On just a quick glance one would be hard pressed to tell the Zotac Gaming GTX 1650 OC shipping container from the previously reviewed Zotac Gaming GTX 1660’s shipping container. This is because except for minor differences this is the same shipping container. This is both a good thing and a bad. It is good in that it is a winning design. It is attractive, attention-getting, and provides a good level of protection for the video card while in question.
The downside is it is rather easy to pick up the wrong model if multiple SKU’s are all lumped together on a retail shelf. So be careful, and pay close attention that the box you have in your hands is the right model. Of course, this does make a good excuse to give your significant other if you do want a higher priced model… if you need one that is.
As expected, the included accessories are rather barebones. As this card does not require a PCIe power cable there is of course not going to be any adapters included. The same is true of most of the other ‘missing’ accessories. The only two nit-picks worth mentioning is Zotac does not include a driver disc (and rather expects you to download it direct from NVIDIA… which is really not a bad idea to be honest), and the fact they do not include any adapters/converters.
Instead, if you need more than one DPI, DVI, or HDMI port this is not the right card for you. This is pretty much par for the course for GTX 1650’s… and finding an included DVI to HDMI adapter in this price range is highly unlikely to say the least. Basically, the included pamphlet, driver instructions, and a small case badge are everything you should expect from a $150 (USD) card. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Moving on. A lot of people do make the mistake of thinking that there will not be much difference between an NVIDIA ‘x50 and ‘x60 series card when it comes to performance and power requirements. After all, a GTX 1060 vs GTX 1070 is only a difference of 30watts TDP (130 vs 150) and both have a fairly linear scaling in performance (both in CUDA count and bus width). Thus one would assume the same holds true for 60 vs 50. IE a nice linear scale from one model level to the next.
Nothing could be further from the truth. There is a massive divide between NVIDIA ’50 and 60’s class models. This is because they are orientated towards completely different consumers. The x50s are for entry-level consumers who do not expect much performance… but want some performance, the performance they will not get from even cheaper cards (let alone onboard / integrated ‘video cards’). Whereas x60 buyers want actually good performance at multiple resolution points. We mention all this because there is going to be a large gap in performance between the GTX 1650 (even a factory overclocked variant) vs a bog standard GTX 1660.
First and foremost is, in addition to cutting back from 6GB to 4GB on the included GDDR5 memory, the memory bus has been ‘scaled back’ from 192-bits to 128-bits. This is not going to be overly concerning for the GTX 1650 intended audience who will be looking exclusively at 1080P resolutions for gaming, but once you go above 1080P it will become a noticeable bottleneck. There is almost nothing any card manufacturer can do about this issue (beyond overclocking the RAM… which is rare as hen’s teeth in this price range). It is baked right into the new, and very small, TU117 core.
The same holds true of the lack of CUDA cores. Basically, with the GTX 1660 series you get 1408 CUDA cores, 88 TMUs, 48 ROPs, 22 SMs, more L1 cache (which is pegged at 64GB per SMU), and a TDP of 120w. The GTX 1650 series on the other hand only come with 896 CUDA cores, 56 TMUs, 32 ROPS and a 14 SM count. However, there are two critical things that go along with these changes. Changes that need to be taken into consideration before the writing of the GTX 1650. Firstly is the TU117 is extremely power efficient. This core, even an ‘overclocked’ variant like the Zotac Gaming GTX 1650 OC, has a TDP low enough to be powered solely by the PCIe slot. To be precise the GTX 1660 series is a 75 watt TDP class card. This is going to be very important for small case builders where finding room for another cable is always a problem.
The other thing to keep in the front of your mind is the asking price. Any NVIDIA GTX 1660 class card is going to set you back at least 220 USD. This factory overclocked GTX 1650 OC has an MSRP of only 150 USD. That is seventy dollars, or a whopping 46.7 percent jump in cost from the 1650 OC to a bog standard (i.e. not factory overclocked) GTX 1660 series. For many that is the difference between upgrading a system… or waiting later as the budget will not stretch that far.
Lastly, the NVIDIA GTX 1650 is a major upgrade from the previous NVIDIA GTX 1050 series it replaces. Compared to the original NVIDIA GTX 1050, you get more everything. More CUDA cores (296 more). More TMUs (16 more). More SMs (9 more… and obviously more L1 cache). Even more GDDR5 RAM (twice the amount to be precise). This increase is so massive you have to jump up to the NVIDIA GTX 1050Ti before you even get close to the NVIDIA GTX 1650s specs… and even then, the NVIDIA GTX 1650 comes with more. More CUDA cores (128 more). More TMUs (8). Slight wider bus (via 7 vs. 8Ghz memory), and all the low-level efficiency that is baked into the latest Turing architecture. You even get more value as the 1050Ti had about the same MSRP when it was released.
For eagled-eyed readers there is going to be one major question burning brightly in your minds. That is… how did Zotac overclock this card and still keep overall power consumption to 75 watts or less? The answer is… it is complicated. Firstly, they are using highly binned TU117s on the ‘OC’ model. Cores that are simply more power efficient (and thus cooler running). The other is, the factory overclock is rather modest. Instead of having a ‘max’ boost of 1665 it is rated to boosts frequencies to 1695. On paper this does not sound like much, but the reality is that the cores used on the OC variant are going to run faster, longer than those on the cheaper non-OC model.
The ‘obvious’ solution to this power issue is… to use a 6-pin power connector and double it to 150watts. NVIDIA is not keen on letting 3rd party manufacturers do that. This is why Zotac’s OC model does not come with one. To be honest, a 6-pin power port would be a waste on TU117s. These cores are not great overclockers, and it would be bordering of false advertising to have included one.
The same holds true of the included heatsink. Yes, this the include ‘sunflower’ style heatsink is a major disappointment compared to the heat pipe based heatsink the Zotac Gaming GTX 1660 comes with. However, this aluminum heatsink has a ton of mass (even more so that a comparably sized fin array), and still has plenty of surface cooling area. Yes, if Zotac had stuck that marvelous (for this price range) custom cooling solution on this little bad boy it would run a bit faster and be a bit quieter… but this is not a hot running card, nor all that loud.
The included 90mm fan barely gets above a ‘hum’ under normal gaming loads. Instead, it would have simply made their card more expensive with little real-world benefit. Put simply, only silent PC enthusiasts will really care all that much about the included heatsink. A heatsink which is basically a super-sized CPU heatsink.
Of course, as this card does not light up like a Christmas tree, those wanting a ‘flash and dash’ card will also be disappointed. For everyone else… it really comes down to resolution and performance expectations on whether or not this card’s lower asking price is a good deal… or a bad one. So let’s see what it can and cannot do!
