Zotac GeForce GTX 1650 Gaming Review - 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 drop-in product. It does not require any power connectors as it feeds off the PCIe slot. 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, 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

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 at all + the small form factor is a big plus for many. 

Cooling & acoustic levels

The card tops out at almost 60 Degrees C while gaming. So that's not bad at all, the acoustics I'd rate as normal to silent, we doubt you'll hear the card once seated inside a closed chassis but you can hear some airflow whir. We doubt you'd hear it when seated inside a close chassis though. 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 2000 Mhz boost and the memory at 9000~9500 Mhz (effective data-rate).  

Concluding

Little is wrong with what ZOTAC brought to the table with his card, however, Nvidia's price level might once again be bothersome. 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 it a massive advantage. Design wise ZOTAC did well, I mean this is a lovely looking and very compact product. It does not run hot, it's fairly silent and power consumption is low. So once again it's pricing that is going to be a problem. In reality, I find this to be a 99 USD domain card, but yeah we'll have to wait and see how prices are going to develop in the months to come. 

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