The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is getting GDDR6 memory, but it doesn’t sound like the upgrade was out of willingness to improve an older product. According to PC Gamer, which reached out to the company to inquire about the change, it’s because the stock of GDDR5 memory is dwindling.
“The industry is running out of GDDR5,” an NVIDIA rep explained, “so we’ve transitioned the product to GDDR6.”
The only other modern GeForce GPU that still utilizes GDDR5 memory is the GeForce GTX 1660, so NVIDIA will probably be forced to upgrade that model as well. Some enthusiasts say that a GeForce GTX 1660 with GDDR6 RAM would bring it very close to the SUPER variant, however, which would be an interesting predicament for that SKU.
As for the new GeForce GTX 1650’s performance, Expreview has published an early review that suggests it’s around 6 percent faster than the older, GDDR5-equipped model. While the new version has a lower GPU clock (1590 MHz vs. 1665 MHz), it has a faster memory modules (12 Gbps vs. 8 Gbps) for an increased bandwidth (192 GB/s vs. 64 GB/s).