After trying out and comparing two different GTX 1660 Ti from MSI, if you missed that feel free to check it out in the right top corner on the video below it, I again have a chance to do a similar GPU comparison, but with the GTX 1650 series of Nvidia’s latest line-up, in particular their Gaming X and Ventus XS OC editions.
Both cards have that familiar MSI design cues, the Gaming X in its seventh generation of their Twin Frozr cooler design, this time moving away from the black and red color scheme and going for the silverish-gray and black combo. On the other hand, the GTX 1650 Ventus XS series design-wise looks more like their other lower budget Armor series, but overall, it seems like they’ve narrowed down their color choice across the board.
What they do have in common is that they both don’t bring any kind of backplate, which a bit disappointing, I was expecting at least something on the more expensive model between these two.
MSI GTX 1650 Gaming X and GTX 1650 Ventus XS OC
MSI’s Ventus XS series is actually their so to speak lowest tier series, it doesn’t have any bells and whistles of its higher-tier brother, like in this case and in this comparison to the Gaming X model. So, for example, you’ll be missing out the Zero Frozr 0 RPM 0 dB fan feature which stops the fan spinning when the graphics card is idling, but you’ll rather get these ones which spin constantly, with of course change in speed depending on the GPU temperature. You also won’t get any RGB or any kind of lighting for that matter, but it’s to be expected considering where it’s placed in the line-up. The cooling setup is also pretty modest as you can see it here for yourself, it doesn’t have any heat-pipes on it, just a somewhat fair sized aluminum heat-sink with two fans on top of it.
On the other end, with the Gaming X you’ll get your usual set of features, lightning, although not that impressive with this particular model, just the logo glows and you can not change its color, and a bit beefier cooling, with a heat-pipe setup and their larger Torx 3.0 fans.
The Gaming X is also a bit longer, but not because it needs that extra space on the PCB for the components, because the back end of it is completely empty, but rather because of its cooling solution as it takes space, while it’s also heavier by about 140 grams. There’s also a difference in video output setup, where the Ventus XS model besides the HDMI and DisplayPort brings in a DVI-D instead of a second DisplayPort, as seen on the Gaming X model.
Lastly, the MSI GTX 1650 Ventus XS OC model doesn’t utilize or need additional PCI-express power connector, you just plug it in into the PCI-express x16 slot on your motherboard and you’re good to go, while the Gaming X does require a 6-pin PCI-express power connector from the power supply.
MSI GTX 1650 Gaming X vs Ventus XS OC – which one performs better?
I’ve benchmarked them both at their out of the box stock clock values, as I don’t see a point in using their preloaded OC profile because I always do my manual overclocking anyway, and besides that, the Ventus XS OC model doesn’t even have any of that profiles preloaded on it, plus you need to keep their Dragon Center software opened at all time so it keeps that OC profile, because if you close it off, it goes back to the default profile, which is a bit silly and I don’t want any unnecessary application opened in the background. Also, this way I can see how the cooling performance and GPU cherry-picking affects the boost clocks on each model, which is something that I am and probably you are interested in.
As you can see here, MSI GTX 1650 Gaming X has a slight performance advantage over the Ventus XS OC, although most of the time they’re neck and neck. Although on paper the Gaming X model has a much higher boost clock, in reality, when you put them under load, they both perform pretty similarly and reach basically the same GPU clock speed, Gaming X model surpassing the Ventus XS OC by only around 30 MHz.
Where the Gaming X takes the lead is in the overclocking potential. I was able to clock its GPU a bit higher, which made it reach around 2130 MHz under load, just enough to provide around 5% difference in performance compared to the Ventus XS OC model which boosted to around 2000 MHz under load when overclocked. Strangely enough, the Ventus XS OC model won the video memory lottery and clocked better than the Gaming X model, by about 60 MHz, but that didn’t help her in the end in overall performance. When you draw the line, by overclocking either of them you’ll get a total of around 15-20% performance jump compared to their stock values, which is actually pretty decent.
Looking at the temperatures, idle figures between them were vastly different since the Gaming X model runs passively when the GPU temperature is below a certain number, which gave the Ventus XS OC model advantage in this scenario since its fans always spin. Interestingly enough, both of them had a very similar results under load, roaming around 60°C on an open test-bed, but I was a bit left in the dark because of the fact that I couldn’t read the fan speed from Ventus XS OC model, since it had a bit lower temperature, but it just wouldn’t show up anywhere. I could just guess by the fan speed percentage and noise that the fans were probably running a bit faster on it, while with the Gaming X model that was mostly around 1100 RPM mark. Obviosuly, the Gaming X model is dead silent during idle, since the fan doesn’t spin, while the Ventus XS OC fans are barely noticeable. Here’s a short sound clip of both of them under load, while also using the sound meter for measurement comparison.
I’d put my money on MSI GTX 1650 Gaming X model
What’s also not that different is their power consumption. with the configuration that I’ve used here for my testing purpose, you can check it down below in the description box down below, both barley touched 150 W mark under full load during gameplay, and that’s with an overclocked 6 core CPU, so I would say that they easily draw far below 100W on their own . It’s really impressive to see that considering their performance output for that amount of power requirement, we’ve come a long way when it comes to that in the last 5 years.
That’s all well and good, but on the other hand, it doesn’t change the fact that Nvidia’s GTX 1650 series as of right now is sort of misplaced when it comes to current GPU market state, where it actually falls in relation to other products surrounding, because price to performance-wise it’s really hard to justify its purchase. But, If that would change at a certain point in future, if I or you would have to choose between these two MSI models down the line, between the MSI GTX 1650 Ventus XS OC and MSI GTX 1650 Gaming X, I would personally pay that extra 10$ difference for the Gaming X model, since I think it’s worth that additional money considering the features it brings in, in particular, the zero RPM fan mode, that’s a selling point for me.
Others will probably find that a good selling point for the GTX 1650 Ventus XS OC model, besides its lower price, is the fact that it doesn’t need additional PCI-express power connector, so it features a pretty painless upgrade option to a less equipped or older PC which is in need of bumping up its 1080p gaming performance. Your only job is to make sure it fits in your chassis and has a psychical PCI-express x16 slot, and you’re basically good to go. Anyway, both of them represent a different approach and side so to speak, yours is to choose which one you’ll go after depending on your needs.
That’s it from me for this review, I really hope this MSI GTX 1650 Gaming X vs Ventus XS direct GPU comparison helped you choose between them, if you have any question feel free to hit me in the comments section of my YouTube video listed above, you can contact me via my social media channels!
