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While it's hard to ignore the big splash made by Nvidia's galumphing GeForce Titan, sales for such a high-spec card are inevitably made from only a fraction of the market. It makes for a spectacular showcase, but in reality the big money for these tech giants is elsewhere - specifically in nailing the absolute best performance-per-pound in popular games where an ideal price-tag for most GPU buyers remains within the £100-200 range. AMD thrives on its strong-hold over this bracket in particular, where the well-received HD 7850 currently retails for just £125, with the just-released 7790 model primed to strengthen this position in this sector at an even lower cost.The issue for Nvidia is the massive gap this leaves in its Kepler range, with the GTX 650 Ti and the 660 holding ground at £100 and £155 respectively. As a swift rebuttal, the GTX 650 Ti Boost sets out to fill that gap with a launch price of just under £145. However, considering this is hardly a direct price-match for AMD's output, and given that it's only a tenner less than the company's own GTX 660, does this actually represent good value for money right now?
Before we start, we must address the meaning of the "Boost" suffix. As a release it's an anomaly in the Kepler range, which over the last year eroded away the specs and features from the initial GTX 680 standard to suit lower and lower prices. Simply put, the GTX 650 Ti Boost reverts some of the cut-backs made for last year's 650 Ti. It brings back a fully-fledged GPU Boost mode, allowing the card's core clock to dynamically shift according to graphical demands of each application. The feature improves the performance of the card where there's an overhead in its maximum thermal design power (TDP), while also saving on power draw during idle states.
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