Palit GTX 1650 StormX OC 4GB Review

1. Introduction2. Palit GTX 1650 StormX OC3. Testing Methodology4. 3DMark Fire Strike & Time Spy (1080p, 1440p, 4K)5. Battlefield V (1080p, 1440p, 4K)6. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (1080p, 1440p, 4K)7. Far Cry 5 (1080p, 1440p, 4K)8. Ghost Recon: Wildlands (1080p, 1440p, 4K)9. Middle Earth: Shadow of War (1080p, 1440p, 4K)10. Shadow of the Tomb Raider (1080p, 1440p, 4K)11. Clock Speed12. Temperatures13. Acoustics14. Power Consumption15. Overclocking: 3DMark and Games16. Overclocking: Thermals, Acoustics, Power17. Closing Thoughts18. View All Pages

When Nvidia first announced the GTX 1650 – the latest Turing-based graphics card – one of the main features spoken about was the GPU's 75W TDP, meaning it doesn't require an external PCIe power connector. We've already reviewed one GTX 1650 which had a 6-pin connector anyway, but the Palit GTX 1650 StormX OC is one of the cards that draws all its power from the PCIe slot. Can this make GTX 1650 a more attractive proposition?

Not only does Palit's GTX 1650 StormX OC forgo the need for additional power connectors, but it is also an incredibly small card – measuring just 145mm long. Palit is clearly targeting the Mini ITX audience with this one – perhaps those looking to build a compact system for HDTV gaming in the living room.

Despite its size, as the model name suggests, Palit has still applied a factory overclock – with a boost clock of 1725MHz which is up from the reference-spec 1665MHz. Can it compete with AMD's RX 570?

GPU	RTX 2060 (FE)	GTX 1660 Ti	GTX 1660	GTX 1650	GTX 1060
SMs	30	24	22	14	10
CUDA Cores	1920	1536	1408	896	1280
Tensor Cores	240	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Tensor FLOPS	51.6	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
RT Cores	30	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Texture Units	120	96	88	56	80
ROPs	48	48	48	32	48
Rays Cast	5 Giga Rays/sec	–	–	–	0.44 Giga Rays/sec
RTX Performance	37 Trillion RTX-OPS	–	–	–	N/A
GPU Boost Clock	1680 MHz	1770 MHz	1785 MHz	1665 MHz	1708 MHz
Memory Data Rate	14 Gbps	12 Gbps	8 Gbps	8 Gbps	8 Gbps
Total Video Memory	6GB GDDR6	6GB GDDR6	6GB GDDR5	4GB GDDR5	6GB GDRR5
Memory Interface	192-bit	192-bit	192-bit	128-bit	192-bit
Memory Bandwidth	336.1 GB/sec	288.1 GB/sec	192.1 GB/sec	128 GB/sec	192 GB/sec
TDP	160W	120W	120W	75W	120W

We've already touched on the new TU117 GPU that's used for GTX 1650 in our Gigabyte Gaming OC 4G review – it's essentially a scaled-down TU116, with 14 SMs and 896 CUDA cores. Remember, only the RTX 20-series cards have dedicated cores for ray tracing and DLSS, so there's no RT or Tensor cores with GTX 1650.

As mentioned, GTX 1650 reference spec has a boost clock of 1665MHz, but Palit has applied a 60MHz factory overclock to this card, though it is worth mentioning that the 4GB of GDDR5 memory is left at the stock 8Gbps.

The Palit GTX 1650 StormX OC ships in a black box with a large Palit logo written in gold text – there's no image of the card itself visible on the front.

Inside, there's not much in the way of included accessories, with just a quick start guide and driver disk.

It's the card we're really interested in, and Palit has clearly gone for a simplistic approach for this GTX 1650. It's an absolute tiny card (more on that below), with just a single 70mm fan for cooling. The shroud itself is made of black plastic, with a small Palit logo printed to the left of the fan, but otherwise it is pretty plain.

The key thing here, though, really is the sheer size (or lack thereof) of the card, and it's definitely the smallest I've ever reviewed – measuring just 145 x 99 x 40 mm. I've put it next to a GTX 1060 Founders Edition in the photos above – which is itself not a very big card – and it looks absolutely minuscule. It's also very light, weighing just 241g.

One thing worth noting is that while Palit lists it as a ‘1 slot' card, that's perhaps a little misleading. It has just one PCIe bracket, yes, but the cooler is still 40mm thick and it will occupy two slots in your case. No matter how slice it, it's still incredibly small.

It's not much of a surprise to see there's no backplate included, and the only branding on the front side of the card is the ‘GeForce GTX' logo etched into the plastic. There's no RGB – or lighting of any kind – anywhere on the card.

As we've already mentioned, this card pulls all its power from the PCIe slot – meaning there is no additional PCIe power connector.

Display outputs are also worth touching on, because you only get two – HDMI 2.0b and and DVI-D. What this means is you won't be able to use this GTX 1650 with a FreeSync monitor – Nvidia announced support for Adaptive Sync back at CES 2019, but currently this only works over DisplayPort. How much of an issue this is for a prospective 1650 owner will vary, but it's certainly not ideal.

Taking the card apart is a simple matter of removing four screws from the back of the PCB. Then we get a look at the simple 2+1 power phase configuration, as well as the 4x1GB GDDR5 memory chips which are from Micron – each chip is labelled ‘8MB77D9VVR'. The GPU die is labelled ‘TU117-300-A1.'

Lastly, a look at the cooler rounds things off. It is clearly very basic – with no heatpipes, it's just a small aluminium heatsink that is somewhat reminiscent of Intel's stock cooler designs. It's really not much, but then again GTX 1650 doesn't need much in the way of cooling – especially considering this is a 75W card with a firm power limit. We'll look at thermal performance later in the review.Our newest GPU test procedure has been built with the intention of benchmarking high-end graphics cards. We test at 1920×1080 (1080p), 2560×1440 (1440p), and 3840×2160 (4K UHD) resolutions.

We try to test using the DX12 API if titles offer support. This gives us an interpretation into the graphics card performance hierarchy in the present time and the near future, when DX12 becomes more prevalent. After all, graphics cards of this expense may stay in a gamer’s system for a number of product generations/years before being upgraded.

We tested the RX Vega64 and Vega56 using the ‘Turbo‘ power mode in AMD’s WattMan software. This prioritises all-out performance over power efficiency, noise output, and lower thermals.

As mentioned, reference speed for the GTX 1650 is 1665 MHz boost clock, but this Palit has increased that by 60MHz.

Driver Notes

• All AMD graphics cards (except Radeon VII) were benchmarked with the Adrenalin 19.1.1 driver.
• Radeon VII was benchmarked with a pre-released press driver supplied by AMD.
• All Nvidia graphics cards (except GTX 1650, 1660, 1660 Ti) were benchmarked with the Nvidia 417.71 driver.
• GTX 1660 Ti was benchmarked with the Nvidia 418.91 driver supplied to press.
• GTX 1660 was benchmarked with the Nvidia 419.35 driver supplied to press.
• GTX 1650 was benchmarked with the Nvidia 430.39 public driver.

Test System

We test using the Overclockers UK Germanium pre-built system, though it has been re-housed into an open-air test bench. You can read more about it over HERE.

CPU	Intel Core i7-8700K Overclocked to 4.8GHz
Motherboard	ASUS ROG Strix Z370-F Gaming
Memory	Team Group Dark Hawk RGB 16GB (2x8GB) @ 3200MHz 16-18-18-38
Graphics Card	Varies
System Drive	Samsung 960 EVO 500GB
Games Drive	Crucial M4 512GB
Chassis	Streacom ST-BC1 Bench
CPU Cooler	OCUK TechLabs 240mm AIO
Power Supply	SuperFlower Leadex II 850W 80Plus Gold
Operating System	Windows 10 Professional

Comparison Graphics Cards List

• MSI RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z 11GB
• Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition (FE) 11GB
• Nvidia RTX 2080 Founders Edition (FE) 8GB
• Gigabyte Aorus RTX 2070 Xtreme 8GB
• Nvidia RTX 2060 Founders Edition (FE) 6GB
• Gigabyte RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro 6GB
• MSI GTX 1660 Ti Gaming X 6GB
• Gigabyte GTX 1660 Ti OC 6G
• Gigabyte GTX 1660 Ti Gaming OC 6G
• MSI GTX 1660 Gaming X 6GB
• Gigabyte GTX 1650 Gaming OC 4GB
• Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition (FE) 11GB
• Gigabyte GTX 1080 G1 Gaming 8GB
• Palit GTX 1070 Ti Super JetStream 8GB
• Nvidia GTX 1070 Founders Edition (FE) 8GB
• Nvidia GTX 1060 Founders Edition (FE) 6GB
• AMD Radeon VII 16GB
• AMD RX Vega 64 Air 8GB
• AMD RX Vega 56 8GB
• ASRock RX 590 Phantom Gaming X OC 8GB
• Sapphire RX 580 Pulse 8GB
• ASUS RX 570 ROG Strix Gaming OC 4GB

Software and Games List

• 3DMark Fire Strike & Fire Strike Ultra (DX11 Synthetic)
• 3DMark Time Spy (DX12 Synthetic)
• Battlefield V (DX12)
• Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (DX12)
• Far Cry 5 (DX11)
• Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands (DX11)
• Middle Earth: Shadow of War (DX11)
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider (DX12)

We run each benchmark/game three times, and present averages in our graphs.3DMark Fire Strike is a showcase DirectX 11 benchmark designed for today’s high-performance gaming PCs. It is our [FutureMark’s] most ambitious and technical benchmark ever, featuring real-time graphics rendered with detail and complexity far beyond what is found in other benchmarks and games today.

3DMark testing puts the Palit 1650 neck-and-neck with the Gigabyte 1650 Gaming OC we reviewed shortly after launch – there really is not much in it, and the Palit card even nudges ahead in the 4K Fire Strike Ultra test.Battlefield V is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA DICE and published by Electronic Arts. Battlefield V is the sixteenth instalment in the Battlefield series. It was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on November 20, 2018. (Wikipedia).

We test using the Ultra preset with the DX12 API.

 

Things are again very tight in Battlefield V between our two GTX 1650s – there's not much to split them at all. AMD's RX 570 is still a fair margin ahead, though.Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is set in the year 2029, two years after the events of Human Revolution and the “Aug Incident”—an event in which mechanically augmented humans became uncontrollable and lethally violent. Unbeknownst to the public, the affected augmented received implanted technology designed to control them by the shadowy Illuminati, which is abused by a rogue member of the group to discredit augmentations completely. (Wikipedia).

We test using the Very High preset, with MSAA disabled. We use the DirectX 12 API.

 

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided again shows a similar trend, with this Palit 1650 performing within a single frame of its Gigabyte 1650 counterpart. RX 570 is about 13FPS faster at 1080p, however.Far Cry 5 is an action-adventure first-person shooter game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Toronto and published by Ubisoft for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It is the eleventh entry and the fifth main title in the Far Cry series, and was released on March 27, 2018.

The game takes place in the fictional Hope County, Montana, where charismatic preacher Joseph Seed and his cult Project at Eden’s Gate holds a dictatorial rule over the area. The story follows an unnamed junior deputy sheriff, who becomes trapped in Hope County and works alongside factions of a resistance to liberate the county from Eden’s Gate. (Wikipedia).

We test using the Ultra preset, with AA and motion blur disabled.

 

As expected, Far Cry 5 again has both our GTX 1650s within touching distance of each other – the biggest gap between these two cards is just 1.3FPS at 1080p.  RX 570 isn't as far ahead here either, with a 6-7FPS lead at 1080p.Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands is a tactical shooter video game developed by Ubisoft Paris and published by Ubisoft. It was released worldwide on March 7, 2017, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, as the tenth instalment in the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon franchise and is the first game in the Ghost Recon series to feature an open world environment. (Wikipedia).

We test using the Very High preset.

 

Ghost Recon: Wildlands shows the smallest performance difference between our two GTX 1650s yet – the Palit is just 0.1FPS slower than the Gigabyte at 1080p. RX 570 is about 5FPS faster at the same resolution.Middle-earth: Shadow of War is an action role-playing video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It is the sequel to 2014’s Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, and was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on October 10, 2017. (Wikipedia).

We test using the Very High preset.

 

Nothing changes in Middle Earth: Shadow of War, with the Palit effectively matching the performance of the Gigabyte 1650. RX 570 pulls further ahead here, however, with a 9FPS performance lead at 1080p.Shadow of the Tomb Raider is an action-adventure video game developed by Eidos Montréal in conjunction with Crystal Dynamics and published by Square Enix. It continues the narrative from the 2013 game Tomb Raider and its sequel Rise of the Tomb Raider, and is the twelfth mainline entry in the Tomb Raider series. The game released worldwide on 14 September 2018 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. (Wikipedia).

We test using the Highest preset, with AA disabled. We test using the DX12 API.

 

As the last game on test today, Shadow of the Tomb Raider doesn't present any surprises, with Palit's StormX OC less than a frame slower than the Gigabyte 1650 across all resolutions. RX 570 remains 7FPS faster at 1080p.Here we present the average clock speed for each graphics card while running the 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra stress test 20 times. We use GPU-Z to record the GPU core frequency during the Fire Strike Ultra runs. We calculate the average core frequency during the entire 20-run test to present here.

Despite its rated boost clock of 1725MHz, the Palit StormX OC ran considerably faster than that, with its average core clock coming in very close to 1900MHz. This puts it 71MHz slower than the Gigabyte GTX 1650, explaining the very small performance difference between the two cards that was demonstrated throughout our games testing.For our temperature testing, we measure the peak GPU core temperature under load, as well as the GPU temperature with the card idling on the desktop. A reading under load comes from running the 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra stress test 20 times. An idle reading comes after leaving the system on the Windows desktop for 30 minutes.

Earlier in the review, I pointed out the very basic cooler Palit has used – it's literally just a tiny heatsink with no heatpipes and a single 70mm fan. It turns out you really don't need more than this for a GTX 1650 as the chip is just so low-power – the core peaked at just 63C under load. That's 4C hotter than the Gigabyte card, which has a more sophisticated cooler, but it is still a very impressive result from this card.

As for our thermal gun images, we can see the downside to Palit choosing not to install a backplate on this card, with a hotspot of 68C on the rear of the PCB. This is still a perfectly decent result, but with a backplate we would expect it to be even lower as the heat would be spread out and not concentrated in the area behind the GPU core.We take our noise measurements with the sound meter positioned 1 foot from the graphics card. I measured the sound floor to be 34 dBA, thus anything above this level can be attributed to the graphics cards. The power supply is passive for the entire power output range we tested all graphics cards in, while all CPU and system fans were disabled.

A reading under load comes from running the 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra stress test 20 times. An idle reading comes after leaving the system on the Windows desktop for 30 minutes.

As noise levels go, the Palit is pretty easy on the ears. It is a slightly higher-pitched fan noise as it uses a single 70mm fan, but it's still quieter than most other cards on test. There's no fan-stop mode, however, so the fan will spin even when idling or in low-load situations which I think it could do without, but under load it's still a very quiet card.We measure system-wide power draw from the wall while the card is sat idling at the Windows 10 desktop for 30 minutes. A reading under load comes from running the 3DMark Fire Strike Ultra stress test 20 times.

As expected considering this is a 1650 with no additional power connector, we saw the Palit StormX draw the least power of any card on test. It draws about 10W less than the Gigabyte 1650, too, which is to be expected considering that card is clocked higher.

We used Palit's Thunder Master utility to overclock the graphics card. Our best result came with +120MHz to the core and +900MHz to the memory.

Average clock speed under load

This overclock saw our average frequency increase to 1991MHz, enough to overtake the Gigabyte GTX 1650's out of the box clock speed.

3DMark and games

That saw a decent increase to our 3DMark scores, and we also gained around 5FPS when playing Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1080p.Here, we take a further look at the impact of our overclock, looking at the increased temperatures, acoustics and power draw.

Temperatures

Acoustics

Power consumption

Overview

Not much changed when running the card with this overclock applied. GPU temperatures rose by 1C and noise levels also increased by just over one decibel – but neither is much of an increase at all. Power draw, too, only rose by 5W.With the Palit GTX 1650 StormX OC being the second GTX 1650 to pass through our labs, it's been interesting to take a further look at the 1650 as a whole. The first model we looked at was from Gigabyte, yet it still had an extra 6-pin PCIe power connector – the Palit, however, is one of the 75W models which draws all of its power through the PCIe slot.

This has allowed Palit to create an absolutely tiny card, as this measures just 145mm long. It's not a low-profile design, but you are almost guaranteed to not run into any issues with the length of the card.

The cooler, too, is very basic – it looks like a slightly smaller Intel stock cooler that's attached to a plastic shroud, but as our testing shows it can do the job for a GTX 1650. It proved one of the quietest cards we've tested, and the GPU only ran at 63C under load. Unsurprisingly, it also draws the least power for any card we've tested today.

As for how it performs – well, it is pretty much in-line with the Gigabyte GTX 1650. Across all of our benchmarks it was at most 1.3FPS slower, and most of the time the difference was less than a single frame. Considering this is a card with no PCIe power connector – when the Gigabyte does have that extra 6-pin – it's actually quite impressive how little it seems to affect the Palit card.

That is, until we bring RX 570 back into the equation. This is still, far and away, the faster card – performing on average 15% better than this Palit GTX 1650. It's also cheaper, too, as you can buy overclocked RX 570s from £125, when this GTX 1650 retails for £150. Considering it is both faster and cheaper, RX 570 is surely a no brainer.

The only possible shred of hope for this 1650 is the fact it doesn't need an additional power connector, meaning it could be an easy upgrade for older OEM systems or anything that doesn't have a decent power supply. I really don't think that's a very compelling argument, however, as how many systems from the last few years realistically don't have a 6-pin power connector? Certainly you'd have to expect anything that could be classed as a gaming machine would have at least a 6-pin connector – and machines that don't would be more likely to be old office systems with slow CPUs.

Ultimately, we have to look at the big picture – GTX 1650 is slower and more expensive than RX 570, so 6-pin connector or not – I just can't recommend it for gamers on a budget. If it were priced closer to £100, then that might change things – but as things stand, that just isn't the case.

If you do want to pick up the Palit GTX 1650 StormX OC we found it on Overclockers UK for £149.99 HERE.

Pros

• Very small.
• Runs cool and quiet.
• Performs effectively the same as the Gigabyte 1650 we reviewed – which is bigger and requires a power connector.
• Minimal power draw.

Cons

• Slower and more expensive than RX 570.
• No DisplayPort means the card can't be used with a FreeSync monitor.
• No fan-stop mode.

KitGuru says: Even without the need for an additional power connector, GTX 1650 makes little sense when RX 570 is both cheaper and faster.

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