NVIDIA's new GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost adds a strong sub-$200 option to the company's lineup. Thanks to the added Boost clock algorithm and a beefed up 192-bit memory interface, we see massive performance gains compared to the GTX 650 Ti without Boost, and ZOTAC's GTX 650 Ti Boost adds a dual-fan cooler on top of that. GPU clock is up by 13 MHz—barely worth mentioning. Memory clock is unchanged. When averaging our performance results, we see a large 26% improvement over the original GTX 650 Ti, which definitely makes the difference between "slow" and very playable at 1080p. Compared to AMD's lineup, we see a performance that is 2% higher than the HD 7850 and 21% higher than the just-released HD 7790. What I find a bit surprising is that ZOTAC's card performs a little worse than the reference design despite having a 13 MHz overclock. The differences are barely measurable in individual tests, but we see around a 1% performance difference when averaged. It seems as though ZOTAC's card runs a slightly different boost clock configuration in the BIOS, and random variances between Kepler cards can also turn into performance differences.
Overclocking of our sample worked very well and reached the highest clock we've seen so far on a GTX 650 Ti Boost. However, actual real-life performance at highest stable clocks ends up to be the same between all three samples we got to date. It looks like NVIDIA's Boost algorithm equalizes things quite a bit. Nevertheless, overclocking provided an easy 10% performance boost, which makes the overclocked GTX 650 Ti Boost almost match GTX 660 performance.
ZOTAC's custom cooler is a nice improvement over NVIDIA's reference design cooler. It offers lower temperatures while being much quieter. Idle noise is pretty much perfect—the card should be inaudible in any system during desktop work. Gaming noise is much improved too, which should result in a really quiet gaming experience. Given load temperatures of 67°C, I think there is even more potential left to quieten the fan down a bit without compromising temperatures.
Power consumption is pretty much exactly where we expected it to be given the results we've seen from other GK104-based GeForce 600 cards. Last week, AMD showed significant improvements in the power-consumption department, but they also introduced a new GPU design.
Pricing of the GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost is fantastic. NVIDIA's recommended price for the 2 GB GTX 650 Ti Boost is only $169, which makes the card the most cost-effective solution on the market by a large margin. ZOTAC does not ask for a price premium for their card, which clearly makes ZOTAC's offering a better choice than the reference design. Looking at other options, the HD 7850 will set you back $180, and it is a bit slower. It does come with a Bioshock Infinite coupon, which could even things out if you are willing to invest some extra time into selling the coupon ($20).
It's now on AMD to retrofit its sub-$200 product stack. Want to game at 1080p with a sub-$200 card? Here's your choice.