nVidia’s Turing architecture has been fantastic, with almost every card in the 16xx and 20xx range being recommended on our charts. The cards perform well and are power-efficient, so you typically get a card that hits all the main points: high performance, lower power draw, low temperatures, and low noise. Pricing is an issue for the flagship cards (2080 and 2080 Ti) where lack of competition lets nVidia showcase its pricing creativity with $1200 cards. Oil tycoons buy graphics cards too, you know! But for all the other Turing cards, the prices are fine at launch. Well, almost all.
The sole Turing card that was a thoroughly bad launch was the GTX 1650, which was weak and quite overpriced. Even today, half a year after its launch, it remains overpriced at $150, easily beaten by cheaper ~$120 cards. Today, nVidia is updating the lineup with the GTX 1650 Super, for $160.
The GTX 1650 Super is Actually Good
Even though it is only $10 more than the non-Super, it performs a lot better, up to 30% better! In fact, the performance is so good, that it is practically identical to the ~$170 RX 580 from AMD, which makes it a very competitive card. The efficiency, low power draw, low temps, and low noise are all there, so that makes the new GTX 1650 Super a very easy recommendation.
Of course, we need to point out that while this is a great and recommendable budget card, it is still a budget card for $160: You are not going to play at 4K! This is firmly in the 1080p gaming territory. So this is a good card, but not a card for enthusiasts. And speaking of “good”…
The $160 GTX 1650 Super from nVidia will be added to our Good tier, where it will be compete with the $170 RX 580 from AMD for your attention. Prices and availability in the not-USA part of the globe will determine when it will land in our not-USA recommendations.
(P.S. Yes, I read the RX 5500 leaked reviews. As soon as the RX 5500 prices and availability are officially announced by AMD, we will be on it!)