AnandTech Article Channel |
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Launch Recap
- NVIDIA 306.97 WHQL Drivers Available
- ASUS F2A85-V Pro Review: A Look at FM2 with A85X
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Launch Recap Posted: 11 Oct 2012 03:00 AM PDT Earlier this week we reviewed NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 650 Ti. As this was a hard launch many of NVIDIA’s partners have had their cards available for purchase from day-one, so we’re here to provide you with a summary of what’s available with this week’s launch. Before we dive into things we wanted to quickly point out that because of NVIDIA’s GTX 650 Ti Assassin’s Creed III promotion, prices are being distorted some. Manufacturers appear to be paying $5-$10 for the game, causing the price of most of these cards to come in over NVIDIA’s $149 MSRP. The only card initially available at Newegg at $149 is EVGA’s reference clocked card, which doesn’t include Assassin’s Creed III.
Card dimensions should be taken as an estimate rather than a precise measurement, as manufacturers haven’t standardized the unit of measurement for their cards. Some cards were measured in inches while others were in metric. I’ve done the necessary conversions to both formats, but the physical product does not always match the dimensions given on the spec sheet. ASUS (Product Page) This card is among the largest of the lineup, due to its second fan, which should be taken into consideration with some setups. EVGA (Product Page)& EVGA Super Superclocked (Product Page) By skipping the Assassin’s Creed III promotion on their entry-level card, EVGA boasts the least expensive card of the competition by a slight margin. Meanwhile, for an investment of $10 you can get the Super Superclocked version (reviewed here) which includes Assassin’s Creed III along with a hefty factory core overclock of 15%. Based on NVIDIA’s reference design, the cards are also among the most compact of the bunch. Galaxy (Product Page) As with many other GTX 650 Ti cards launching today, Galaxy is seeding the market first with a factory overclocked model, with a shipping clockspeed of 966Mhz. Otherwise, Galaxy’s sole GTX 650 Ti is a fairly standard card, featuring a single-fan open air cooler and NVIDIA’s standard port configuration of 2 DVI ports alongside a mini-HDMI port. Gigabyte Triangle (Product Page) Gigabyte’s GTX 650 Ti “Triangle” is their entry-level GTX 650 Ti card, based on a short PCB (presumebly NVIDIA’s reference PCB) and equipped with an open air fan & heatsink combination that Gigabyte calls their Triangle cooler. Like Gigabyte’s other GTX 650 Ti this features a fairly large factory overclock, with the card shipping at 1032MHz. Gigabyte Windforce (Product Page) This card, which we have reviewed more in-depth, is the 2GB product for Gigabyte’s 650Ti line and is equipped with Gigabyte’s Windforce 2X cooler, which is composed of two 100mm fans mounted over a large aluminum heatsink. While the dimensions were not specified, the cooling system requires more space than most cards in the lineup due to the second fan. Like the Triangle this card ships with a 1032MHz factory overclock. MSI (Product Page) The largest card in the lineup, this card also has a 3-year parts and 2-year labor warranty, like most MSI graphics cards. MSI is offering a mild factory overclock here shipping the card at 993MHz. Zotac (Product Page)
Zotac is the only company in this lineup with a 2-year warranty, while also charging the highest premium for its cards. However, with product registration you can upgrade to an extended limited lifetime warranty, which may explain the increase in cost. Zotac also offers a factory overclock on this model –making them the only vendor to not offer a true reference clocked card – but at 941MHz the difference is trivial at best. Zotac AMP! Edition (Product Page)
The Zotac AMP has all the features of the Zotac 650 Ti above, but it also is the only card in the lineup with a factory overclock on its memory, with Zotac having bumped it up to 6.2GHz. In our launch-day review this was among the best cards we reviewed, but also among the most expensive. 
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| NVIDIA 306.97 WHQL Drivers Available Posted: 10 Oct 2012 08:13 PM PDT
Continuing their 304 Series drivers, NVIDIA has just released their 306.97 driver update for desktops and laptops. Along with updated SLI and 3D Vision profiles for a few games, the driver notes specifically call out improved support for Borderlands 2 and World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. The new drivers come just under a month after the last WHQL release, the 306.23 drivers. I also noticed a few compatibility issues with Total War: Shogun 2 that came with the 306.23 drivers have been fixed with the latest update, though overall performance is largely unchanged in most titles. Here are the direct links to the various drivers: Desktop 32-bit Windows Vista/7/8 
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| ASUS F2A85-V Pro Review: A Look at FM2 with A85X Posted: 10 Oct 2012 08:20 AM PDT The new release of Trinity processors on the desktop opens up a cascade of issues when it comes to choosing a new motherboard for your Trinity system. The main point of confusion comes in the face of chipsets, whereby multiple sockets and processor families can use the same chipsets and each motherboard manufacturer has a different naming scheme in order to differentiate the two. Both Intel and AMD have been guilty of this in the past, but in the past 18 months we had no real cause for concern - until now. With that, I give the first FM2 motherboard we are testing here at AnandTech, the ASUS F2A85-V Pro. This full sized ATX board is aiming for the enthusiast in the Trinity space. 
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