Next-gen graphics card fever has gripped the web exhausting during the last couple of months, with rumours flying this manner and that in regards to the upcoming Nvidia Ampere GPUs and the ray-tracing-capable AMD Navi playing cards. But the most recent GPU gossip doing the rounds isn’t something to do with Nvidia’s RTX 3000 collection. Oh no. Instead, it will appear Nvidia are making ready yet one more variant of their entry stage GTX 1650 graphics card referred to as the GTX 1650 Ultra in keeping with a brand new product itemizing from a Chinese graphics card vendor. The actual kicker of this story, although? Its GPU is seemingly based mostly on the identical one which presently resides within the RTX 2070.
For the report, Nvidia presently has three totally different variants of the GTX 1650. There’s the unique GTX 1650 with 4GB of GDDR5 reminiscence, a more recent model with 4GB of sooner GDDR6 reminiscence, and the GTX 1650 Super, which additionally has 4GB of GDDR6 reminiscence.
The GTX 1650 Ultra is ready to be the fourth (sure, fourth) model of Nvidia’s GTX 1650 household, and it’s touted to have 4GB of GDDR6 reminiscence clocked at 12Gbps identical to its GDDR6 siblings in keeping with SZ Galaxy’s official product page. The GDDR5 mannequin, in case you in some way forgot, is just clocked at 8Gbps. However, the product specs for this new sort of GTX 1650 graphics card additionally listing its GPU Core because the TU106-125, which is a cut-down model of the TU106-400 GPU contained in the RTX 2070. The GTX 1650 Super, in the meantime, makes use of a GPU often known as the TU116-250, whereas the common GTX 1650s each use a TU117-300 GPU.
The actually bizarre factor in regards to the GTX 1650 Ultra, although, is that this new GPU nonetheless solely has 896 CUDA cores just like the common GTX 1650, in keeping with SZ Galaxy’s specs, in addition to a base clock velocity of 1410MHz and a lift clock velocity of 1590MHz, which is as soon as once more an identical to the vanilla GTX 1650. The RTX 2070’s GPU, alternatively, has 2304 CUDA cores, which *checks notes* is a heck of much more than what’s presupposed to be contained in the GTX 1650 Ultra.
There’s no ‘Ultra’ emblem included on the field of this SZ Galaxy-sold GPU, however its product specs do counsel it is a new variant.
It’s a mind-boggling set of contradicting info if ever I noticed one, however earlier than you dismiss it as official web nonsense, the almost certainly clarification for all of that is that these new GTX 1650 Ultra GPUs are literally the rejects from failed RTX 2070 yields. When a {hardware} producer makes their silicon wafers, there’s all the time a sure share of them that aren’t match for his or her supposed closing product. They both fail inner assessments or simply aren’t as much as the required snuff to promote them because the factor they had been supposed for. This is what’s often known as “binning” within the business, and it occurs with CPUs, GPUs and RAM. When merchandise do get binned, it’s fairly widespread for producers to disable sure options of those bits of silicon in an effort to promote them on as lesser, cheaper variants in order that they don’t lose cash – and it’s in all probability what’s occurred right here with the GTX 1650 Ultra.
Alas, which means the GTX 1650 Ultra in all probability isn’t secretly an RTX 2070 in disguise, as Nvidia can have nearly definitely disabled its respective ray tracing and Tensor cores to carry it right down to the identical stage as their common GTX 1650 playing cards – therefore the dramatic discount in CUDA cores. There is one key distinction that’s of be aware, although, and that’s the truth that its TDP has risen from 75W as much as 90W. That’s nonetheless 10W beneath the GTX 1650 Super, nevertheless it does counsel that the Ultra is probably a contact extra highly effective than the vanilla GDDR6 model of the GTX 1650, just by advantage of with the ability to draw extra energy.
As for the remainder of its specs, although, it actually doesn’t appear to be there’s something even vaguely “Ultra” about it to justify the identify – which is probably why there’s no particular “Ultra” emblem on the accompanying product picture of the cardboard’s field like there’s with the GTX 1650 Super. Instead, it appears doubtless that Nvidia will in all probability simply move this off as an everyday GTX 1650, regardless of the very fact it has a totally totally different GPU sitting on the coronary heart of it. We gained’t know for certain till Nvidia formally announce it.
The actual query, although, is whether or not the Ultra has the chops to lastly topple the 4GB model of AMD’s stupendous RX 5500 XT, which remains to be my best graphics card for these on a decent finances. If I ever get my arms on a GTX 1650 Ultra pattern, you might be certain I’ll let .
