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.

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.

Palit GTX 1650 StormX (5)

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.

Palit GTX 1650 StormX (6)

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.

Palit GTX 1650 StormX (2)

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.

Palit GTX 1650 StormX (3)

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
Average FPS values are recorded via FRAPS in-game. If the game doesn’t support FRAPS, we will use the in-game benchmark tool available.

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.

Palit GTX 1650 StormX Benchmarks (1)

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.

Palit GTX 1650 StormX Benchmarks (2)

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.

Palit GTX 1650 StormX Benchmarks (12)

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.

Palit GTX 1650 StormX Benchmarks (3)

LuxMark is an OpenCL cross-platform benchmark tool. The software has become one of the most popular OpenCL benchmarks over the past years.

Palit GTX 1650 StormX Benchmarks (5)

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.

Palit GTX 1650 StormX Benchmarks (4)

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%.

Palit GTX 1650 StormX Benchmarks (6)

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.

Palit GTX 1650 StormX Benchmarks (7)

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.

Palit GTX 1650 StormX Benchmarks (8)

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.

Palit GTX 1650 StormX Benchmarks (9)

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.

Palit GTX 1650 StormX Benchmarks (11)

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.

Palit GTX 1650 StormX Benchmarks (10)

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.TechPorn Awards 2018 (2)

Palit GTX 1650 StormX
  • PERFORMANCE - 8/10
    8/10
  • BUILD QUALITY - 8/10
    8/10
  • FEATURES - 7/10
    7/10
  • AESTHETICS - 7/10
    7/10
  • VALUE - 8/10
    8/10
7.6/10

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

 

8 Comments

  1. Igor
    April 29, 2020
    • Leo Bien Durana
      April 29, 2020
  2. EL
    November 13, 2020
    • Leo Bien Durana
      November 13, 2020
  3. Amin
    February 21, 2022
    • Leo Bien Durana
      February 22, 2022
  4. Philip
    August 1, 2023
    • Leo Bien Durana
      August 1, 2023

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