MSI GeForce GTX 1650 Gaming X Review (Page 29)

MSI GeForce GTX 1650 Gaming X Review

Graphics cards 1049 Page 29 of 29 Published 2019-04-24 15:08 by Hilbert Hagedoorn

Conclusion

Final words and verdict

We're not going to write long and difficult conclusions. the GeForce GTX 1650 overall is an easy to use the drop-in product. MSI does take it to a new height in quality and design though, I mean look at it .. that's entry-level in the year 2019 for you. Just install the driver and you get decent 1920x1080 performance for some quick gameplay of media functionality. Although a dying breed with smart-TVs, it's an excellent HTPC card really (at least for decoding), then again so is any modern APU which comes with included CPU cores;)

Pricing

Pricing then, depending on the model you buy you are looking at 149 for a stripped down simple version, running up-to to 179 USD for the more advanced, factory tweaked, designed and better-cooled products, with slightly inflated values for the EU. Realistically when we compare that to the competition that is Radeon RX 570 territory, even with 8GB for that card and as you have been able to see, the performance numbers definitely are less than that product. That makes the GTX 1650 a bit of a hard sell. Over the years prices, for Nvidia have inflated. The NVIDIA entry-level segment products in the past were in the sub 100 USD domain.

Aesthetics

Hey MSI will be MSI with that dark design, the TwinFrozr 7 cooler, and once juiced up, it is a great looking product, especially in this price range. It sits in the Gaming line, was made a little darker to look at with new gunmetal elements, and that works for me. So in the end, on looks, you certainly get that premium feel of detailed aesthetics and quality. Also, let me reiterate that the card does not have any active RGB LED implementation.

Cooling & acoustic levels

The card tops out at almost 65 Degrees C while gaming. So that's not bad at all, the acoustics I'd rate as completely silent, we doubt you'll ever hear the card once seated inside a closed chassis. We've heard no noticeable coil whine.

Overclocking

Much like any NVIDIA product these days, we've been able to push roughly 10% extra perf out of the card compared to the reference card. Both traditional overclocking, as well as the OC Scanner, reached just above that level. The combination of memory, power and voltage settings will bring you a proper overclock. Once you've applied it, you get a few percents more perf. This card is somewhat memory bandwidth limited, so tweaking there can really boost your FPS. You'll quite easily get the card at a 2050~2100 MHz boost and the memory at give or take 9000 Mhz (effective data-rate).

Concluding

The GAMING X line is a terrific product overall, really it is. The factory tweak is sweet as well and it did also tweak really nicely. Nvidia's price level, however, is the restricting factor. Right now if you browse around a bit you can get an AMD Radeon RX 570 4GB for 139 EUR/USD and the 8GB version at 149 EUR/USD. Especially the 8GB on that RX 570 gives the 1650 a run for its money. MSI slapped on a nice cooler, set the temperature target at 65 Degrees C and it results in a totally silent product that also shows low power consumption. The factory tweak is nice, the manual tweak even better. So yeah I'm afraid that once again it's pricing that is going to be a problem. I am not saying it's not worth the money, it's just that you can get better (RX 570) for a similar amount of cash spend. We'll have to wait and see how prices are going to develop in the months to come. But all said and done, MSI offers a truly lovely product with this design and you cannot vault MSI for NVIDIA's relatively high pricing level.