TOP 5 mid-range graphics cards from the NVIDIA GTX 16 family

MSI GTX 1650 GAMING X 4G is the top version of the 1650 chip in the Gaming line from MSI. Compared to standard revisions, it has a pumped-up level of technical performance, better cooling and, accordingly, better potential for overclocking.

The card is based on a TU117 GPU based on the Turing architecture (manufactured using a 12-nm process) and has 4 GB of video memory. But if the standard versions have operating frequencies of 1665 MHz, then here we have frequencies overclocked out of the box at 1860 MHz. And this is a direct entry into the territory of the older brothers GeForce 1660 and 1660 Ti.

For cooling, a simplified version of the Twin Frozr 7 cooler is used with a fairly large radiator made of thin plates and a thick heat pipe. All this looks very serious against the background of how the low-cost GeForce GTX 1650 costs a simple one-piece radiator.

Such a cooling system allows you to add boost to overclocked frequencies and get stable operation in the area of 1935 – 1950 MHz. In the tests, the peak value was the figure of 2145 MHz, but this is already a transition to the risk zone and in daily work in this mode, all the juices will be squeezed out of the card. But the figure itself is excellent. What's even cooler, the fans remain quiet and efficient, keeping the temperature of the graphics card within 60 – 65 °C.

If we start from the initial performance of the basic GeForce GTX 1650, then overclocked Gaming gets an additional 15-20% of performance. Considering that the overclocking potential of many NVIDIA graphics cards usually does not exceed 10%, the MSI GTX 1650 GAMING X 4G can definitely be recommended for purchase. Plus, the card turned out to be modest in terms of energy consumption, MSI recommends using a 300W power supply. Three or four years ago, such energy consumption would have seemed fantastic.

The intermediate NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 chip is designed to consolidate the company's success in the middle price segment, where competitors are firmly registered in the face ofRadeon RX 580 and RX 590. NVIDIA itself positions the 1660 as an perfect upgrade option for those gamers who once bought top-end cards based on the GTX 960 and GTX 970 and now need an additional boost and an increased amount of memory.

If you look at the comparison tables, the GTX 1660 will turn out to be the younger brother of the extremely interesting 1660 Ti. It is actually based on the same TU116 chip, only slightly fewer stream processors (there are 1408 of them here) and texture blocks (88 in total). And instead of 6 GB of GDDR6 memory, we have the same volume, but in the form of GDDR5. The lag in performance from the older brother is about 15%, but it is easily reduced to a minimum of good overclocking potential. While the difference in price is more than 20 percent.

With regard to this particular GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1660 OC 6G model, there is a small GPU overclocking from the factory, which provides an additional couple of percent of performance. Manually, you can squeeze out about 10% more. Even with such manipulations, the card remains quiet and cold — when the core was overclocked to 1980 MHz, the coolers worked at only 70% power, and the core temperature did not exceed 66 °C.

Plus, this modification of the GTX 1660 from Gigabyte is devoid of a pretty, but unnecessary RGB backlight for many, which made it possible to reduce the price as much as possible, making it one of the most affordable GeForce GTX 1660 graphics cards on the market. It is not for nothing that this modification is in the top sales of many online stores.

When NVIDIA introduced a new line of graphics cards based on the Turing architecture with support for ray tracing in real time (you could see them in Battlefield V and Metro Exodus), it incurred the wrath of part of the gaming community. It turned out that many players don't really need this technology, instead they want to get maximum performance for their money. Having listened to potential buyers, the company released a junior line, where one of the most interesting options was the GTX 1660 graphics card.

When compared with the reference model, the GTX 1660 TUF looks more like a story about reliability, rather than record-breaking capacities. As in the case of other products of the TUF line fromAsus, here we have a list of small improvements and improvements like a 2-slot cooler with double ball bearings, a stiffness plate on the back or a full-fledged stability test (Asus says about 144 hours for each graphics card).

But in terms of performance, Asus did not limit itself to basic settings. For example, instead of the standard core boost up to 1785 MHz, the GTX 1660 TUF works out of the box with a light factory overclocking up to 1845 MHz. It is also worth noting the presence of a DVI-D video output, which many manufacturers of new-generation video cards refuse. In terms of video memory, we have a reference 6 GB GDDR5, which is still enough for playing at high settings and Full HD in any gaming hits like Rage 2 or Mortal Kombat 11.

Against the background of all this, the main disadvantage of the Asus solution is the price. Due to the increased reliability that the company boasts, the card turned out to be more expensive than other options on the 1060 chip, which is why it has to play on the field of the older brother GTX 1660 Ti.

Immediately after the announcement of the NVIDIA GTX 16 line, Palit presented its upgraded version of the cards, which it called neither much nor small "storm". The main difference from the standard model is the reduced size of the card and dynamic overclocking up to 1815 MHz. This is a good indicator, although they are not particularly associated with the epithet "storm". For example, the overclocked version of Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 Ti OC 6G from Gigabyte out of the box operates at a frequency of 1800 MHz. However, we will not find fault with the names.

The main distinguishing feature of the Palit version is an unusual form factor. Instead of a double cooler, here we have a reduced single cooling system, which includes an aluminium radiator, three copper heat pipes and one axial fan. This made it possible to reduce the length of the card from the standard 226 mm to 168 mm, which will surely attract owners of small cases with microATX motherboards. At the same time, the cooling system handles with the blowing of the video chip no worse than reference double coolers, without exceeding 65 °C even with serious manual acceleration.

In terms of the ratio of price and frames per second, the 1660 Ti from Palit looks very attractive. In terms of power, it is somewhere at the level of GeForce GTX 1070, in terms of bandwidth, it is almost at the level of GTX 1080. And these are, firstly, cards of the last generation, and secondly, they are more expensive. If you translate it into the language of games, then with Full HD resolution and maximum graphics settings, this card will give an average of 40 FPS in the voracious "Metro:Exodus" and 108 FPS in "Far Cry 5". These are excellent indicators, and the stock of video memory of 6 GB allows us to hope for similar figures in a year or two.

The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1660 Ti OC 6G is based on the NVIDIA TU116-400 chip, produced according to a 12-nm process technology. The core frequency is stated at 1800 MHz, which is slightly higher than the baseline of 1770 MHz. The amount of GDDR6 video memory is 6 GB. Such power allows you to give an average of 54 FPS in the voracious "Assassin's Creed Odyssey" and 84 FPS in the third part of "The Witcher". All this is on Ultra settings and Full HD resolution.

Interestingly, if there is a good factory overclocking, the card can be easily overclocked to 1950 MHz manually. The dual cooler handles perfectly with the load during acceleration, operating at less than 90% of the maximum power. The temperature of the graphics core does not rise above 70 °C. In general, the power reserve of the cooler is excellent and the only drawback will be only the periodic whistling of the throttles, which can occur at peak load on the graphics card..

With all that said, Gigabyte's 1660 Ti version can be safely recommended for purchase to those users who have previously been eyeing the GeForce GTX 1070 Ti: it provides comparable performance in Full HD with less power consumption and a more delicious price.