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In a Nutshell
The GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER is a solid mid-range 1080P graphics card designed for gaming on medium to high settings. Despite having only 4GB of VRAM, the new Turing-based card is about 4% faster than the old GeForce GTX 1060 6GB. Provided that you are coming from GeForce GTX 960 or GTX 1050, the new GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER will provide noticeable performance improvements, however, if you already own a GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, then the upgrade to this card won’t be worth at all.
GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER
- Good performance in 1080P
- Runs very cool
- Low power consumption
- Great price
- Only 4GB of VRAM
- Narrow memory bus
- Modest performance improvements compared to its predecessors
GeForce GTX 1060 6GB
- Solid performance in 1080P
- Amazing price-to-performance ratio
- Performance in newer titles is rather disappointing
- Doesn’t perform well in games which use Vulkan API
In November 2019, Nvidia launched its latest mid-range graphics card called GeForce GTX 1650 Super. This card is part of the SUPER lineup of Nvidia’s graphics cards, and was meant to be provide modest improvements compared to GTX 1650 which was was released in the first half of 2019. Like all the cards from the SUPER lineup, the GeForce GTX 1650 Super is based on the Turing architecture, and was built upon 12 nm manufacturing process. In terms of price and availability, the GTX 1650 Super was meant to be a sub-$200 graphics card, which would offer solid performance for 1080P gaming without being too expensive. The GTX 1650 Super’s main competitors are AMD RX 5500 XT, as well as other previous-generation AMD’s graphics cards such as RX 580 and RX 570, and Nvidia’s older GPUs such as GTX 1060 6GB and GTX 970.
Must read: The Best GTX 1650 SUPER Graphics Cards in 2020
According to Nvidia, the GTX 1650 Super is supposed to be up to 50% faster than the ordinary GTX 1650, and up to 2 times faster than the previous-generation GTX 1050. This means that GTX 1650 Super should deliver up to 60 FPS on average in AAA titles, and up to 80 FPS in eSports gaming titles. The card itself should also be a great alternative for buyers who want to have an enjoyable 1080P gaming experience without the need to buy second hand graphics cards. Overall, the GTX 1650 Super should offer GTX 1060 6GB level performance for MSRP of only $159.
| Graphics Card Name | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Super | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB |
|---|---|---|
| Microarchitecture | Turing (TU116) | Pascal (GP106) |
| Fab Process | 12 nm | 16 nm |
| Transistor count (million) | 6600 | 4400 |
| Cores/TMUs/ROPs | 1280/80/32 | 1280/80/48 |
| Memory Size & Type | 4GB GDDR6 | 6GB GDDR5 |
| Base/Boost Clock (MHz) | 1530/1725 | 1506/1709 |
| Memory Bus/Interface | 128 bits/PCIe 3.0 x16 | 192 bits/PCIe 3.0 x16 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 192 GB/s | 192.2 GB/s |
| Compute | 4.41 TFLOPs | 4.37 TFLOPs |
| TDP | 100 W | 120 W |
| Launch Period | Q4 2019 | Q3 2016 |
Since GTX 1060 6GB is the real performance competitor to the GTX 1650 Super, in this article we’ll examine how does the new card perform compared to the old Pascal-based mainstream 1080P king. If you take a look at our specs table above, you’ll notice that the GTX 1650 Super features 2200 million more transistors vs the GTX 1060 6GB, and that it’s also built upon the newer manufacturing node. Bizarrely, the GTX 1650 Super has a bigger die size than the GTX 1060, which measures 284 mm². Nevertheless, the new GPU consumes only 100W of power under full load, which is absolutely fantastic if you plan to cut on your electricity bills.
GeForce GTX 1650 Super features the same amount of CUDA cores like the GTX 1060, which is 1280. New GPU, however, only comes in a variant with 4GB of VRAM, which is bare minimum in 2020, however, it utilizes the GDDR6 technology which enables it to process information much faster, and thus not experience any performance downgrades compared to the GTX 1060. New GPU also has a narrower memory bus of only 128 bits, and it doesn’t support newer PCIe 4.0 serial bus, like the RX 5500 XT does.
Compared to the GTX 1060 6GB, the GTX 1650 Super has slightly faster base and boost clocks, but this frequency increase is less than 1 percent overall. Both cards have nearly the same memory bandwidth, and GTX 1650 Super has slightly more compute power than GTX 1060. One thing that is really impressive about the GTX 1650 Super is that this card consumes only 100W under full load, and it requires only one 6-pin power connector to draw energy from. Also, there are various custom models of this card made by different manufacturers, so there are plenty of GTX 1650 Super variants to choose from, each with their own special features.
With all things said, now is the time to inspect the performance of GTX 1650 Super vs its main competitor GTX 1060 6GB. Based upon 10 different sources and more than 250 data entries, we have conducted a meta-analysis of various GTX 1650 Super and GTX 1060 6GB benchmarks available online, and calculated total averages in order to compare performance of these two graphics cards. All benchmark data was based on PC systems with Intel Core i7-8700K or i9-9900K processors, which featured at least 16 GB of DDR4 RAM, and a Windows 10 operating system running on an SSD drive. Results are shown below.
Performance at Full HD (1920×1080) Resolution
From the above chart we can see that GTX 1650 Super performs nearly identical vs GTX 1060 6GB. In most games the GTX 1650 Super seems to render couple of frames more than the GTX 1060, but there are few titles in which the older Pascal-based GPU performs better. Notable examples are PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Apex Legends and Grand Theft Auto V, however, performance advantage is so small that it can be attributed to the measurement error.
In most cases GTX 1650 Super doesn’t offer big improvements, however, the card does seem to perform better in newer titles such as Battlefield V, Call of Duty Modern Warfare, and Forza Horizon 4. If you happen to play this games, and you are looking for a cheap graphics card, then GTX 1650 Super might be an ideal choice for you. Otherwise the performance that this card offers is rather mediocre, especially when we take a look at the results obtained for games like Red Dead Redemption 2, Metro Exodus and Control. Pairing this card with FreeSync capable monitor might be a good choice, however, be sure that it has DisplayPort, otherwise the card won’t support its variable refresh capabilities.
Performance at Quad HD (2560×1440) Resolution
Neither GTX 1060 6GB, nor GTX 1650 Super were designed to be 1440P cards, however, in certain titles they can offer enjoyable frame rate, provided that you lower your image quality settings. Here again we see that GTX 1650 Super performs slightly better vs GTX 1060, but performance advantage is negligible. In newer titles such as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Control and Red Dead Redemption 2, the GTX 1650 Super is completely useless at 1440P resolution. Surprisingly, the GTX 1650 Super scores worse results than the old GTX 1060 in games such as Grand Theft Auto V and Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands in 1440P, but again runs better in Battlefield V and Destiny 2. One gets the impression that the GTX 1650 Super was specifically designed for eSports and FPS titles, because it consistently shows better results in such games. Nevertheless, the GTX 1650 Super might be a suitable solution for 1440P gaming, but only if you plan to play first-person shooters. Otherwise you should look for something more powerful, especially if you want to play on 144 Hz monitor.
Conclusion
The Turing-based GTX 1650 Super and the Pascal-based GTX 1060 perform nearly identical, however the card from the SUPER lineup seems to have slight advantage in terms of overall performance.
Overall, the GeForce GTX 1650 Super is a pretty solid graphics card for 1080P gaming with medium to high settings. Just like its previous generation competitor – the GTX 1060 – the card supports latest computer graphics technologies such as DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs, OpenGL 4.6, OpenCL 1.2, Nvidia GeForce Experience, Nvidia Ansel and Nvidia G-Sync.
Great thing about this card is that it only draws 100W of power under full load, which is great for low-power, small form factor PCs. The biggest disadvantage of this card it that it only features 4GB GDDR6, which really isn’t enough nowadays. The card might be suitable for playing present-day AAA titles, however, in near future it won’t be adequate since it won’t be able to load all those textures. The GDDR6 technology does save the day, but it won’t be enough to push those frames to the enjoyable levels.
In terms of price and availability, non-reference GTX 1650 Super cards with custom coolers are now retailing at only $199, which is great price for a brand new 1080P graphics card. Considering how GTX 1650 Super is cheap, there is really no point of buying second hand GTX 1060 cards which no longer have warranty, and are probably well worn-off. Also, the GTX 1650 Super seems to be much cheaper than the RX 5500 XT, which offers slightly better performance and more VRAM, but in turn costs more.
If you already own GTX 1060 graphics card, then upgrade to GTX 1650 Super isn’t worthy at all. However, if you are looking for a good 1080P card which is very energy efficient and supports newer technologies, then GTX 1650 Super might be a good choice. If you are upgrading from GTX 960 or GTX 1050, you’ll see major performance boosts with this card. Also, this card seems to run well with FPS titles, so if this is something you prefer, then don’t hesitate buying this card. Overall, this card is ideal for folks trying to build best budget 1080P gaming PC, however, its VRAM limitation of only 4GB is rather disappointing. Nevertheless, this card offers a lot of performance for a good price, and as such it is one of the best budget graphics cards around. However, if you are looking for something more future-proof, than GTX 1650 Super might not be a good choice.
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