Nvidia to respond to AMD HD 7790 with faster GTX 650 Ti

Nvidia is responding to AMD’s upcoming addition to the mid range market, the HD 7790, by making a newer version of its GTX 650 Ti graphics card. Nvidia’s response will be to make a faster version of the GTX 650 Ti although it is rumoured that physical specifications will be identical meaning that only clocks can change.

The company is expected then to increase clock speeds from the reference design specifications of 925MHz and 1350MHz (5.4GHz GDDR5 Effective). In theory Nvidia would need to add about 10% to the performance to keep up with the HD 7790 so a new clock speed of 1020MHz core and 1450MHz memory seems necessary but what actually happens will most likely be different – in a lower direction.

Currently overclocked GTX 650 Ti versions vary in range from 950MHz to 1071MHz so if Nvidia raises the reference base clocks too high, then it will price many GTX 650Ti OC graphics cards out of the market. This will be a particularly large consideration because Nvidia doesn’t want to aggravate its Add-In Board partners.

With that said then Nvidia has a few options:

• to release two skews of the GTX 650Ti GPU
• Release a GTX 660SE (being the GTX 650Ti v2) and the current GTX 650Ti remaining in the market as-is
• Offering a price reduction on older skews and gradually phasing them out in favour of the newer GTX 650 Ti models
• adding a newer and faster version into the market straight away with existing stock and selling both side by side

All options considered Nvidia do need a faster version to fully compete with the HD 7790 so any of the above options seem plausible choices. Do you think Nvidia needs a new card to compete with the HD 7790? Do you think current GTX 650 Ti owners might get short changed by this deal? What do you think Nvidia should/will do? Let us know what you think!

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