Zotac Gaming GTX 1650 Super review (Page 26)

Zotac Gaming GTX 1650 Super review

Graphics cards 1048 Page 26 of 26 Published 2019-12-11 15:28 by Hilbert Hagedoorn

Conclusion

Final words and verdict

What to make of the new GeForce GTX 1650 Super. First, it is not a bad performing card really, especially compared to the 1650 regular model, heck you'll see 30% running up-to 40% more performance depending on game, API and resolution. The architecture is sound and at 1920x080 this product is a good proposition. It even has enough horsepower to play a game or two in 2560x1440, however, the card is severely limited by its 4GB graphics memory. High resolutions and games simply quickly pass that 4 GB marker. Ergo, if you stick to Full HD, you're fine really. But after that resolution, NVIDIA is forcefully steering you to the 1660 series with 6 GB graphics memory. Being a 1650 Series you do get up-to-date with the latest Turning architecture, just not tensor and RT cores. The card offers performance one may expect in this price range and with the AIB partner cards will see an up-to 5% advantage over the base model. Tweaking wise there's room left. We do think that all cards will match a roughly 5 to 10% OC delta in generic performance. As mentioned, the 4 GDDR6 graphics memory is nice and fast, which the GPU likes, the 4GB, however, feel somewhat limited, then again at Full HD is sufficient for the majority of games.

Aesthetics

As stated the card does not come with fancy RGB options and does not have the mega hyper cooler. If you look at the photo above you can actually see the aluminum fins. That's said, for the base MSRP product this really isn't a bad looking card IMHO + the small form factor is a big plus for many.

Cooling & acoustic levels

The card tops out at 70 Degrees C while gaming. So that's okay, the acoustics I'd rate as 'quite hearable', the two fans under extreme load can even be somewhat noisy. We've heard no noticeable coil whine. But I do want to note that any graphics card at a high-enough FPS can make some coil whine.

Overclocking

We've been able to push roughly 6% extra perf out of the card compared to the reference card. The combination of tweakable memory, power and voltage settings will bring you a proper overclock. Once you've applied it, you get a few percent more perf. The ZOTAC card was average with tweaking, it has no extra available on the power limiter, thus it'll throttle down as it hits the TDP. Also, memory overclocked substantially lower than say the MSI card.

Concluding

You know, I have to say that the 'new' SUPER series for both the 1650 and 1660 is a bit puzzling. The 1650 Super, however, does get a very healthy chunk of extra shader processors and a lot more memory bandwidth compared to the regular model. That does lift up spirits overall. In its range, the card is a bit all over the place, often close to the RX 580 and RX 590, sometimes way lower as it runs into VRAM limitations. The raw rendering performance, however, is at an interesting level and at in 1920x1080 mostly at a comfortable framerate. I do wish for this card series to have seen it at 6GB, as graphics memory anno the year 2019/2020 need to get closer to that 8GB default once you pass 1920x1080. The product is very nice for the entry-level to the mainstream market but sits in a very narrow saturated segment with lots of choices. We expect pricing to sit in the 150~160 USD ranges, so it is competing with the Radeon RX 570 most of the time and that card you can spot at 150 USD with 8GB already. Making the 1650 Super a more difficult proposition. The product is fast enough for any day gaming up-to, the Full HD monitor resolution domain of 1920x1080. Once again please let me reiterate, the Raytracing and AI feature like DLSS, of course, have been stripped away. The product as-is is good, the power consumption of the 1650 SUPER series, by the way, is really good.

The product as fabbed and presented by ZOTAC is average on all fronts really; it did not shine on acoustics, temps and offers reference performance. The tweakability also was a little lackluster. The design, however, is good looking and it fits any form factor PC really, thanks to its small size. What's nice though is that it has all these variables housed inside a very compact design, and that is worthy of a recommendation as these are really handy to use add-in cards, if priced right.