Power, Temperature, and Noise

As always, we'll take a look at power, temperature, and noise of the GTX 1650, though the 'mini' design shouldn't hold any surprises.

GeForce Video Card Average Clockspeeds
Game GTX 1650 ZOTAC
GTX 1650 OC Gaming
Boost Clock 1665MHz 1695MHz
Battlefield 1 1855MHz 1880MHz
Far Cry 5 1847MHz 1886MHz
Ashes: Escalation 1826MHz 1829MHz
Wolfenstein II 1860MHz 1905MHz
Final Fantasy XV 1867MHz 1837MHz
GTA V 1886MHz 1905MHz
Shadow of War 1857MHz 1863MHz
F1 2018 1855MHz 1875MHz
Total War: Warhammer II 1865MHz 1902MHz
FurMark 1629MHz 1672MHz

Power Consumption

Idle Power ConsumptionLoad Power Consumption - Battlefield 1

Load Power Consumption - FurMark

As for idle power consumption, the GTX 1650 falls in line with everything else, with total system power consumption reaching 83W. With contemporary desktop cards, idle power has reached the point where nothing short of low-level testing can expose what these cards are drawing.

Meanwhile at full load, the power consumption disparity between the RX 570 and GTX 1650 is one of the key factors in a direct comparison. Better – but not always – performance can be had for an additional ~75W at the wall, which maps well to the 150W TBP of the RX 570 over the 75W slot-power-only GTX 1650. Though the greater cooling requirements for a higher power card does means forgoing the small form factor.

Temperature

Idle GPU Temperature

Load GPU Temperature - Battlefield 1

Load GPU Temperature - FurMark

Temperatures all appear fairly normal, as the GTX 1650 stays very cool under load.

Noise

Idle Noise Levels

Load Noise Levels - Battlefield 1

Load Noise Levels - FurMark

While the GTX 1650 may have good power and temperature characteristics, the noise is not as clean, if only because entry-level cards don't come with 0db fan idling technology, and SFF cards often have to deal with small shrill fans at relatively high RPM. The GTX 1650's fan isn't the worst, but it's not a standout best either. If anything, it looks to be the result of preferring cooling over acoustics, given the very low load temperatures.

Compute & Synthetics Closing Thoughts
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  • Yojimbo - Saturday, May 4, 2019 - link

    That's true, and I noted that in my original post. But the important thing is that the price/performance comparison should consider the total cost of ownership of the card. Ultimately, the value of any particular increment in performance is a matter of personal preference, though it is possible for someone to make a poor choice because he doesn't understand the situation well.
  • dmammar - Friday, May 3, 2019 - link

    This power consumption electricity savings debate has gone on too long. The math is not hard - the annual electricity cost is equal to (Watts / 1,000) x (hours used per day) x (365 days / year) x (cost per kWh)

    In my area, electricity costs $0.115/kWh so a rather excessive (for me) 3 hours of gaming every day of the year means that an extra 100W power consumption equals only $12.50 higher electricity cost every year.

    So for me, the electricity cost of the higher power consumption isn't even remotely important. I think most people are in the same boat, but run the numbers yourself and make your own decision. The only people who should care either live somewhere with expensive electricity and/or game way too much, in which case they should probably be using a better GPU.
  • Yojimbo - Saturday, May 4, 2019 - link

    How is $12.50 a year not remotely important? Would you say a card costing $25 less is a big deal? If one costs $150 and the other is $175 you would not consider that to be at all a consideration to your purchase?
  • OTG - Saturday, May 4, 2019 - link

    How IS $12.50/year even worth thinking about?
    That's less than an hour of work for most people, it's like 3 cents a day, you could pay for it by finding pennies on the sidewalk!
    PLUS you get much better performance! It's a faster card for a completely meaningless power increase.
    If your PSU doesn't have a six pin, get the 1650 I guess, otherwise the price is kinda silly.
  • Yojimbo - Saturday, May 4, 2019 - link

    I like the way you think. Whatever you buy, just buy it from me for $12.50 more than you could otherwise get it, because it's just not worth thinking about. What you say would be entirely reasonable if it didn't apply to every single purchase you make. I mean if a company comes along as says "Come on, buy this pen for $20. You're only going to buy one pen this year." would you do it? Do you ask the people who are saying NVIDIA's new cards are too expensive because they are $20 more expensive than the previous generation equivalents "How is $10 a year even worth thinking about?"

    Hey, if you are willing to throw money out the window if it is for electricity but not for anything else that's up to you, but you are making unreasonable decisions that harm yourself.
  • jardows2 - Monday, May 6, 2019 - link

    Using your logic, why don't we all just save bunches of money by using Intel Integrated graphics. Since the money we save on power usage is all that matters, we might as well make sure we are only using Mobile CPU's as well.
    What your paying for here is the improved gaming experience provided by the extra performance of the RX570. For many people, the real-world improvement in the gaming experience is worth the relatively low cost of energy usage. Realistically, the only reason to get one of these over the 570 is if your power supply cannot handle the RX570.
  • Sushisamurai - Tuesday, May 7, 2019 - link

    Holy crap man! The amount of electricity I spent to read this comment thread and that mount of keyboard clicks that've been consumed from my 70 million clicks from my mechanical keyboard from my total cost of ownership was totally worth reading and replying to this.
  • OTG - Tuesday, May 7, 2019 - link

    If you're pinching pennies that hard, you're probably better off not spending 4 hours a day gaming.
    Those games cost money, and you know what they say about time!
    Maybe even set the card mining when you're away, there are profits to be had even now.
  • WarlockOfOz - Saturday, May 4, 2019 - link

    Anyone calculating the total ownership cost of a video card in cents per day should also consider that the slightly higher performance of the 570 may allow it to last a few more months before justifying replacement, allowing the purchase price to be spread over a longer period.
  • Yojimbo - Sunday, May 5, 2019 - link

    "Anyone calculating the total ownership cost of a video card in cents per day should also consider that the slightly higher performance of the 570 may allow it to last a few more months before justifying replacement, allowing the purchase price to be spread over a longer period."

    Sure. Not that likely, though, because the difference isn't that great so what is more likely to affect the timing of upgrade is the card that becomes available. But at the moment, NVIDIA has a big gap between the 1650 and the 1660 so there aren't two more-efficient cards that bracket the 570 well from a price standpoint.

    Of course, some people apparently don't care about $25 at all so I don't understand why they should care about $25 more than that (for a total of 50) such that it would prevent them from getting a 1660, which has a performance that blows the 570 out of the water and would be a lot more likely to play a factor in the timing of a future upgrade.

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