GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER WINDFORCE OC – Budget Full HD? | Video Cards | Reviews

The word “budget” from the table of contents is not put in quotation marks by accident. We understand that in the current realities it sounds a little mocking, but there are not so many alternatives – today, newcomer gamers will only have pain and suffering on AMD inserts, as well as the “joy” of plugs like the GT 730 or 1030. Slightly expanding the budget and crushing toad, you can get the outdated GTX 1050 Ti for $ 300 for the hits of yesteryear …

Of course, we can expect a decline in prices and the end of the crisis, the approach of which all gamers have been waiting for a long time. And what if you want Full HD on all modern games and at the same time there is no desire to delve into dead devices with Avito? Here comes the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER WINDFORCE OC, an accelerator released in 2019.

If we omit the question of price, then the card should pull whatever the heart desires, and with an acceptable FPS. Let’s check what this card is capable of in reality.

Boxes, papers, features

Since the accelerator (God forgive me) is budgetary, then apart from the packaging, a small paper guide and the card itself, they did not put anything else in the antistatic system. And, actually, what else do you need?

There is information on the box, we get acquainted and learn about the key features of the product, namely:

1. The proprietary Windforce cooling system with two nine-centimeter coolers rotating in opposite directions. Aerodynamic things and special ribs on the fans, at the same time, look like marketing noodles. Let’s check the performance of the cooler in tests, but (I think) one turntable would be quite enough.

   

2. One heatpipe in direct contact with the GPU chip.
3. GDDR6 memory, DirectX12 and Ansel support.
4. OC index denoting factory overclocking.
5. Display Port, HDMI and DVI-D connectors.

   
6. The backplate is plastic, but dust does not get on the board.

The card consumes only 100 W – almost any modern power supply with a six-pin connector will do. It’s a budget solution, so don’t count on premium, backlighting or stickers included. At the same time, there is no feeling that it is about to fall apart – and you will only hold it by inserting it into the PCI slot.

Impressions from work

After enjoying the Chinese flavor of the FPS, we insert the card into our computer. On board we have:

• Ryzen 3600 plugged into ASUS TUF B450-PRO GAMING board,
• 32 GB Patriot Viper Steel RAM at 3200 Mhz,
• SSDs from A-data and Samsung, half a terabyte each (for games and the system, respectively).

All this stuff is powered by the be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 9 at 600W. As you can see, there should be no emphasis on components during testing. The spacious ventilated housing of Deepcool E-SHIELD removes all temperature issues – there is no overheating due to its fault and cannot be.

Two coolers for blowing in, one for blowing out – with one of the front fans blowing directly into the card. Before testing, the latest Game Ready drivers have been installed at the moment. Here is a screenshot from CPU-Z with technical info.

The first test – 10 minutes in Furmark, the card passed with dignity. It was not possible to warm up the cooling system above 68 degrees – apparently, the fins on the fans are still working.

Noise level

Up to 52 degrees, the card cooling system is at rest – in simple tasks the card is silent, like a usual plug with a heatsink. Everything changes when you start a game or a graphical application – for a couple of seconds, the revolutions are turned on from zero to maximum and immediately reset to more acoustically acceptable values. At the same time, sometimes something vibrates – either a casing, or an advertised backplate, or maybe one of the coolers.

In general, judging by the reviews, most card buyers consider it loud. Is it true or not – judge for yourself. The sound of the card was filmed using a Behringer ECM8000 measuring microphone and a Presonus Audiobox 22VSL sound card. Since loudness is a rather abstract value, we will put a kitchen timer next to it. Knowing that it ticks no louder than a wall clock, you can imagine the approximate volume that you will face.

Personally, the noise emitted by the card does not bother us at all. If you play with headphones, you will not hear it at all. Our test bench is on the floor two to three meters from the ears. If the system unit stands on the table next to the monitor, the sound may occasionally be strained.

To get rid of periodic howls, you can adjust the cooler speed in MSI Afterburner. At low load, the fans will spin almost silently, and the rpm will increase as the chip heats up. In doing so, you sacrifice the total quietness that the card offers at temperatures up to 52 degrees.

Smart users (at their own peril and risk!) Can try to download the MSI 1650 Super firmware for more correct and quiet operation of the cooling system – we have not tried it ourselves.

Can you save money?

An unexpected twist – what can the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER WINDFORCE OC do in mining? Miners are not interested in the map – due to the small amount of memory in 4GB, it is problematic to extract ether with it – the blockchain is too large. But while the sweet couple of Bitcoin and Ethereum are at their peak of popularity, you can dig altcoins.

Let’s hand over the power of our graphics accelerator to Nicehash and dig the KAWPOW algorithm.

If desired, you can slightly overclock the frequency of the video chip (overclocking in the core did not give a tangible increase – but in games it can). Power Limit is 100% blocked and we cannot increase it. This was done (apparently) in order not to surpass the performance of the 1660 or so that enthusiasts do not burn their cards, exceeding the capabilities of the cooling system. A slight decrease in the Power Limit allows the temperature to be slightly reduced to 64 degrees, but this is reflected in the profit.

In terms of money, as a result of these simple manipulations, we will receive from $ 1 to $ 1.5 dollars per day – of course, the profit depends on the current rate of cryptocurrencies. Under no circumstances did the chip temperature rise above 67 degrees – the cooling system copes with the accelerator even in slight overclocking. Of course, without increasing the power limit, it is rather difficult to talk about overclocking, but nevertheless.

Gaming performance

Whom the card will delight – it’s gamers. In all modern games, we managed to get about 60 FPS in Full HD at the highest graphics settings without overclocking. Note again – without ray tracing technology, which the card does not support. For example:

1. Cyberpunk 2077 – about 45 FPS, sometimes the counter drops to 42 per second. It is quite playable, brakes and friezes (in our non-cyber sportsman’s opinion) are not noticed.
2. The Witcher 3 – 45+ FPS on outrageous settings with rare drawdowns up to 35. You can set high and get 60+ FPS without problems and / or remove hairworks.
3. Control – mostly 44 FPS and higher, with rare drawdowns up to 40. Millionaires say that the game looks much better with rays. Let’s take their word for it.
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 – don’t ask how this game ended up on disc. The counter shows 60 FPS at high, but the cooling system did not even turn on. Everything lags and slows down terribly – there are big doubts that this is a card problem.
5. Metro: Exodus – about 40 FPS at Extreme quality on the surface. Lower the settings a little – and it will be what you need.
6. Red Dead Redemption 2 – 45-50 FPS or higher in the initial mission. Visually, anything visible through the snow looks good. Probably, in the future, you will have to sacrifice settings for smoothness.
7. Assassins Creed Valhalla – only 20 FPS at the highest. At very high 25+, more or less. If you want an acceptable number of frames, you will have to lower the settings to just high – and you will get 50+ FPS.
8. Jurassic World Evolution – 60 FPS at the very beginning of the game. There was no desire to play further

Predictably – hits of previous years work flawlessly at high and close to high graphics settings. In most cases, the chip temperature did not exceed 65 degrees. Of course, the card is rather weak for 2K – you can play new items, but frames are poured below the generally accepted 60 per second.

conclusions

For an unpretentious gamer, the card is a godsend, but the price tag bites – a crisis after all. In current realities, the cost of entering Full HD gaming with the GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER WINDFORCE OC is about 400-450 dollars. It is difficult to call this solution a budget one, but there is no alternative yet.

At the same time, you can minify a part of the cost of the device by renting out its capacity – it will turn out to recapture about $ 40 per month (as of the end of August of this year). Is it worth the candle – let everyone decide for himself.

Let’s highlight the pluses:

• sufficient gaming performance;
• the presence of a cooling system that can cope with heat generation;
• the backplate is plastic, but thanks that it exists at all;
• availability of all necessary connectors
• compact size – fits into almost any case.

There is no backlight here, and if you are assembling a Christmas tree, the device may look like a black spot in the case. Objective minus one – the card seems to be quite noisy to many. Perhaps, especially sensitive gamers will not be able to endure the work of coolers, but personally they did not bring us significant inconveniences – not silently, but bearable.

The lack of ray tracing may make the picture look less cinematic, but to see the technology in action, you’ll have to fork out for RTX cards. If you are not an esports player and without nausea are able to withstand plus or minus 60 FPS in games (sometimes sacrificing some settings) – you will like the card. Without much backlog for the future, but it’s enough to sit out the hard times.

Those who bought the card before the crisis will say that current prices are hell. Those who bought it this year will ask – how long can you wait, and when will you play? Those with a higher level card will say that this card is beggarly and that another 50% of its cost must be increased to normal. Everyone makes the choice himself, based on desires and financial capabilities.