MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti review - Final words and conclusion

Final words and conclusion

And there you have it, a full review on the MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti, the Power Edition.

With the release of the GeForce GTX 650 Ti NVIDIA now has closed it's desktop line of series 600 products, with the GeForce GTX 650 Ti being the affordable 150 EUR entry-level to mainstream gaming card.

Being based upon Kepler architecture you'll receive all the benefits and features this architecture has to offer. Even getting 3 or 4 monitors connected is an option (albeit most 660 Ti cards will have three display outputs).

The card is pretty okay for regular and casual gaming, but it isn't stellar though. The product is at a performance level we have seen for years now, in retrospect the GeForce GTX 650 Ti is close to the GeForce GTX 560 which was close to the GeForce GTX 470.

It's good to see the performance vs price bracket shift though, at 150 EUR/USD you do get more perf for your dough and that means more value. However, we've seen this segment of products at this performance range for a a good while now yet feel there is very little progression. Realistically the GeForce GTX 650 Ti is inbetween the Radeon HD 7770 and Radeon HD 7850. So yeah, game performance wise, we had hoped to see a little more performance.

That doesn't mean the card doesn't offer value though. Contrary if you play your games up-to a monitor resolution of say 1600x1200 then the GeForce GTX 650 Ti is going to work out really well for you. Bringing Kepler towards 28nm has many advantages. NVIDIA can do more with less transistors and thus has a cheap to produce silicon at hand. This product shows that really well, with a reference clock hovering just under 1 GHz NVIDIA can achieve more performance with less silicon.

Typical these high clock frequencies have an adverse effect on your power consumption, but at 28nm, you don't need much voltage. So the product when it's stressed only consumes give or take 75 Watts. In idle mode (desktop) that number is as low as 5 to 10 Watt. That's really impressive.

For the MSI GeForce GTX 650 Ti the Power Edition you do not have to worry about cooling and noise, the product is virtually silent even under hefty game stress. While it is stressed it will keep that GPU under 50 Degrees C as well. This is actually VERY interesting for a powerful HTPC. 

Anyway, we stated this in the reference review already, you as an consumer immediately will have to forfeit on image quality settings to make the modern games perform well enough at a monitor resolution of 1920x1080. The card will run with good image quality settings up-to 1600x1200, after that resolution you'll quickly find yourself making compromises on image quality in order to gain in rendering performance.

If you take the product out of the gaming bracket, then it's all extremely positive as honestly it is a versatile and progressive card when it comes to features and options. That  cooler absolutely works well, the product is silent, remains at low temperatures and just looks cool really.

For a limited time only, gamers who purchase select GeForce GTX 650 Ti graphics cards will receive a free copy of Assassin’s Creed 3 which represents a $60 value. The PC version of the game will feature enhanced DX11 graphics when it ships on November 23rd.

The MSI Power Edition design is interesting, all variables are right and well it is an okay looking card. Interesting is the Cyclone II cooler that performs extremely well with this card. It's downright silent and will keep the temperature under 50 Degrees C at full load. Additional features wise you'll love the overall build quality and stuff like the anti dust technology. MSI simply makes sound cards, period. Tweaking wise the product didn't disappoint either, 1100~1200 MHz should not be an issue even with 6 Gbps on the memory, and that will drive performance upwards alright. We have not received final pricing on this card just yet, but definitely recommended is this is what your budget allows you to purchase.

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