GTX Palit 650: specifications, photos and reviews

Inexpensive solutions for resource-intensive dynamic toys in the domestic video card market in the price category up to 6000 rubles are easy to find. In the budget segment there is always a decent choice, however, as practice shows, the majority of buyers remain unhappy with their purchases, as the technical characteristics of graphics accelerators are not enough to run most gaming applications at medium and maximum settings.

In the focus of this article - the representative of the lower segment of the gaming class, the GTX Palit 650 video adapter. The characteristics, photos and reviews of the owners will allow the reader to learn more about the sufficiently productive product present in the storefronts.

Step into the story

The unattractive appearance of the video card, low cost and lack of advertising in the media made many buyers believe that the product is not worthy of their attention. But for more than a decade Palit Microsystems has been the leader in the production of graphics accelerators in the world market. While well-known brands such as Asus, Gigabyte or Zotac are striving to find a millionth user, a little-known company Palit sells its 10 millionth product without any celebration.

The explanation is quite simple - the Chinese manufacturer managed to unite several well-known brands in the walls of one enterprise: Palit, Gainward, Galaxy, KFA2 and Point of View. Some companies were bought out by the giant as a result of bankruptcy, and some were artificially created to attract potential buyers. In any case, the Palit GTX 650 video adapter is a product created by the best specialists in the world at the largest factory for the production of powerful gaming solutions. And with this you need to reckon.

First meeting

Yes, with the design of a rich Chinese manufacturer, there really are problems. Just look at the box in which the graphics accelerator is delivered. About what is inside, says only a small inscription on one of the packaging displays. But to see the product first hand can only be after opening the box, because the manufacturer did not deign to put his photo on the main display of the container.

The package also causes despondency: the Palit Geforce GTX 650 graphics card, driver discs and a quick start guide. On the one hand, a standard set, but many buyers, judging by their feedback, I would like to see adapters, a corporate sticker on the computer case, advertising booklets or some gift from the manufacturer.

Chipset

The current buyer is already difficult to deceive, because he learned to determine the quality of products by the appearance of the printed circuit board and the location of the microcircuits on it. The graphic accelerator Nvidia Geforce GTX 650 Palit has quite an interesting desoldering - the manufacturer assembled all the power elements in one unit and transferred them to the front of the board, placing near the video outputs. Such an arrangement is relevant for powerful gaming platforms, in which a turbofan is used. But for a conventional video card with a single fan, this decision is unacceptable.

Questions for users arise and the placement of chips on the back of the board. It is completely unclear how they will be cooled there. As for the power supply subsystem, everything is great here. The manufacturer made a multi-phase system, installed solid-state capacitances and equipped the board with fast memory modules from the manufacturer Elpida (the same ones used by the Geforce Titan video card).

Cooling system

When the buyer wants to know what it means to save money in Chinese, he certainly needs to purchase a Palit GTX 650 video card and look at its cooling system, after removing the protective cover. Yes, the graphics accelerator is quite restrained in power consumption and power dissipation, but nobody can afford to take it to the future owners in the world market.

A small aluminum radiator completely covers only the graphic core. But the memory modules just overlap with the edges of the grill, and the chips themselves do not touch the metal. The same is true for power elements - the radiator simply covers them, without touching.

A protective casing with a built-in 75mm fan does not evoke positive emotions, especially if you look at this system from the inside. The cooling system is more like a decor than an accessory for removing heat. However, as practice shows, this Chinese miracle adequately deflects heat and generally copes with the tasks set.

Tactical and technical characteristics

The graphic core in the basic mode still overcomes the psychological barrier and is 1058 MHz. However, the lack of Boost mode is embarrassing, as it is implemented in similar products on the computer market. The memory is built using GDDR5 technology and operates at an effective frequency of 5 GHz. As for the volume, there are two variants of video cards of one modification on the market - with 1 and 2 GB of RAM. Naturally, the second copy is preferable.

The video adapter has 384 universal processors, 32 texture units and is equipped with sixteen rasterization units. Videokarta consumes only 65 watts, which causes admiration of potential customers who do not want to buy an additional power unit for the sake of graphics accelerator. The weak link in the graphics accelerator is the memory bus - only 128 bits. It is this indicator that does not allow the video adapter to get into the real game class, as did the more advanced representative of the line - the Palit GTX 650 Ti with the 192-bit bus.

Additional features of the game controller

Naturally, support for DirectX 11 libraries is a key parameter that allows the video adapter to be positioned in the initial game class. Also, the graphics accelerator supports OpenGL version 4.3 and has a maximum FSAA of 32x.

As the practice shows, the Palit GTX 650 is equipped with all the necessary technologies for its class, and judging by the owners' feedback, nobody feels any discomfort in the games. Negative only comes from the outputs of the video and the controller, which controls the display of the image on the display. The board has 3 interface connectors (HDMI, VGA and DVI), but the card itself supports the output of the image to only two devices.

Building a decent platform

A potential buyer who wants the graphics accelerator Palit GTX 650 2048Mb to fully reveal its potential in games, it's just necessary to worry about creating a decent platform. It's about the processor and RAM. Oddly enough, this graphics card can be powered by any 2-core crystal with a core frequency of more than 3 GHz.

As for RAM, everything depends on the requirements of the gaming application. Many experts recommend to stay in their reviews on two RAM modules of 4 GB. A total of 8 gigabytes is enough to run all games created using the DirectX 11 library.

Recently, enthusiasts recommend that gaming enthusiasts switch to solid-state SSDs that will allow future owners to increase the potential of the gaming platform. However, the owners of the GTX Palit 650 video card should not hurry with this. The bandwidth of the bus of this graphics accelerator is not enough to make a weak point in the system make a hard disk (this is the SATA III standard).

Synthetic tests

In the media there are a lot of photos with user comments that demonstrate the low performance of this video card. And this is quite understandable, because almost all tests of the graphic accelerator Palit GTX 650, the characteristics of which directly depend on the core frequency and throughput, are produced with more efficient devices.

Apparently, enthusiasts think that they have an analogue of the Ti line, and compare the following game solutions: Nvidia GTX 470, Radeon HD 5870. This is an extremely incorrect approach. The GTX 650 video adapter is almost 2 classes lower and should be compared with its analogues in its niche: Geforce GTX 460 SE and Radeon HD 5770. These will be completely different results, in which the Palit representative is able to demonstrate worthy performance, albeit not always the best.

Gaming potential

Since all video adapters are purchased mainly for resource-intensive dynamic games, it's time to talk about the potential in the respective applications. Start better with your favorite tanks (World of Tanks). With maximum quality settings, the game demonstrates to the owner more than a hundred frames per second without problems. Only with a large accumulation of rapidly moving machinery and abundant foliage, FPS can sink to 80. In general, as for games under DirectX 9, here the user can safely set the maximum settings and enjoy a beautiful and fast game.

Problems with the Palit Nvidia GTX 650 are beginning to appear already on more demanding games, such as GRID 2, Crysis 2, Tomb Raider and their resource-intensive counterparts. In the resolution of FullHD, experts recommend that owners abandon Ultra's settings and agree with the game to automatically determine the graphics accelerator settings. In most cases, the average settings are set, and the application itself demonstrates only 30-40 frames per second.

Feedback

Literally, after the first tests in the games of the GTX Palit 650 video adapter, it became clear that he does not have the right to be in an expensive segment. It turns out, it's not for nothing that the manufacturer has set a low price for a graphics accelerator. However, many owners believe that the device has a hidden potential and it is capable of more. It's about overclocking. Yes, raising the chip's performance by 15% is real, and you can achieve a growth of a dozen FPS in resource-intensive games, but still can not compete with more expensive representatives in the market.

In the feedback of users, there are a lot of positive words about energy consumption. Only 65 watts of such a device is really a gift for many. After all, the owner does not need to purchase a powerful power supply and shake over the additional cooling system in the case.

Finally

Summarizing, we can safely conclude that the graphics accelerator GTX Palit 650 is an ordinary representative of the budget class, which is able to cope with resource-intensive games, but only at low or minimum quality settings. Fans of realistic graphics in any case have to choose a video card in a more expensive class. But undemanding buyers, this video adapter is sure to like. Toys, he still pulls, resources consume a little, and the product is of sufficient quality, because the company Palit has installed on all its video cards a 24-month warranty.