My GTX650 experience.

[skipsneeky2]

Have had this Zotac gtx650 card for about a bit and while its a relatively boring gpu for the majority of the crowd here,maybe my experience with it can give insight to anyone in the market for such a gpu.

Card is quieter then the rest of my computer at a set fanspeed of 50%,all day gaming and the gpu refuses to hit above 58 cel and for the most part usually isn't hitting above 53cel.

Experience in some games....

BF2 1920x1200 all high 8x aa,stays capped at 100fps any given map or time and not bad considering my q6600+gtx280 512mb back in 2008 sucked what over twice the power at the wall to pull the same frames as hell my 8800gts 512mb before it couldn't pull it off.:awe:

Artic Combat all high settings i cap at 125 fps at 1920x1200,actually this card is overkill for this game.

UT3 all options on high and enabled at 1920x1200,the card won't drop below 63 fps and sustains averages of well above 70 it seems so if you love this game and want a real low power card for this game,this is your best pick.

COD Black Ops runs 1920x1200 all high no aa stays capped at the default 91fps usually but some times can make drops into the 70's.

BF3 is the game that makes this card look tiny,1920x1200 even on lowwith no AO,no msaa and no motion blur this card easily dips into the 40s at times and personally BF3 is the type of game i like sustaining 50+ minimums so 1680x1050 is what i run to get me there.

Other observations in BF3,the card does better running 1440x900/1280x1024 medium with hbao and post aa on high enabled then it does running 1920x1200 all bare low settings by a good margin.

The card i picked is the only one i believe that requires no 6 pin,the card comes in at 6.03'' long and its been the perfect hold me over till BF4 gets here so i could get a gtx760 or 7950.

Recommend this card for your older games,or for gaming at 1680x1050 or below if your playing your newer titles like BF3.

 

[Durvelle27]

Nice but a GTX 650 can easily handle BF3 @1200p High w/No AA

 

[Jaydip]

Cool

 

[skipsneeky2]

Nice but a GTX 650 can easily handle BF3 @1200p High w/No AA

Yeah it can but everyone is different,personally if you don't mind your frames hitting as low as 35fps if a car explosion happens,dips into the mid 40s and mid 50's if you go outside at the flag at a in Metro and sitting in the upper 40's to the 70s inside of Metro then hell yeah its perfectly fine.

Found motion blur and AO still to tasking,almost a 10 fps hit easily anywhere on any map.

My gold standard of what is playable might be a little extreme,pushing for 50 fps minimums does call for many adjustments but hell i got over the idea of attempting my old standard of 60fps minimums,i would have to run 1440x900 low and that isn't happening on my native 1200p screen.:awe:

 

[Magic Carpet]

For competitive multiplayer, isn't it best to play on Low anyway? No need to be distracted by eye-candy.

I know, when I used to play SC2 online, I had everything on Low just to stay focused on other things. Things like fog, smoke, etc, do get in the way. If you play to win, you want every "advantage'' you can get.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Found i could even enable ultra and turn shadows to low and besides the explosions tanking me to about 28 fps,the framerate is nearly as good as high everywhere else.

Shadows just by themselves drop frames as much as 23 fps with this card in a given spot assuming you go from low to ultra and add in a little hbao and its a 30 fps hit easily.

 

[skipsneeky2]

For competitive multiplayer, isn't it best to play on Low anyway? No need to be distracted by eye-candy.

I know, when I used to play SC2 online, I had everything on Low just to stay focused on other things. Things like fog, smoke, etc, do get in the way. If you play to win, you want every "advantage'' you can get.

All i honestly need in all seriousness is medium with hbao and post aa on high,good balance of performance with a little itty bit of eye candy and a 7850 can easily pull it off and this is 55+fps minimums.