 2013)

Upon reading the single card performance review for the GTX 650Ti Boost, I couldn't help but wonder how would two of these stack up. Turns our they're pretty great! Really impressed. Kind of wished I hadn't bought the 660ti when it came out..


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## EarthDog (Apr 3, 2013)

OneCool said:


> Wish I could see the HD7850 in crossfire beside it.


I'll have that information in a couple of weeks when my review is done/published. 

I have to imagine though, it will lose out... by how much though is the question.


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## jihadjoe (Apr 3, 2013)

W1zzard said:


> that's correct. it has 2 GB available which seems enough even for 2560x1600 with 4xAA. Check the BF3 results



Fondly remembers the Voodoo2 days, when SLI meant each card rendered half the screen -- thus allowing the SLI setup to render at a higher resolution than would have been possible using only individual cards.


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## EarthDog (Apr 3, 2013)

jihadjoe said:


> Fondly remembers the Voodoo2 days, when SLI meant each card rendered half the screen -- thus allowing the SLI setup to render at a higher resolution than would have been possible using only individual cards.


Or force SFR mode. BUt there are some drawbacks to that method compared to AFR as well. Id take a read somewhere and see why most methods are AFR (HINT: POOR SCALING!).


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## Ikaruga (Apr 3, 2013)

EarthDog said:


> Id take a read somewhere and see why most methods are AFR (HINT: POOR SCALING!).



I think it's more about prediction which can turn out to be inaccurate. With SFR, the driver has to "guess" how to divide the load between the two GPUs to make them finish the job at the same time or as close as possible. IIrc Nvidia does this with a buffer where they store statistics from previous frames, and predict the load distribution based on that data. 
AFR is much "safer" to use in that regard, but some rendering method is not possible with AFR (some post process technique for example which doesn't clear the framebuffer between frames, etc), and Nvidia sets SFR in the SLI-profile of those games.


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## EarthDog (Apr 3, 2013)

No clue.. that sounds like it can be a source of the poor scaling though.


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## 0x4452 (Apr 3, 2013)

Great FPS scaling indeed. Could you add a section in your reviews about latency & stutter though?

At best, there should be no stutter and latency should stay the same as the single GPU.

PS First time poster here - thanks for the great reviews and please keep taking pictures of the PCBs - my favorite part of the reviews


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## Ikaruga (Apr 4, 2013)

0x4452 said:


> PS First time poster here



Welcome to TPU


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## Nortrop (Apr 4, 2013)

Looks impressive. Here where I live the projected price for two of these is actually way less than that of a mid range 670. On the other hand though the 7850s are quite impressive and boast ridiculous OC potential...

But, what about temperatures and noise? Current gen cards are very power efficient and cool, but those two things are still keeping me at bay ever since I parted ways with my first and only SLI setup (GTX 460s).


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## Melvis (Apr 4, 2013)

This card is very very good, and i find it a strange and odd move by Nvidia as it made the rest of there range (GTX660 and above) pointless for the price/performance. I can get GTX 680 performance for $150 LESS then a GTX680, crazy!


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## kroks (Apr 4, 2013)

sli vs single card.. show us crossfire hd7870/hd7850


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## Sasqui (Apr 4, 2013)

kroks said:


> sli vs single card.. show us crossfire hd7870/hd7850



I thought there were 7870 and 7850 CF reviews, but can't find...

7950 CF review:  http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7950_CrossFire/


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## EarthDog (Apr 4, 2013)

I will have that direct comparison up in a couple weeks.


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## Fluffmeister (Apr 4, 2013)

EarthDog said:


> I will have that direct comparison up in a couple weeks.



The important bit will be the frame rate latencies.


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## EarthDog (Apr 4, 2013)

Which we do not test for... FRAPS is borderline useless for that testing according to some articles and our site doesnt have the money to buy the proper equipment to test with either. Perhaps another site then... sorry.


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## Fluffmeister (Apr 4, 2013)

Yeah that's fair enough, it's just that comparing FPS alone doesn't tell the whole story either.

Although it's commendable what you are doing.


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## EarthDog (Apr 4, 2013)

Guru3D actually went and bought the equipment and didnt have much good to say...

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/fcat_benchmarking_review,1.html

Basically at the end he says 'we are doing it, cant see it anyways in most cases, so its more or less pointless'


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## Fluffmeister (Apr 4, 2013)

It's hardly pointless when AMD have confirmed things aren't as they should be, and as such are working on a fix.

It benefits the users at the end of the day, although I appreciate a lot of people would rather stick their head in the sand.


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## EarthDog (Apr 4, 2013)

No.. the FRAPS testing is kind of pointless... If we could afford it, we would do it. However we agree with guru3d's assessment of the testing as well.


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## Ikaruga (Apr 4, 2013)

EarthDog said:


> Guru3D actually went ....



Btw, Guru3D's EVGA GTX650ti boost SC review has an interesting point about the OC. They actually found that the Power Target is most efficient at 105% (with that particular sample ofc). 
http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/evga_geforce_gtx_650_ti_boost_sc_review,22.html

I still wonder is this whole boost thing is there to limit the OC capabilities of the cards, so that a 650 user would not go much above 660s, and they would need to buy a better card if they want to?


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## EarthDog (Apr 4, 2013)

That doesnt make sense to me.... I will have to read that article.

EDIT: I dont think it means what you took from it? That is one heck of a core clock though. I have 3 650ti Boosts and they all, no matter what power limit top out at 1202 or 1209 (or w/e the next jump up is). They are calling it a 'tweak' for some odd reason when its just a setting.


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## Fluffmeister (Apr 4, 2013)

EarthDog said:


> No.. the FRAPS testing is kind of pointless... If we could afford it, we would do it. However we agree with guru3d's assessment of the testing as well.



Agreed, FCAT moves things forward and has given benchmarking a much needed kick in the rump.


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## Ikaruga (Apr 4, 2013)

EarthDog said:


> That doesnt make sense to me.... I will have to read that article.
> 
> EDIT: I dont think it means what you took from it? That is one heck of a core clock though. I have 3 650ti Boosts and they all, no matter what power limit top out at 1202 or 1209 (or w/e the next jump up is). They are calling it a 'tweak' for some odd reason when its just a setting.



No, you misunderstood me.  The interesting part for me in the story is that they still get around 10% gains like in all the other 650ti reviews everywhere else, regardless of the OC amount or the brand/sample (and the OC they got there is quite nice indeed). I wonder, is it possible that Nvidia just forcing a "maximum possible performance gain" on the users with the introduction of this new boost scheme?


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## EarthDog (Apr 4, 2013)

Not sure... I doubt it though? Its tough to compare gains across different sites due to different settings used for the games. For example, if one site tests at 1080p Ultra while another does High the scaling from overclocking will be different.


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## Ikaruga (Apr 4, 2013)

EarthDog said:


> Not sure... I doubt it though? Its tough to compare gains across different sites due to different settings used for the games. For example, if one site tests at 1080p Ultra while another does High the scaling from overclocking will be different.



I'm usually also against conspiracy theories, but the plot thickens for me a bit here tbh:



W1zzard said:


> Other GTX 650 Ti Boost cards that we tested before delivered much higher frequencies. What I find interesting though is that all three cards top out at the same maximum real-life performance levels—looks like each card uses a different boost configuration.


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## EarthDog (Apr 4, 2013)

Remember though, boost depends on a couple of factors, power used and heat. So long as you are under 70C and under the power limit you should get the full boost bins (7?). I'm not sure how the power consumption is measured but what if its a leaky chip that uses more power so it will hit the limit earlier? Or the inverse, what if its not a leaky chip and you have more headroom?

I dont know.. just guessing a bit.


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## Ikaruga (Apr 4, 2013)

EarthDog said:


> Remember though, boost depends on a couple of factors, power used and heat. So long as you are under 70C and under the power limit you should get the full boost bins (7?). I'm not sure how the power consumption is measured but what if its a leaky chip that uses more power so it will hit the limit earlier? Or the inverse, what if its not a leaky chip and you have more headroom?
> 
> I dont know.. just guessing a bit.



You are right but everybody everywhere is getting the same gains regardless of the OC, like it's a hard wired limit that you can gain X percent with this card and no more whatever you do. You have to admit this is not the usual stuff. We use to have different performances with different samples and OC figures, yet - with this card - , 100Mhz difference gives you nothing, and I find that interesting and also a little frightening tbh


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## Ders33 (Apr 5, 2013)

*Excellent*

If you compare gtx 650ti sli and titan, sli combination is gangbang for the buck )  and performance is very close to titan and cost waay more less than overpriced titan so considering to this test i should say that gtx 660 sli performs like titan and again with sli you get high performance like you get with 1000$ dollar titan


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## Ikaruga (Apr 5, 2013)

Ders33 said:


> If you compare gtx 650ti sli and titan, sli combination is gangbang for the buck )  and performance is very close to titan and cost waay more less than overpriced titan so considering to this test i should say that gtx 660 sli performs like titan and again with sli you get high performance like you get with 1000$ dollar titan



Comparing the awesome 650TIB's SLI performance with the Titan's is good, but comparing the price is not imo. 
Titan is for wealthy enthusiasts, who doesn't need to worry about money. If you take the cost out of the evaluation, you can see that it's really something special. It's a single GPU, so its power will show in every little good game and application and not just in the "mainstream" titles. I recently had the opportunity to spend some time with that beast and I fell in love in seconds.


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## Dave65 (Apr 9, 2013)

Good review..
Wish there would have been a comparison to 660s in SLI..
I got 2 of them and am quite impressed.


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## anubis44 (Apr 22, 2013)

EarthDog said:


> I'll have that information in a couple of weeks when my review is done/published.
> 
> I have to imagine though, it will lose out... by how much though is the question.



Just be sure to slide that 'High Performance GPU clock settings' slider all the way to the right for the 7850s. If you don't clock them (without any voltage adjustment) right in the AMD driver to 1050MHz, it'll be a really huge shame, since every 7850 owner knows (and I had two myself) that every 7850 will do at least 1050MHz using just the AMD catalyst driver.

Thanks for the work and write-up, W1zzard.


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## anubis44 (Apr 22, 2013)

Sasqui said:


> I thought there were 7870 and 7850 CF reviews, but can't find...
> 
> 7950 CF review:  http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_7950_CrossFire/



And the problem with that 7950 crossfire review is that AMD's drivers are so very, very much better and faster now than the initial drivers were when the test was conducted. I'd say the results from that review are now utterly useless for anyone looking to compare cards today.


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## scotty99 (May 4, 2013)

Hey guys, first time poster here but long time reader of TPU reviews.

So here is my situation, i mostly play WoW and you are one of the only sites that still produce WoW gpu reviews. I was wondering a couple things, how exactly do you measure the FPS in wow (flightpaths like tomshardware?) and on blizzards website it says the game does not support SLI but i clearly see very good scaling in your review here.

I am in the need of an upgrade for wow, here is my current system:

2500k
gtx 465 1gb
8gb 1600mhz memory

I get very odd choppyness with full ultra at 1080p in wow, and i am to believe this is due to my 1gb frame buffer (this is my theory, as it is the exact same kind of choppyness that i get when i do something stupid like open wow and swtor at the same time).

These 650ti boost are an amazing value honestly, i was wondering if they would run SLI on my current PSU (its an antec HCG 520w if the link doesent work, 40 amp 12v rail):
Antec High Current Gamer Series HCG-520 520W ATX12...


THere is currently an MSI twin frozr ti boost on sale at newegg for 165.00 with a 25.00 MIR making it a 140.00 dollar card, i may grab two of these. Any replies appreciated.


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