Conclusion
Today we have reviewed our first GeForce GTX 1650 GPU based video card with the ASUS ROG STRIX GeForce GTX 1650 O4G GAMING video card. This ASUS video card is priced at $179.99 versus the reference MSRP of $149.99 on a GeForce GTX 1650.
The ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1650 O4G GAMING offers many features enthusiasts will like over the reference video card. This video card has a fully customized PCB and cooling. The customized PCB means ASUS was able to put its premium power components on as well as give us extra power with a 6-pin power connector. This allows the video card to exceed the stock 75W TDP and power limitation on the reference video card. This helps with overclocking.
In terms of cooling, ASUS utilizes its tried and true DirectCU II cooling with direct-contact copper heatpipes and two Wing-blade fan design.
The factory boost clock on this video card is what really sets it apart. ASUS has set the GPU Boost frequency to 1830MHz with a software-selectable 1860MHz. This is way over the default 1665MHz on the reference specification. In our testing, we found that this allows a 1950MHz real-world GPU frequency while gaming! That means very fast performance out-of-the-box without having to put in any effort.
Performance
In terms of performance, this video card is mixed. Performance is going to depend on the type of game and how taxing the graphics are. We look at it two ways, what would be playable with a very graphics taxing game and what would be playable on a less graphics taxing game like eSports and so forth.
Taxing Graphics Game
On a modern game with very taxing graphics, like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Control you are going to find that 1080p will be hard to find playable settings for. You will most likely end up at medium or low settings at 1080p to make that playable on a taxing game. In the most taxing games, you might not even find playable performance at low settings. It will just depend, but you won’t be playable at high or maximum settings for sure.
Instead, you will probably want to opt for 720p resolution for very taxing games. At 720p you’ll be able to play at high graphics settings smoothly. 720p is probably the sweet spot for very graphics taxing games.
Less-Taxing Graphics Game
In a less-taxing game like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Ghost Recon, or eSports titles that are even less taxing then 1080p can be the sweet spot. However, even then depending on the game you may have to turn down graphics from the highest settings down one notch to high settings for smooth performance. In the least taxing games, you may be able to keep settings at maximum, it will just depend on the game. You can though find a good experience at 1080p on the lesser taxing games, Call of Duty impressed us on this video card.
If you want the maximum settings, you’ll easily be able to do this at 720p on the lesser taxing games.
In all scenarios, this is not a 1440p video card. You are going to have to settle between 1080p-720p.
Overclocking
We feel this is an exciting video card for hardware enthusiasts. We actually had a lot of fun overclocking this video card. We know it is slow in games, so overclocking it is actually important so we can get the best performance. To that end, we want to push the memory and GPU as much as possible. It was very easy to do on this video card, it overclocked quite well.
GPU Voltage is actually working in GPU Tweak on this video card, we received a boost to the GPU Voltage which helped the overclocked. This is again thanks to the added power of the 6-pin power connector. Without it, we would not have been able to exceed the standard 75W of the PCI-Express connector and thus would not have had such a high overclock. The extra power and Power Target increase allowed us to go over the standard board power set by the reference video card.
With that extra power, we were able to hit 2055MHz GPU frequency consistently. We were also able to push the memory up to 9.4GHz upping the memory bandwidth to 150GB/sec versus 128GB/sec. The cooling was more than enough, it did not hold us back in any way.
Final Points
Overall, we feel the price is a bit heavy-handed on the ASUS ROG GeForce GTX 1650 O4G GAMING video card. The GeForce GTX 1650 has a reference MSRP of $149.99 and at $150 that is a good price for the GeForce GTX 1650. The ASUS ROG GTX 1650 O4G GAMING has a price though that is $30 more expensive at $179.99. At this price range, $30 is a sizable chunk of change. That pricing is still under $200 thankfully. The performance level that this video card hits though fits closer to the $160 price range than it does the $180 price range.
On the flip side, you are getting a video card that exceeds the GeForce GTX 1650 in several ways. The ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1650 O4G GAMING video card runs at a much faster GPU Boost clock and real-world gaming clock by default at 1950MHz out-of-the-box. Its cooling is incredible and the GPU stays below 60c. It has a high degree of overclock ability and we were able to get the core to 2055MHz and memory to 9.4GHz.
Therefore, it does offer a lot more than a $150 GeForce GTX 1650. We think if the video card were maybe $20 more at most that would make it more appealing from a performance standpoint.
For our first look at the GeForce GTX 1650 performance, we can definitely see the advantages of wanting a highly clocked custom video card instead of the reference spec. The GeForce GTX 1650 is a slow GPU, so having a custom video card like the ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1650 O4G GAMING with a high factory overclock and overclocking ability is really needed. I wouldn’t purchase a GeForce GTX 1650 unless it was a fully custom factory overclocked card like the ASUS ROG STRIX GTX 1650 O4G GAMING.