Palit GeForce GTX 1650 Super StormX OC Review

The GeForce GTX 1650 Super is NVIDIA’s latest addition to its GTX 16 series lineup, aimed at the 1080p gaming segment. Apart from having a much solid performance in 1080p gaming than the GTX 1650, the GTX 1650 Super is also NVIDIA’s response to AMD’s Radeon RX 5500.

So for this review, we’ll be taking a look at one of the GTX 1650 Super from Palit, the GTX 1650 Super StormX OC. Let’s see what kind of performance we can expect from this card if compared to both the GTX 1650 and GTX 1660.

Specifications

Unboxing

Starting with the packaging, we can see that Palit kept things rather simple for its GTX 1650 Super StormX OC – no fancy RGB related features, no gimmicky terms on the packaging. Apart from the usual features i.e Turing Shaders, GDDR6 memory you can find on the box of any GTX 16 series graphics card, we know that the card comes with a total of 4GB GDDR6 memory and it’s factory overclocked.

At the back of the box, you’ll find a briefly described key features and the system requirements for the product itself.

Inside the box, you’ll find a quick installation guide and the Palit GTX 1650 Super StormX OC. That’s all you’ll get inside the box as there are no additional accessories included.

The Palit GTX 1650 SUPER StormX OC

Unlike the RTX Super lineup that replaces both the RTX 2070 and RTX 2080 upon release, NVIDIA didn’t phase out any of the existing GTX 16 series cards this time. According to the product positioning, the GTX 1650 Super is positioned in between the GTX 1650 and GTX 1660. If we compare the GPU used on both cards, the GTX 1650 Super is equipped with a TU116-250-KA-A1 GPU while the GTX 1660 has the TU116-300-A1 GPU which delivers a different level of performance.

The Palit GTX 1650 Super StormX OC comes equipped with a dual-slot single fan cooler design, which is the same cooler as the one on the Palit GTX 1650 Super StormX. The small and compact design can easily fit in tight clearance, which makes it a good choice for ITX builds.

Unlike the GTX 1650 with rated TDP of 75W, the Palit GTX 1650 Super StormX OC has TDP rated at 100W. A single 6-pin PCIe power connector is required for the card but according to the specs, the minimum required for the power supply is at 350W only – which is great for a budget gaming PC.

No backplate is included on the Palit GTX 1650 Super StormX OC but because the heatsink isn’t that heavy, you don’t have to worry about PCB sagging issue.

The display output available on the Palit GTX 1650 Super StormX OC is very pretty basic as you can see here: 1 x DisplayPort, 1 x HDMI, and 1 x DVI-D.

Test System Setup

For our games benchmark test, we’ve selected several AAA titles to run at its highest possible settings using the following setup under an ambient temperature of 31°C:

The test is done separately for games that support both DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 at the resolution of 1920×1080, 2560×1440, and 3840×2160 with a GTX 1650.

Performance-wise, the Palit GTX 1650 Super StormX OC did gave us a pretty solid performance on several selected titles but it’s still not at the level where it can overpower the GTX 1650.

We can see it has an advantage over the GTX 1650 on games that run on DirectX 12 or those that aren’t extremely resource-intensive. With the slightly limited VRAM at 4GB, lowering the graphics settings on heavier AAA titles from the highest to high will give you a better frame rate for sure.

While the numbers aren’t looking that great, the Palit GTX 1650 Super StormX OC is showing a much significant lead against the GTX 1650 on 1440p gaming. Still, we can see that it’s capable of 1440p gaming to a certain degree, given that you’re willing to sacrifice more of the aesthetics to trade for better performance – not really recommended doing so.

With the limited 4GB VRAM it has, 4K gaming is too much for both the GTX 1650 and GTX 1650 Super to handle. Lowering the settings won’t do much at this point, you’re better off with at least an RTX 2080 if you want to game on 4K with a reasonable frame rate without sacrificing too much on the aesthetics.

Temperature

While running under default settings, the GPU temperature hovers around 35°C on idle and peaked at 60°C most of the time during our games benchmark, 65°C if stress with FurMark benchmark. The fan never stops spinning regardless of the load throughout our tests, which suggests that Palit didn’t implement the 0db fan design for its GTX 1650 Super StormX OC.

Final Thoughts

Despite having only 4GB GDDR6 memory, it can still handle quite some AAA titles with very high details without much issue. The surprisingly low power draw at 102W and the performance it can deliver makes it a real power efficient card that can be powered by almost any power supply.

The thermal performance is pretty good too even though it’s running on a single-fan cooler. The surprisingly low idle temperature of 35°C and a peak temperature of 65°C isn’t something that we’ve expected from such a simple cooler but we don’t have any complaint as long as it gets the job done.

That being said, the reasonable performance from the Palit GTX 1650 Super StormX OC as an entry-level graphics card for 1080p gaming at the price of $170 makes it pretty reasonable choice that we find to be much easier to recommend to gamers who want to build a gaming PC on a tight budget and those who are planning on upgrading from any graphics card that below GTX 900 series.

Pros

• Uses GDDR6 memory
• Reasonable 1080p performance on high settings
• Low power draw
• Decent cooling performance
• Low operating noise

Cons

• No backplate included
• 4GB Memory might not be enough for some games