Official "System Builders" Thread

[Dark Prince]

How does the 650ti fair for gaming? Does anyone know a far better card?

[Apelgrandure]

When it comes to graphics cards, you kinda pay for what you get, you are not going to get better for lower cost. That being said I do believe in South Africa Radeon cards are cheaper, so the likelihood is your going to get much better bang for your buck with a AMD Radeon card. The 650ti will probably be a decent card, it is however a budget card so you have to remember its not going to blow your mind. Your not gonna run games like Metro Last Light on very high or perhaps not even on high (most games are not as intensive as Metro and it all depends on what you will be playing). Its quite a bit slower than a 560ti but quite a bit faster than a 550ti. Id rather try find a second hand 570GTX or 560ti as it will definitely be better performance wise and will be the same or similar cost as a new 650ti. I saw on the Junkmail website a 570GTX going for R2000, which is a rather good price considering the seller said he hardly used the card. Depending on your PSU you could then overclock the 570GTX or 560ti and get quite a considerable increase in performance comparative to a 650ti.

Thats just my 2c though :)

[Toxxyc]

^ This. If you don't specifically want PhysX, there's no real use for Nvidia on a tight budget. Radeon gives better value for money.

[Wesley]

How does the 650ti fair for gaming? Does anyone know a far better card?

The GTX650 Ti is pretty good and its generally about 20-25% faster than the Radeon HD7770. It'll run most games at 1080p with high settings at a reasonable frame rate, although some, like Crysis 3, may require some further setting drops to make it playable.

Right now the Radeon HD7790 is on par with the 650 Ti's performance and can match, most times beat a HD7850 when its overclocked. It comes with a neat games bundle, though, so its a much better value play than the 650 Ti.

Above that, I'd recommend either the HD7850 or the GTX650 Ti Boost. Both are evenly matched and deliver some great performance. The Boost misses, Nvidia's games bundle, so if you were looking at getting Bioshock Infinite and To9mb Raider anyway the Radeon's the better deal.

[Dark Prince]

Thanks man, I managed to find a 650ti Boost for a reasonable price. Thanks for all the input!