NVIDIA header image 2

Nvidia plans to release at least two more new GeForce GTX 1650 GPU variants


According to one finding, NVIDIA might be releasing two more variants of the GTX 1650 GPU. We already have two in the market, but it looks like two more SKUs are currently in production.

This leaks comes via @momomo_us who has spotted two new unreleased variants being added in AIDA64 support release notes.

The original GeForce GTX 1650 GPU rocked the TU117 silicon, and the GPU’s 896 CUDA cores were attached to 4GB of 8Gbps GDDR5 memory on a 128-bit memory interface bus. After a year later, Nvidia rolled out the same card having a GDDR6 Memory type, and this variant came with a faster 12Gbps GDDR6 memory, which actually allowed the graphics card to deliver up to 50% higher memory bandwidth, despite lower clock speeds.

The GDDR6 upgrade boosted the performance up to 10-15% over the vanilla GTX 1650 GDDR5 SKU. AIDA64’s latest change log mentions support for two more SKUs.

The new variants found in AIDA64’s release notes are the GeForce GTX 1650 TU116 and GeForce GTX 1650 TU106 respectively, both having the GDDR6 memory type. The suffix indicates the type of “silicon” die being used, which is TU116 and TU106. Both cards rock 896 Shading units or CUDA cores.

The TU116 die is the same as found in other GTX 16-series SKUs, including the GTX 1650 Super, GTX 1660, GTX 1660 Super and GTX 1660 Ti. The TU106 die, on the other hand is present inside the GeForce RTX 20-series cards, such as the GeForce RTX 2060, RTX 2060 Super and RTX 2070.

But unlike the TU116 and TU117, the TU106 die comes with Nvidia’s TENSOR and RT cores. So could this possibly mean that Nvidia plans to bring RTX support on the 16 series ? We don’t know for sure. But my guess is that Nvidia might be using some of the defective dies which didn’t make their way in higher end Models. That, or Nvidia might be trying to clear the leftover inventory/stock of the Turing silicon, since the next-gen ‘Ampere’ cards are just around the corner.

So finally we have four variants of the GTX 1650, which can also get confusing as well. The end user/gamer needs to be aware of the specs before buying, but everyone is not that tech-savvy, so they might end up buying a wrong card/SKU in the end.

As per the “Steam Hardware Survey” for May 2020, the GeForce GTX 1650 was the fifth most popular graphics cards. So it makes sense for Nvidia to reuse the same Turing silicon to target the mainstream market.