MSI Geforce GTX 1650 Gaming X 4G

Nvidia’s new GPU brings merely a modest boost in performance, thinks Jarred Walton.

Nvidia’s new entry-level GPU brings a modest boost in performance thinks Jarred Walton – who explains what’s new, what’s cool and if it’s worth the money.

The release of the Geforce GTX 1650 was inevitable, considering that none of the other Turing GPUS can fill the role of a budget graphics card. This is likely the final implementation of the Turing architecture, at least at 12nm. The GTX 1650 uses a new TU117 GPU, which is a smaller and thus less expensive variant of the TU116 that powers the Nvidia GTX 1660 (see our review in LXF251) and 1660 Ti cards. The key differences relative to the 1660 line are in the memory configuration and the obviously reduced number of streaming multiprocessors.

As expected, the GTX 1650 has 4GB of GDDR5, clocked at 8GT/S – the same speed as the GTX 1660, as well as the previous-generation GTX 1060 cards. Four active memory controllers on a 128-bit bus give it 128GB/S of bandwidth, which is slightly more than the GTX 1050 Ti. Nvidia is typically conservative with its reported boost clocks, with most cards running well above the given speed. The ‘stock’ GTX 1650 has a boost clock of 1665MHZ. That’s less than the GTX 1060 cards, but roughly 50 per cent faster than the GTX 1050. The GTX 1650 is also designed to run without a six-pin PCIE power connector–though factory over clocked cards, like this MS I GTX 1650 Gaming X 4G, have higher clock speeds thus and require a six-pin PEG connector.

Nvidia claimed the GTX 1650 would be up to twice as fast as a GTX 950, and 50 per cent faster than the GTX 1050 – and that was probably a fair estimate, especially since both of those cards only have 2GB VRAM. Overall, the GTX 1650 lands right about where expected. It’s faster than the GTX 1050, by over 70 per cent, at 1080p ultra settings. Again, a lot of that is due to the 1050’s limited VRAM, as the GTX 1050 Ti is much closer: the 1650 is about 30 per cent faster. The GTX 1060 3GB leads by nine per cent at 1080p ultra, and the AMD RX 570 4GB is in a similar position.

All of which means it could make sense as a cheap upgrade for an older PC, but it’s not necessarily the best performance or value you can find right now. From a pure value proposition, especially with the discounted Nvidia GTX 1060 3GB cards still hanging around along with AMD’S RX 570 and 580, the GTX 1650 comes up a touch short. For a little more cash you’d even get 8GB of memory with AMD.

The GTX 1650 isn’t a bad GPU by any means. It can hit 60fps at 1080p medium to high quality in most games, and it’s affordable. Just make sure you understand what you’re getting, because if you’re looking at building a budget gaming PC, you’ll almost always be better served by spending a bit more money. For a compact build or something used for light to moderate gaming, the GTX 1650 is worth a look.