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Nvidia has upped the performance and value ante with its updated “Super” Turing lineup. We’ve seen this from the high-end cards now down to the budget side with the GTX 1650 Super and GTX 1660 Super. Here we saw the GTX 1650 Super come within striking distance of the GTX 1660, which makes it a worthwhile 1080p / ultra card, with occasional compromises. Since the new 1650 Super is priced at $159.99 versus $200-plus for the 1660 Ti, the value metric shapes up well for the latest Super card.
Power draw does jump up to 100W in the Super (from 75W), but it still compares quite favorably to any similarly performing AMD currently on the market. The new AMD 5500 should improve efficiency over the aging Polaris architecture. But as of this writing the RX 5500 is still vaporware at retail, and AMD’s own specs peg the card at a 150W TDP--still 50% higher than the 1650 Super.
The main drawback of the Zotac 1650 Super -- and 1650 Supers in general -- is the 4GB of VRAM. Today, this allows for a card capable of running many titles using Ultra settings at 1080p, but some titles crave more memory, resulting in a drastic change in performance and smoothness, if a AAA title has to dump data off the card’s speedy memory buffer. That won’t happen often now, but will likely become increasingly common as future games get more demanding on the memory front. So if you’re looking for a card that you won’t feel the need to replace anytime soon, you may want to save up for a pricer GTX 1600 Ti, with its 6GB buffer--which also delivers a bit better performance overall.
Nvidia’s more-aggressive pricing and increased performance with the Super cards has really chipped away at AMD’s ageing value-oriented GPUs. Now Nvidia generally offers the same or better performance at a similar price on the low end, while using much less power. The GTX 1650 Super specifically brings solid 1080p gaming to the sub-$200 price point, which is a positive for everyone. Zotac’s version brings sufficient (though somewhat noisy) cooling, as well as a slight factory overclock on the core. In sort, if you’re a new 1080p gaming card on a tight budget, the GTX 1650 Super is serious contender at $160.
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