This is the Gigabyte’s take on GTX 1650 Super series, in particular, the GTX 1650 Super Windforce OC version, and let’s just jump right into it and take a closer look at what it has to offer.
Since I already went over the technical details and specifications of this particular series and GPU that it carries, that being Nvidia’s TU116, feel free to check that video out, there will be a link in the right top corner of this video, I will just dive right into this model’s features and design. Since this is a lower-tier segment of graphics cards by its nature, by that I mean its price, this model isn’t that much attractive as their other ones, but it does have some similar design cues, before all on a count of being a part of the Windforce series.
The top shroud is completely plastic, it’s mostly black, we do have some dark gray details and Gigabyte logo on the side, which isn’t actually lit and as a matter of fact, we don’t have any lighting on this model at all. What we do have, is a back-plate, which is, unfortunately, plastic and not metal, something I saw for the first time just recently on their RX 5500 XT Gaming OC model, feel free to check it out afterward, but that was expected considering the overall cost of it. At least you will get something because MSI’s one didn’t have anything, it does look a bit nicer than just having a plain exposed PCB, although it’s far from giving you that premium build feels. The card measures 225 mm in total length, on the front of it you will find a video output layout consisting out of HDMI, DisplayPort and DVI-D for some reason, I honestly don’t know why are they still putting it, while on the other end of that we have a single 6-pin PCI-express power connector for powering it up.
Proven WindForce cooling for GTX 1650 Super series
For cooling of the components, we have two 90 mm fans which are a part of its WindForce 2X design, which also has 3D active fan design that stops them from spinning when the card is not under heavy load. They also rotate in a different direction from each other, so it doesn’t create any turbulence, but rather to have a constant flow. Below them there’s a single piece aluminum heatsink through which runs an S shape copper heat-pipe, helping with moving the heat more effectively, while the heatsink itself makes contact with the GPU and VRM’s on the front.
Let first jump over to some of my gameplay footage with this card, before we check out the results, the live performance figures will be shown in the left top corner of this video. You can find my setup which I used here to test out Gigabyte GTX 1650 Super WindForce OC in the description box down below, and if you have any questions about this particular model, free feel to leave them in the comment section down below and I will try to help you out!
Taking a look at the benchmarking results, there’s really not that much to it, this card is made for 1080p gaming, anything else would be a bit of stretch for it, maybe at 1440p if you go easy on the graphics settings, while 4K is obviously not in question, being it on a count of not having that much raw power, plus the fact that it only has 4 GB of video memory.
Gigabyte GTX 1650 Super WindForce OC needs some fan tuning
Overclocking the GTX 1650 Super WindForce OC further will not get you too far, but it will bring few additional frames, especially at 1080p. I managed to squeeze out about 10% of additional performance with these settings shown here, which is a pretty OK result, especially since I took me maybe 10 minutes or so to get to it and validate if it’s stable. The GPU clock speed was mostly above 2 GHz, at stock it roams around 1900 MHz, usually a bit below, while the memory was maxed out at 1875 MHz, and if it’s not stable for you too, just lower down the clocks a bit, test it out, and repeat the process until you’re clear. This model, of course, comes in with factory overclock, but this way you will get even more out of it.
The whole system pulled around 170W with only the card being under load using the Furmark GPU stress test, so when you subtract the system idle power consumption, you will get that it pulls around 120W. The GPU-z is reporting around 90-100W, depending on the load, which is up there when you count in the power supply efficiency.
Looking at the GPU temperature, it barely crossed 60°C under full load, which is a good result, but then again it’s to be expected since this is not a high TDP card, while with card idling you will see it just below 50°C as the fans don’t spin, but this can vary depending on your airflow situation and chassis fan setup. Having that in mind, it’s somewhat strange that the cards fans mostly run at 19-2100 RPM, which I feel is sort of unnecessary everything considered. And besides that, the fan curve is really all over the place, which is kinda becoming Gigabyte’s thing, theirs seem to use very unusual methods of tuning their fans’ profiles, at least from what I recently saw, based on how their fans operate and how they act according to a change in GPU temperature. With the case of this mode they again ramp up instantly when they feel any bit of load, but this time they at least don’t move around that much, they pretty stay locked in at that 1900-2000 RPM range, which was for my taste too loud, and again, felt like a bit over the top for this GPU.
I don’t know if they did because of the VRM or video memory temperature, because I don’t have any readout for them, I’m planning to get temperature probes for situations like this, but I made myself a custom fan curve using MSI’s Afterburner. With doing so, It the end the fans were running at about 1500-1600 RPM at full load, which made the card much quieter, while the GPU temperature went up by 3-5°C. I’ve also made the fan curve ramp up more progressively, so it eases in and it’s not in-your-face-like anymore. Here’s a short sound clip of the fans while card being under load in its stock and my custom scenario, while also showing the sound meter for measurement comparison.
The GTX 1650 Super WindForce OC fills in the middle
Although for some this won’t be that big of an issue, I would really like to see them improve their fan profiles with this and their other products, it’s, after all, that part of the graphics card where they don’t actually need to do anything substantial expect invest some time in order to get the best out of it, just to tune it a bit better, cause they do make good products when we talk about value for your money, especially in relation to their Windforce and Gaming series, which this model comes from.
As for the GTX 1650 Super series, it’s a pretty compelling budget choice, especially when comparing it with its price based predecessor GTX 1050 Ti, I’ve actually done a showdown between them, GTX 1650 Super vs GTX 1050 Ti, feel free to check it out, and if you don’t mind this card being a bit louder, it’s a pretty straightforward choice.
That’s it for this time, thanks for checking out my Gigabyte GTX 1650 Super WindForce OC review and 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!
