While premium PC builders are in a rat race to see who can get their hands on the latest Nvidia Ampere graphics cards, budget-oriented builders don’t have to fuss over those expensive and elusive cards. If you’re looking to kit out your PC with a more affordable graphics card, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super is likely on your radar - especially with Amazon Prime Day on the horizon.
You can find the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super from Nvidia’s partners for anywhere from $160 (about £125 / AU$225) to closer to $200 (about £155 / AU$280). What you’ll get is a low-power graphics card with 1,280 CUDA cores running at a base clock of 1,530MHz unless the AIB partner overclocked it. You’ll also get 4GB of GDDR6 VRAM, which is an important spec because it’s faster than the GDDR5 found on the original 1650, but it’s still a limited capacity.
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What the GTX 1650 Super can do for you?
The GTX 1650 Super isn’t made to blow games out of the water by running them at 4K and high frame rates. This is the graphics card simply to get you playing.
What does that mean in practical terms? When paired with an appropriate processor, the GTX 1650 Super should be able to handle a solid 1080p/60fps gaming experience on most of the games you’ll throw at it. Some games you’ll get to play with settings dialed up to Ultra while you’ll have to settle for Medium on some games to maintain playable frame rates above 30fps.
The GeForce GTX 1650 Super also comes with some quality-of-life features, such as GeForce Experience for easy driver updates, game setting optimizations, and convenient in-game recording tools. It also supports Nvidia G-Sync to help prevent screen-tearing.
Where the GTX 1650 Super is the right pick
Bearing in mind what the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super can do, it becomes clear when this card is the right choice. If you’re just trying to do some casual gaming on a basic 1080p monitor or TV, then the GTX 1650 Super is an affordable option that should be able to keep up in current and past titles.
The GTX 1650 Super also has a special place in PC builds that have limited power. If you have a low-wattage power supply, this card will work. Since the GTX 1650 Super only draws 100 watts, it can more easily integrate into systems without requiring an additional upgrade to the power supply.
Where the GTX 1650 Super is the wrong pick
If the aforementioned situation doesn’t sound like you, then there are probably a lot of reasons you can skip the GTX 1650 Super.
For some, it might actually be more graphics power than they need. If you’ve got a recent Intel CPU with integrated graphics or an AMD APU, you might already have all the graphical horsepower you need to play some browser games or less demanding and older titles. And, if you just need a graphics card to give your PC video output, you can go with an older model like the GTX 1050 or even GT 1030.
Then, there’s the situation where you might want more power or a future-ready machine. As long as you’ve got a power supply with a bit of headroom (500W perhaps), there’s a strong case to be made against the 1650 Super.
For one, AMD has the Radeon 5500 XT. This graphics card comes in a similar price range, but dials up the performance. It comes in two variants, one with 4GB of GDDR6 and one with 8GB. If your budget is tight, you should be able to go with the 4GB variant and still see slightly better performance, though it’ll be neck-and-neck with the 1650 Super. The 8GB models will run closer to $200 (about £155 / AU$280), but that extra VRAM could come in handy as future games rely on increasingly detailed visual assets. Some of the GTX 1650 Super variants also cost close to $200 (about £155 / AU$280), which makes the Radeon RX 5500 XT with 8GB of VRAM an even easier alternative to justify. We also saw a lot of Radeon RX 5500 XT models including a free copy of Godfall with purchase, adding a lot of extra value for anyone who wants that game.
The used market also hurts the value of the GTX 1650 Super. If you’re not shy about picking up used PC parts, you can give your computer a lot more oomph by looking there. As many PC builders have likely moved on from 10-series and even 20-series, you’ll find plenty to choose from on eBay. In a quick search, we were able to find several GTX 1070 Ti cards going for under $200 (about £155 / AU$280). That’d take a bit more juice from your power supply than the 1650 Super, but it’ll result in more graphical performance.
Finally, the 1650 Super may be worth skipping if you’ve already got a graphics card in your computer. If you are coming from an older, mid-range card like the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, GTX 1050, or an AMD card like the RX 480 or 580, the newer card probably won’t be worth it. There’s little point paying for an entirely new card to only get a minor performance boost (if any) over your previous card.
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