Nvidia GeForce GTX 1630 Review: Lobotomized Turing

Rose tinted glasses won't make this old GPU look any better

By Jarred Walton
last updated
Colorful GeForce GTX 1630
(Image: © Tom's Hardware)

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TOM'S HARDWARE 2022 GPU TEST PC

Intel Core i9-12900K (opens in new tab)
MSI Pro Z690-A WiFi DDR4 (opens in new tab)
Corsair 2x16GB DDR4-3600 CL16 (opens in new tab)
Crucial P5 Plus 2TB (opens in new tab)
Cooler Master MWE 1250 V2 Gold (opens in new tab)
Cooler Master PL360 Flux (opens in new tab)
Cooler Master HAF500
Windows 11 Pro 64-bit 

Our 2022 GPU testbed consists of a Core i9-12900K processor, MSI Pro Z690-A DDR4 WiFi motherboard, and DDR4-3600 memory (with XMP enabled). We're running Windows 11 to ensure we get the most out of Alder Lake, and we're running the latest game patches and drivers for this testing — 516.93 (opens in new tab) for the GTX 1630.

Our gaming tests consist of a "standard" suite of eight games, and since there's no ray tracing hardware on the GTX 16-series GPUs, we can skip that portion of testing. We've tested at 1080p with medium and ultra settings, though as we'll see shortly there's little point in enabling maximum settings in more demanding games on such a slow graphics card.

Jarred Walton
Jarred Walton

Jarred Walton is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on everything GPU. He has been working as a tech journalist since 2004, writing for AnandTech, Maximum PC, and PC Gamer. From the first S3 Virge '3D decelerators' to today's GPUs, Jarred keeps up with all the latest graphics trends and is the one to ask about game performance.

21 Comments Comment from the forums
  • King_V
    Upon reading this review, I feel that I owe you an apology for being such a proponent for the GPU Battle of Meh...

    Uh, but, I guess it's better than the 1050 non-Ti, so, uh, that's . . no, I can't even get myself to say it's some kind of victory.

    My sympathies for your suffering on this one, @JarredWaltonGPU
    Reply
  • Eximo
    OEMs are still selling GTX1650 and 1650 Super in low end gaming desktops. Just don't see this happening, practically e-waste unless they cut the price in half.
    Reply
  • PiranhaTech
    King_V said:
    Upon reading this review, I feel that I owe you an apology for being such a proponent for the GPU Battle of Meh...

    Uh, but, I guess it's better than the 1050 non-Ti, so, uh, that's . . no, I can't even get myself to say it's some kind of victory.

    My sympathies for your suffering on this one, @JarredWaltonGPU
    I don't mind weak GPUs from Nvidia or AMD as long as they are priced okay. There's been a few times where an integrated GPU doesn't work for whatever reason (for a PC not used for gaming), or my good GPU goes out, I'm short on money, and I need a working PC.

    They definitely have their uses. However, come on! With that kind of performance, be $120 at most, probably $80-100. It's 75W on top of all of this. I could be more forgiving if it ran at 50W or lower. Give us something, Nvidia! The GT 1030 is a 30W GPU
    Reply
  • King_V
    PiranhaTech said:
    I don't mind weak GPUs from Nvidia or AMD as long as they are priced okay. There's been a few times where an integrated GPU doesn't work for whatever reason (for a PC not used for gaming), or my good GPU goes out, I'm short on money, and I need a working PC.

    They definitely have their uses. However, come on! With that kind of performance, be $120 at most, probably $80-100. It's 75W on top of all of this. I could be more forgiving if it ran at 50W or lower. Give us something, Nvidia! The GT 1030 is a 30W GPU
    Well, as predicted when the specs were announced and when the card first came out, Nvidia released a GPU that makes the RX 6400 look like a hero.
    Reply
  • waffleinc
    When I first heard about this GPU, I was somewhat excited. At the time, I needed a cheap and cheerful GPU for nothing more than basic home use and video encoding. I figured that as long as it's only $100, that would be fine, even with the low core count and slow memory. Then I saw that it would be $200 and 75w. Yeah, no thanks.
    Reply
  • Giroro
    What version of NVENC does it have?
    I assume the older/worse version of the GTX 1650... If so, I wouldn't even want this for $100... Maybe $80.

    With the updated encoders, I could see myself paying nearly $125 as an entry point to throw my old 3700x into a dedicated streaming PC.

    But today Newegg has a 1660 Super for $210 ($30 MIR), and you can get an RTX 2060 for $250 (which also completely embarrasses the pricing of the RTX 3050).

    Nvidia needs to step back get real with how they're letting their board partners price their crappy new cards.
    Reply
  • JarredWaltonGPU
    King_V said:
    Upon reading this review, I feel that I owe you an apology for being such a proponent for the GPU Battle of Meh...

    Uh, but, I guess it's better than the 1050 non-Ti, so, uh, that's . . no, I can't even get myself to say it's some kind of victory.

    My sympathies for your suffering on this one, @JarredWaltonGPU
    I'm still waiting for the "joy" of testing Arc A380. I mean, technically it should perform pretty decently based on specs. But I am not at all looking forward to the driver shenanigans I'll likely have to deal with. On the bright side, it's taken so long to get the GPU shipped from China that drivers will hopefully be quite a bit better by the time the card arrives! Also, AV1 encoding should be interesting, assuming it works properly. I'll try to encode and upload the A380 video using its AV1 hardware. 🙃
    Reply
  • Thunder64
    The article basically says "Don't buy this crap" and yet 2/5 stars. What is a one star product? This costs the same as much better cards and still requires external power.

    Giroro said:
    What version of NVENC does it have?
    I assume the older/worse version of the GTX 1650... If so, I wouldn't even want this for $100... Maybe $80.

    With the updated encoders, I could see myself paying nearly $125 as an entry point to throw my old 3700x into a dedicated streaming PC.

    But today Newegg has a 1660 Super for $210 ($30 MIR), and you can get an RTX 2060 for $250 (which also completely embarrasses the pricing of the RTX 3050).

    Nvidia needs to step back get real with how they're letting their board partners price their crappy new cards.

    Or for $10 more on Amazon you could get an RX 6600. That would have a bit more performance but more importantly 8GB of RAM.

    JarredWaltonGPU said:
    I'm still waiting for the "joy" of testing Arc A380. I mean, technically it should perform pretty decently based on specs. But I am not at all looking forward to the driver shenanigans I'll likely have to deal with. On the bright side, it's taken so long to get the GPU shipped from China that drivers will hopefully be quite a bit better by the time the card arrives! Also, AV1 encoding should be interesting, assuming it works properly. I'll try to encode and upload the A380 video using its AV1 hardware. 🙃

    How are you even going to review it? Intel should betting more flak about having to put games into "tiers". Do you separate your review by tier? The conclusion could be quite different depending on what you intend to play.
    Reply
  • missingxtension
    This is just a slap in the face, so disrespectful. Rx6400 was so disrespectful, then Nvidia comes and "hold ny beer".
    I am waiting to see if Intel at least ca do something reasonable for the price, I just can't see Intel being good at pricing. But this guys here make em look like the value leader. Wait till the recession and shrinking computer market comes, they are trying to cause it.
    Reply
  • hannibal
    Nvidia knows exactly how fast (slow) this GPU is! When this is $199, just ques how much more faster GPUs are gonna cost!
    4050 should cost douple of this gpu so $400 and that still makes 4050 to look good compared to this gpu.
    The GPU price hike is not over, at least according the Nvidia!
    Reply