Budget offerings are my favorite out of the bunch when it comes to graphics cards and other PC components. They are after all, the easiest way to experience PC gaming.
Now what we have here for review is the Palit GTX 1650 StormX 4GB graphics card. A 6, 280 Peso value proposition from the popular Taiwanese brand. This is as basic as it gets even for a budget graphics, with dual display options and a simple dual slot cooling solution.
Table of Contents
Technical Specifications
| GPU | |
| Model | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 |
| Cores | 896 |
| Core Clock | 1485 MHz |
| Boost Clock | 1665 MHz |
| Architecture | Turing |
| Manufacturing Process | 12 nm |
| TDP | 75 W |
| Memory | |
| Memory Clock | 2000 MHz |
| Memory Bus Width | 128-bit |
| Memory Capacity | 4 GB |
| Memory Type | GDDR5 |
| Connectivity | |
| Display | Dual-Link DVI, HDMI 2.0b |
| Power | PCIe |
| Dimensions | |
| Length | 145 mm |
| Width | 99 mm |
| Height | 40 mm |
| Weight | NA |
Packaging and Accessories
The Palit GTX 1650 StormX comes with a standard budget oriented packaging. The product should come with the following items inside:
- Quick Setup Guide
- Software DVD
Design, Layout and Build Quality
The Palit GTX 1650 StormX is a dinky looking graphics card at just under 6 inches. This is one of the smallest cards that I have tested to date and is a cute one as well.
In true budget oriented fashion, Palit never bothered slapping in a back plate. You can’t latch this one up as well. Acceptable design decisions I must say for the single fan cooling configuration.
Power is of course provided by the PCIe connector alone. Z height on the other hand takes about two slots. These factors will come in handy for low power and SFF builds as well.
There are only two display options to choose from: A DisplayPort, and a single DVI port. This stays true to the card’s intended purpose – to serve as a basic yet capable card for the masses. Still, I’d love to see one DisplayPort here.
Test Setup and Methodology
The system performance shall be evaluated by various benchmarking tools and applications. We are testing this system with the high-performance settings enabled at the OS, with the default UEFI configuration. Background processes such as anti-viruses and third-party applications are disabled as well. Outlined below are the applications and benchmark tools for reference:
| Test System Specifications | |
| CPU | Intel Core-i5 6600K |
| Motherboard | ASUS Z170-A |
| Cooler | Noctua NH-L9i |
| Memory | ADATA Premier DDR4 |
| GPU | ASUS ROG Strix GTX 1060 OC |
| Storage | Crucial BX200 480GB |
| Case | Thermaltake Core P3 |
| PSU | CORSAIR RM850X |
| Display | DELL U2715H |
| OS | Microsoft Windows 10 Pro |
TEMPERATURE, POWER AND NOISE:
- Aida64 Extreme Edition – Stability Test
SYNTHETIC PERFORMANCE:
- 3DMARK 2013 – Firestrike Presets.
- Luxmark – OpenCL benchmark.
- Aida64 Extreme Edition – GPGPU Benchmark
GAMING PERFORMANCE:
- Overwatch – Ultra Settings, Render Scale 100%, V-SYNC off
- Battlefield 4 – Ultra Settings, V-SYNC off
- DIRT: Rally – Ultra Settings, V-SYNC off
- Project CARS – Maximum Settings, V-SYNC off
- The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – Ultra Settings, FXAA off, V-SYNC off
- The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Ultra Settings, HairWorks off, V-SYNC off
Temperature, Power and Noise
The graphics card thermal figures are taken during a 15 minute idle and a 15 minute load via the AIDA64 Extreme Edition Stability Test. The ambient temperature is checked at 27°C (±1°C), with values extracted via HWiNFO and GPU-Z.
The total system power consumption are taken during a 15 minute idle and a 15 minute load via the AIDA64 Extreme Edition Stability Test. The measurements are taken by a watt-meter.
The graphics card noise levels are taken during a 15 minute idle and a 15 minute load via the AIDA64 Extreme Edition Stability Test. The ambient sound level is 34dBA (±1dBA), with measurements taken by a sound level meter situated exactly 12 inches away from the card.
Temperature wise, the Palit GTX 1650 StormX ranked fourth on the test bench. Power figures on the other hand is the best on the benchmark with about 20% lower consumption comapred to the GTX 1060. Sound levels are decent too with a maximum of 40.5dBA at 40% fan speed. These results are good enough for a budget card, yet also kinda predictable due to its 75W TDP.
Synthetic Performance
3DMark 2013 is a suite of benchmarks catered for the gamers and enthusiasts. The total system scores from each presets will be used.
LuxMark is an OpenCL cross-platform benchmark tool. The software has become one of the most popular OpenCL benchmarks over the past years.
The Aida64 Extreme Edition GPGPU Benchmark is designed to measure GPGPU computing performance via different workloads. Every benchmark methods are designed to work on up to 16 GPUs, including AMD, Intel and nVIDIA GPUs, in any combination.
All three benchmarks showed that the GTX 1650 is at the bottom of the benchmarks. At best, we are looking at a 41% performance discrepancy if compared to the GTX 1060.
Gaming Performance
Overwatch is Blizzard Entertainment’s critically acclaimed First Person Shooter, running on a custom game engine utilizing the DirectX 11 API. Settings are set to Ultra with a Render Scale set to 100%.
Battlefield 4 is Electronic Art’s popular First Person Shooter, running on the Frostbite 3 game engine developed by DICE utilizing the DirectX 11 and the Mantle API. Settings are set to Ultra.
DIRT: Rally is CODEMASTER’s take on the rally racing game genre. It utilizes the EGO game engine with support for the DirectX 11 API. Settings are set to Ultra.
Project CARS is Slightly Mad Studios’ latest simulation racing game, running on the Madness game engine utilizing DirectX 11 support. Settings are set to maximum.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is Bethesda’s critically acclaimed Action Adventure RPG. Skyrim utilizes the Creation Engine with DirectX 10 support. Settings are set to Ultra with V-SYNC turned off.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is CDProjekt RED’s award winning Action Adventure RPG. The Witcher 3 utilizes the REDengine 3 with DirectX 11 support. Settings are set to Ultra.
Gaming performance wise and at all resolutions tested, the Palit GTX 1650 StormX appeared to be a very much capable performer under 1080P at ultra settings. The card is able to push frames beyond 60 with the exception of The Witcher 3. That’s technically GTX 970 performance on a small and power efficient package.
Software, Lighting and Special Features
The Palit GTX 1650 is bare to the bone. No lighting to gawk at, no extra bundle of accessories to be had – it is just as simple as it looks. It does support G-Sync though which is a plus for the card’s capabilities. Nvidia Ansel is also of course supported.
Final Thoughts
The GeForce GTX 1650 is a good card if priced right. Lucky enough for Palit, that is currently the case. At 6, 280 Pesos, this is the easiest entry to experience G-Sync compatible displays and with a nice 1080P gaming performance to boot. Had I reviewed this card a little earlier, like release date early, then this paragraph wont make any sense.
Product stacking wise, the GeForce GTX 1650 is definitely under the GTX 1660 and is the successor of the last generation’s fastest 75W green card. Nvidia banked on that approach and most likely never intended the card to be the best when it comes to price/performance ratio. That crown is still at the hands of the AMD Radeon RX 570.
The GTX 1650 is simply put, a card made for the following: Gamers who wants to purchase a 1080P performer and gamers who wants to keep power, noise and temperature levels in check. The card is also meant for other low power applications and SFF builds requiring a rock solid 1080P gaming capability.
Palit GTX 1650 StormX
-
PERFORMANCE - 8/10
8/10
-
BUILD QUALITY - 8/10
8/10
-
FEATURES - 7/10
7/10
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AESTHETICS - 7/10
7/10
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VALUE - 8/10
8/10
Summary
The GTX 1650 is simply put, a card made for the following: Gamers who wants to purchase a 1080P performer and gamers who wants to keep power, noise and temperature levels in check. The card is also meant for other low power applications and SFF builds requiring a rock solid 1080P gaming capability.
Pros
- 1080P gaming performance
- Excellent power figures
- Temperature output
- Noise levels
- Supports G-SYNC
Cons
- Limited display options
Why do you say “single slot cooling solution”? The pics you show indicate that it’s 2-slot!
Hi! Updated! Thanks a lot for pointing that out.
P.S. We actually stated that it is a dual slot graphics on the “Design, Layout and Build Quality” section. :)
Hi sir. i just wanna ask if its still worth to buy this?
im on a budget build and i cant find any cheaper vid cards.
is this still worth??
The GTX 1650 is still worthy – if you could find one at its designated price point, pre-pandemic.
hi
Thanks for the good description and review
Do you think this graphics are compatible with the i5-4430 processor?
Hi Amin,
This graphics card is perfectly fine to use with that processor.
hallo leo
ben ook aan het kijken voor een videokaart moet in een Lenovo ideacentre 5 passen heb wel nieuwe voeding al besteld van Be quiet tfx 300 gold welke kaart zou jij aanraden? Philip
Hi! I do not speak Dutch but Google translate indicated that you are looking for a good card to go with your IdeaCentre 5 + Be Quiet! TFX 300, am I correct? If so, could you send me the link of the Lenovo model so I could check its specifications? Or better, please send it in as a reply so I could check what we could do about it. :D