MSI GTX650Ti Boost Twin Frozr OC GPU Review

AMD recently released their HD7790 to target the budget gaming audience and today we take a look at a modified version of the new Nvidia GTX650 Ti Boost from MSI. This particular card is supplied in an over clocked state and ships with a heavily modified dual fan cooler to enhance performance and reduce temperatures. We test today against a variety of cards from AMD and Nvidia partners. Nvidia launched their GTX 650Ti back in October last year, to challenge AMD in the budget sector. The GTX 650Ti delivered solid performance which outclassed AMD's HD7770. AMD's HD7790 launch was generally positive, however we feel it was marred by pricing concerns - right now you can buy a HD7850 for the same price. The GTX650Ti Boost incorporates a 192 bit wide GDDR5 memory interface compared to the standard GTX650 Ti's narrower 128 bit. The MSI GTX650Ti Boost Twin Frozr OC we are looking at today features 2GB of GDDR5 memory and is priced around the £150 inc VAT mark, although many Boost Edition cards will be available at a later date with 1GB, driving down prices to the consumer. The MSI GTX650Ti Boost Twin Frozr OC ships in a lovely looking black and red box with some details listed on the front. Inside the box is a video converter cable and a power adapter cable with software disc and quick user guide. We recommend you get the latest drivers from the Nvidia website. The MSI GTX650Ti Boost Twin Frozr OC is an attractive looking card built on a black PCB. The cooler is metal, finished in silver and black and based around 2 large fans. The card demands power from a single 6 pin PCI connector. The GTX650Ti Boost is SLI capable in a 2 way configuration. There are two DVI connectors on the back I/O plate, along with a full sized HDMI and DisplayPort connector. The cooler is based around three thick heat pipes running into two separate racks of aluminum fins. The base is nickel plated. MSI are using high grade Hynix memory chips for this card. An overview of the MSI GTX650Ti Boost Twin Frozr OC. The core clock is enhanced to 1033mhz - 1098mhz boost, and the memory runs at 1,500mhz (6Gbps effective). There are 24 ROPS and 64 TMU's onboard and the 2GB of GDDR5 memory is connected via a 192 bit memory interface. On this page we present some super high resolution images of the product taken with the 24.5MP Nikon D3X camera and 24-70mm ED lens. These will take much longer to open due to the dimensions, especially on slower connections. If you use these pictures on another site or publication, please credit Kitguru.net as the owner/source. You can right click and ‘save as’ to your computer to view later. Today we are going to find out how the MSI GTX650Ti Boost slots into the budget sector by comparing against a variety of other cards priced between £80 and £350. Test System Processor: Core i7 3960 X Extreme Edition @ 4.4ghz Graphics Card: MSI GTX650Ti Boost Twin Frozr OC GPU (Forceware 314.22) Cooler: Antec 920 H20 Memory: 16GB G.Skill 2,400mhz @ 10-11-10-30 Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Extreme Power Supply: Enermax Platimax 1200W Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive Chassis: Lian Li PC-A77FR Aluminium Red Full Tower Case Boot Drive: Patriot WildFire 120GB Secondary Drive: 1TB Samsung Monitors: Dell U3011 and Dell U2410 x 3. Comparison cards: XFX HD7770 Core (Catalyst 13.3 beta) Sapphire HD7790 OC (Catalyst 13.3 beta) Asus HD7790 OC (Catalyst 13.3 beta) XFX HD7850 Core (Catalyst 13.3 beta) XFX HD7870 Core (Catalyst 13.3 beta) Sapphire HD7950 Vapor X (Catalyst 13.3 beta) Zotac GTX650 (Forceware 314.21) Sparkle GTX 650 Ti Dragon Series (Forceware 314.21) Gainward GTX660 (Forceware 314.21) Gainward GTX660 Ti (Forceware 314.21) Zotac GTX670 (Forceware 314.21) Software: Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit Unigine Heaven Benchmark Unigine Valley Benchmark 3DMark Vantage 3DMark 11 3DMark Fraps Professional Steam Client FurMarkGames: Alien V Predator Sleeping Dogs Total War: Shogun 2 Dirt Showdown Max Payne 3 All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform generally under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests games across five closely matched runs and then average out the results to get an accurate median figure. If we use scripted benchmarks, they are mentioned on the relevant page. Unigine provides an interesting way to test hardware. It can be easily adapted to various projects due to its elaborated software design and flexible toolset. A lot of their customers claim that they have never seen such extremely-effective code, which is so easy to understand. Heaven Benchmark is a DirectX 11 GPU benchmark based on advanced Unigine engine from Unigine Corp. It reveals the enchanting magic of floating islands with a tiny village hidden in the cloudy skies. Interactive mode provides emerging experience of exploring the intricate world of steampunk. Efficient and well-architected framework makes Unigine highly scalable: Multiple API (DirectX 9 / DirectX 10 / DirectX 11 / OpenGL) render Cross-platform: MS Windows (XP, Vista, Windows 7) / Linux Full support of 32bit and 64bit systems Multicore CPU support Little / big endian support (ready for game consoles) Powerful C++ API Comprehensive performance profiling system Flexible XML-based data structures We use the following settings: 1920×1080 resolution. Anti Aliasing off. Anisotrophy 4, Tessellation normal. Shaders High. Stereo 3D disabled. API: Direct X 11. The MSI GTX650Ti Boost OC is very closely matched against the XFX HD7870 Core, averaging the same frames per second. The minimum rate is lower however. Overall, these are very impressive results. Valley Benchmark is a new GPU stress-testing tool from the developers of the very popular and highly acclaimed Heaven Benchmark. The forest-covered valley surrounded by vast mountains amazes with its scale from a bird’s-eye view and is extremely detailed down to every leaf and flower petal. This non-synthetic benchmark powered by the state-of-the art UNIGINE Engine showcases a comprehensive set of cutting-edge graphics technologies with a dynamic environment and fully interactive modes available to the end user. Again, these results are very good and only around 2.5 frames per second slower than the GTX660. Futuremark released 3DMark Vantage, on April 28, 2008. It is a benchmark based upon DirectX 10, and therefore will only run under Windows Vista (Service Pack 1 is stated as a requirement) and Windows 7. This is the first edition where the feature-restricted, free of charge version could not be used any number of times. 1280×1024 resolution was used with performance settings. The MSI GTX650Ti Boost OC scores well, around 1,000 behind the Gainward GTX660 and around 1,200 points ahead of the XFX HD7850 Core Edition. 3DMark 11 is designed for testing DirectX 11 hardware running on Windows 7 and Windows Vista the benchmark includes six all new benchmark tests that make extensive use of all the new features in DirectX 11 including tessellation, compute shaders and multi-threading. After running the tests 3DMark gives your system a score with larger numbers indicating better performance. Trusted by gamers worldwide to give accurate and unbiased results, 3DMark 11 is the best way to test DirectX 11 under game-like loads.If you want to learn more about this benchmark, or to buy it yourself, head over to this page. The MSI GTX650Ti Boost OC Edition scores 6,315 points which is very closely matched to the XFX HD7850 Core Edition, around 100 points more. There is no doubt so far that the GTX650Ti Boost OC Edition is faster than the HD7790 OC. 3DMark is an essential tool used by millions of gamers, hundreds of hardware review sites and many of the world’s leading manufacturers to measure PC gaming performance. Futuremark say “Use it to test your PC’s limits and measure the impact of overclocking and tweaking your system. Search our massive results database and see how your PC compares or just admire the graphics and wonder why all PC games don’t look this good. To get more out of your PC, put 3DMark in your PC.” The 3DMark scores are healthy, with the MSI GTX650Ti Boost OC scoring almost as much as the XFX HD7850 Core. Aliens V Predator has proved to be a big seller since the release and Sega have taken the franchise into new territory after taking it from Sierra. AVP is a Direct X 11 supported title and delivers not only advanced shadow rendering but high quality tessellation for the cards on test today. To test the cards we used a 1920×1080 resolution with DX11, Texture Quality Very High, MSAA Samples 1, 16 af, ambient occulsion on, shadow complexity high, motion blur on. We use this with most of our graphics card testing so cards are comparable throughout reviews. The MSI GTX650Ti Boost OC Edition scores very well, only a couple of frames behind the Gainward GTX660. Shogun 2 is set in 16th-century feudal Japan, in the aftermath of the Ōnin War. The country is fractured into rival clans led by local warlords, each fighting for control. The player takes on the role of one of these warlords, with the goal of dominating other factions and claiming his rule over Japan. The standard edition of the game will feature a total of eight factions (plus a ninth faction for the tutorial), each with a unique starting position and different political and military strengths. We run the DX11 Graphics High 1080p benchmark, available for this game in STEAM. You can therefore directly compare against your own system. Frame rates are rounded up or down to the nearest digit. Real in game performance varies substantially across the environments and levels, but we include these results so you can compare directly with your own system. If the game delivers good frame rates with the 1080p benchmark, you can sure it will run well with high image quality settings in game too. This demanding Direct X 11 engine runs well on the MSI GTX650Ti Boost OC Edition, matching performance from the XFX HD7850 Core at 47 frames per second. The Gainward GTX660 averages 50 frames per second. Dirt Showdown is the latest title in the franchise from Codemasters, based around the famous Colin McRae racing game series, although it no longer uses his name, since he passed away in 2007. We configured the game at the ULTRA preset with a 1080p resolution and 8x MSAA. Dirt Showdown is an engine which favours AMD hardware, although the GTX650Ti Boost OC delivers perfectly smooth frame rates at these settings, not dropping below 30. Sleeping Dogs started development as an original title, but was announced in 2009 as True Crime: Hong Kong, the third installment and a reboot of the True Crime series. As a result of the game’s high development budget and delays, it was canceled by Activision Blizzard in 2011. Six months later, it was announced that Square Enix had picked up the publishing rights to the game, but the game was renamed Sleeping Dogs in 2012 since Square Enix did not purchase the True Crime name rights. We are using the highest possible image quality settings at 1080p, including the high resolution texture pack. Demanding settings for the best image quality possible. The GTX650ti Boost OC struggles to maintain perfectly smooth frame rates throughout the test, although there are huge improvements over the standard GTX650Ti. Max Payne 3 is a third-person shooter in which the player assumes the role of its titular character, Max Payne. Max Payne 3 features a similar over-the-shoulder camera as its predecessors, with the addition of a cover mechanic, while also retaining much of the same run-and-gun style of gameplay. Max Payne 3 also marks the return of bullet-time in action sequences, for which the franchise is notable.In bullet-time it is possible to see every bullet strike an enemy in detail.New to the series is a “Last Stand” mechanic, which gives the player a grace period after losing all health during which time the player may kill the enemy that wounded them in order to continue playing, however this mechanic is only usable if the player has one or more bottles of painkillers in their possession. These settings exceed the onboard memory of the 1GB cards, and the game engine highlights the problem in red at the bottom. The MSI GTX650Ti Boost runs this engine very well, averaging 41 frames per second and maintaining a >30 frame rate at all times. The tests were performed in a controlled air conditioned room with temperatures maintained at a constant 24c – a comfortable environment for the majority of people reading this.Idle temperatures were measured after sitting at the desktop for 30 minutes.Load measurements were acquired by playing Crysis Warhead for 30 minutes and measuring the peak temperature. We also have included Furmark results, recording maximum temperatures throughout a 30 minute stress test. All fan settings were left on automatic. The Twin Frozr cooler is fantastic, holding the same results as the lower specified Sparkle GTX650 Ti Dragon. We have built a system inside a Lian Li chassis with no case fans and have used a fanless cooler on our CPU. The motherboard is also passively cooled. This gives us a build with almost completely passive cooling and it means we can measure noise of just the graphics card inside the system when we run looped 3dMark tests.Ambient noise in the room is around 20-25dBa.We measure from a distance of around 1 meter from the closed chassis and 4 foot from the ground to mirror a real world situation.Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on only the video card. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.KitGuru noise guide 10dBA - Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves 20-25dBA – Whisper 30dBA - High Quality Computer fan 40dBA - A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator 50dBA - Normal Conversation 60dBA - Laughter 70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer 80dBA - City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal 90dBA - Motorcycle or Lawnmower 100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output 110dBA - Orchestra 120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine 130dBA – Threshold of Pain 140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range) 160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum The MSI GTX650Ti Boost OC Edition is a quiet card, barely audible, even at close distance. The hefty cooler ensures that both fans never have to spin too high.Even under synthetic Furmark load they only spin at 1,400 rpm, and this drops to around 1,200 rpm when playing games. Today, to overclock we are using the latest version of MSI Afterburner. Not a huge amount of headroom on the core, peaking at 1,100mhz - this translates to a 6.5% increase. The GDDR5 memory had a lot of overclocking potential, hitting 1,736mhz before artifacting would occur. The overclock translates into a 300 point increase in the latest version of 3DMark. This pushes the MSI GTX650Ti Boost OC past the Gainward GTX660. A very impressive result. The MSI GTX650Ti Boost OC is certainly an impressive graphics card which is almost able to keep up with the higher cost Gainward GTX660 in today's testing. When manually overclocked to the limits, the GTX650Ti Boost OC surpassed the GTX660 in the latest 3DMark test.There is no doubt that the 192 bit memory interface helps improve performance over the standard GTX650Ti, often pushing frame rates from unplayable into perfectlysmooth at 1080p. The MSI GTX650Ti Boost OC is slightly faster than the XFX HD7850 Core Edition and around 20 percent faster than AMD's recently released HD7790.We haven't analysed Nvidia's reference cooler, however the MSI Twin Frozr is one of the best in its class. The substantial heatsink design with three thick heatpipes and nickel plated base ensure that the fans don't have to spin that fast. In fact they only spin around 1,100rpm when under gaming load. This subsequently reduces noise emissions. While it will vary from card to card, we found there was some clock headroom and our maximum overclock of 1,100mhz core and 1,736mhz memory ensured the GTX650Ti Boost OC was able to outperform the Gainward GTX660.Pricing of the GTX650Ti Boost OC is quite competitive, it is priced at £149.58 inc vat from SCAN. Cheaper models are available for around £10 less. While it is slightly faster than AMD's HD7850, cut throat pricing means you can pick up a HD7850 for less than £130 today. Pros: excellent performance. the Twin Frozr Cooler is class leading. runs cool quiet. when pushed to the limit it is faster than GTX660 Cons: HD7850 pricing is very competitive right now. Kitguru says: This is a fantastic, high value graphics card and one not to be overlooked.

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MSI GTX650Ti Boost Twin Frozr OC GPU Review

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