Asus GTX 650-E review

The Asus GTX 650-E provides three output ports: HDMI, DVI and VGA, and you can use all three in Nvidia’s three-screen Surround mode. We ran Dirt Showdown in Surround mode at a resolution of 5,760×1,080 with 4x anti-aliasing and Ultra quality settings and it failed our benchmark, scoring just 13.9fps. To get a smooth, playable frame rate at 5,760×1,080, we had to reduce the quality to Low. Sadly, the GTX 650-E failed all our Crysis 2 benchmarks in surround mode at 5,760×1,080, scoring just 14.9fps. The GTX 650-E will have no problem driving multiple monitors for desktop use, but you should buy a more powerful graphics card if multiple monitor gaming is a must.

All the outputs most people will ever need

Cheap and economical it may be, but the Asus GTX 650-E is also open to overclocking should you the desire to do so. It comes with Asus GPU Tweak, which lets you adjust the clock speed of the memory and GPU, as well as the card’s fan speed and the GPU’s voltage. We boosted the GTX 650-E’s core clock speed by 10 percent and achieved a frame rate of 83fps at a resolution of 1,920×1,080 and High quality with 4x anti-aliasing . At its stock clock speed, the GTX 650-E scored 80fps under the same conditions. It’s great that you tweak the GTX 650-E, and tinkering with the settings is certainly fun, but don’t expect frame rates to increase fantastically.

As much as we’d all love to have a couple of GTX Titans or GTX 690s in our PCs, such graphics cards are expensive, power-hungry and over-powered for the needs of many people. The GTX 650-E is great for those who want to play the latest games and are willing to compromise on quality settings. You don’t have to compromise that much either, with both Dirt Showdown and Crysis 2 delivering good-looking graphics at smooth, playable frame rates with a little quality adjustment. It’s quiet too, making it appropriate for PCs where a little tranquillity is desired, and the fact that it’s bus-powered means its compatible with a wider range of PCs.

If you can spend more and demand much better gaming performance, then you should consider the Nvidia GTX 660 Ti or the AMD Radeon HD 7870, but both of those cards cost more than twice the current price of the Asus GTX 650-E. If you want something quiet, economical and cheap with enough power to play games, then the Asus GTX 650-E will suit you.