Dividebyzero,
As usual you have decided to focus on 1 part of my post and missed the other points I made. I'll repost again since it appears you have missed my point entirely
Stock vs. Stock performance: GTX650Ti loses badly in price/performance to either HD7770 or HD7850.
Let's take a look at stock performance again. I'll use 5 websites to eliminate bias:
1) Computerbase:
http://www.computerbase.de/artikel/grafikkarten/2012/test-nvidia-geforce-gtx-650-ti/6/
GTX650Ti is only 13% faster at 1080P than HD7770 but costs 25% more based on MSRP ($119 vs. $149). Market pricing for HD7770 is actually $105-115 on Newegg. GTX650Ti is very much overpriced in this comparison.
HD7850 1GB is 34% faster on average at 1080P than GTX650Ti. MSRP for HD7850 1GB is $169 ($159 with option partner rebates). Market prices for HD7850 1GB are $160-175 on Newegg. Again for 7-17% higher price of HD7850 1GB, you get 34% higher performance.
Let's see if other reviewers show a similar scenario:
2) TechPowerup has HD7850 32% faster than GTX650Ti (and 27% faster than factory preoverclocked 650Ti):
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_650_Ti_Power_Edition/28.html
3) Hardware.fr shows a 37% advantage for HD7850 against the 650Ti, while 650Ti only leads HD7770 by 12%.
http://www.hardware.fr/articles/879-19/recapitulatif-performances.html
4) Tom's Hardware's test is especially punishing as unlike TechSpot, they used MSAA and cranked settings to demanding levels. HD7850 is 42% faster than GTX650Ti is at high details, while GTX650Ti is just 9-10% faster than HD7770:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-gtx-650-ti-benchmark-gk106,3318-19.html
Their testing is especially useful since we see that in GPU demanding games like
BF3, Crysis 2, Metro 2033, Dirt Showdown, SKYRIM, HD7850's minimum framerates are often at the same level as GTX650Ti's average! That's remarkable considering HD7850 only costs $20-30 more.
5) What about the factory pre-overclocked GTX650Ti 2GB version? It still performs awfully compared to HD7850 based on Bit-Tech's testing:
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2012/10/09/nvidia-geforce-gtx-650-ti-review/5
In the end, GTX650Ti is much closer in performance to HD7770 than it is to HD7850 but is priced much closer to HD7850. This is terrible value for budget gamers. To make matters worse, the 2GB version of this card goes for $170+, putting it a hair from HD7850 2GB.
Now, we come to overclocking. With neutered ROPs and memory bus width, GTX650Ti benefits much less from overclocking than HD7850. We already know from testing across the web that HD7850 has no problem reaching GTX660/HD7870 level of performance at just 1100mhz.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5625/...-7850-review-rounding-out-southern-islands/19
That means with overclocking, HD7850 will only extend its lead over than overclocked 650Ti further, making it an even better value.
As it stands, GTX650Ti is overpriced at $149. Stock vs. stock or OC vs. OC, it loses to HD7850 and rather dramatically by 30-40% in GPU demanding titles. Against, HD7770, it's also horrendously overpriced since HD7770 doesn't sell for $139 but more like $105-115 in retail.