Nvidia just launched their new GTX 1650 graphics card, but how does it compare with the older
and cheaper RX 570 from AMD? In this video we’ll test out and compare 18 different
games at 1080p and 1440p resolutions to help you see the performance difference between
them, followed by a discussion on value and if it’s worth your money.
Let’s quickly take a look at how these two cards differ in terms of specs, note that
things like Cuda cores and stream processors are not directly comparable, even clock speeds
aren’t too comparable here given both are different architectures. It’s worth noting
the RX 570 is available in both 4GB and 8GB versions, I’ve got a 4GB one here, so it’s
got the same amount of GDDR5 memory as the 1650.
For the testing I’m using the Gigabyte GTX 1650 OC and the ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX 570
4GB, expect slightly different results with different models.
The system that I’m testing with has an Intel i7-8700K CPU overclocked to 5.0GHz in
an MSI Z390 ACE motherboard, along with 16GB of T-Force Night Hawk CL16 memory from Team
Group running at DDR4-3200 in dual channel. Check the links in the description for details
on all of the components as well as for up to date pricing. The same Windows updates
and game updates were used for testing, and for drivers I’m using the newest available
at the time of testing, 430.39 for the Nvidia GTX 1650 and Adrenalin 19.4.3 for the AMD
RX 570, so let’s get into the results.
Let’s start out Apex Legends, which was tested with all settings maxed out. I’ve
tested with higher settings in the upcoming games than I’d actually play with in most
cases, as that’s better for GPU comparison purposes. In all upcoming graphs I’ve got
the GTX 1650 shown by the top bar in green, while the RX 570 is underneath in red. In
terms of average FPS the RX 570 is 7% ahead of the GTX 1650 at 1080p, rising slightly
to an 8% lead at 1440p. It’s worth noting though I was seeing higher 1% lows with the
1650, 3% higher at 1080p and 21% higher at 1440p.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was tested with the built in benchmark using high settings,
and saw the smallest difference between the two out of all 18 games tested. At 1080p the
570 was just 0.4% ahead of the 1650 in average FPS, rising to a slight 4% improvement at
1440p.
Battlefield 5 was tested in campaign mode rather than multiplayer, as it’s easier
to consistently reproduce the test run. The 570 was dominating here, coming out second
best in all 18 games tested at both 1080p and 1440p resolutions. At 1080p the 570 was
performing 24% better in terms of average FPS, then 27% better at 1440p. It’s also
worth noting that even the 1% lows from the 570 were above the average FPS from the 1650.
Far Cry New Dawn was tested using the built in benchmark with high settings, and we’re
seeing a 16% performance boost with the 570 at 1080p, rising up to 20% higher FPS at 1440p.
Far Cry 5 was also tested using the built in benchmark with high settings, and while
we’re seeing higher average FPS over the newer Far Cry New Dawn just shown, the results
between the two cards are closer together. At 1080p the 570 was just 6% ahead of the
1650, rising to 11% at 1440p.
Fortnite was tested using the replay feature with the exact same replay on both graphics
cards. The RX 570 was again ahead here, though just 3% higher average FPS at 1080p, rising
up to a higher 11% improvement at 1440p.
Metro Exodus was tested with the built in benchmark at high settings. Most parts of
the game perform a fair bit better than this, so don’t take these results as a good indication
of what to expect throughout the entire game, it’s more of a worst case, it does however
allow me to perform an accurate comparison. At 1080p there was a large 21% improvement
to average frame rate with the 570, rising up to a 25% increase at 1440p.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider was also tested using the built in benchmark with high settings,
and with a 1080p resolution the 570 was coming out 16% ahead of the 1650, and then once stepping
up to 1440p there was a slightly larger 18% improvement with the 570.
Rainbow Six Siege was tested using the built in benchmark at high settings. This is a game
that I’ve found to perform better with Nvidia’s newer turing architecture, however it also
seems to do well with AMD graphics, so the result is a 12.5% boost to average FPS at
1080p with the 570, lowering to a 10% improvement at 1440p.
CS:GO was tested with the Ulletical FPS benchmark, and like many of my other comparisons there
was less of a difference between the two here. The 1650 was actually ahead at both resolutions
when it came to 1% low, however for average frame rate the 570 was just 3% ahead at 1080p,
and 9% ahead at 1440p.
Overwatch was tested in the practice range as I can easily perform the same test run
compared to playing with bots or other players which will vary every time. There was quite
a nice improvement with the RX 570 here, which was giving me 17% higher average FPS at 1080p,
and 22.5% higher at 1440p, with the 1% low at 1440p ahead of the average FPS from the
1650.
PUBG was tested using the replay feature with the exact same replay at high settings, and
both cards were capable of hitting the 60 FPS sweet spot at 1080p, though the 570 was
ahead in all aspects. At 1080p the 570 was 6% ahead of the 1650, rising to a 10.6% lead
at 1440p.
Watch Dogs 2 is a resource intensive game and was tested with very high settings. In
my opinion this one doesn’t need a high frame rate to play, I can get by with a solid
30 FPS, so it wasn’t actually too bad with the 570 even at 1440p but a slightly higher
1% low would be preferable. In any case at 1080p there was a 10% improvement with the
570 to average frame rate, rising up to a 14% boost at 1440p.
Ghost Recon was tested with the built in benchmark and high settings in use, and is another resource
heavy game. The 570 was just under 10% ahead of the 1650 at 1080p, and 18% ahead at 1440p.
The Witcher 3 was tested with Hairworks disabled. At 1080p the 570 was achieving 12.5% higher
average frame rates, however there was a much larger 25% increase to 1% low. It was similar
at 1440p, with a 15.5% boost to average FPS with the 570, though the 1% low was 22% ahead
of the 1650’s, and above even the average frame rate from the 1650.
Strange Brigade was tested with the built in benchmark using Vulkan and was maxed out
at ultra settings. The AMD cards tend to benefit from Vulkan, which would explain why this
test saw the largest improvement at both resolutions in all 18 games tested. At 1080p there was
a massive 26.7% improvement with the 570 to average frame rate, and an even larger 31%
boost at 1440p, where even the 1% low from the 570 was ahead of the average FPS from
the 1650.
DOOM was also tested using Vulkan, and I admit there was a smaller difference between the
two than I expected with Vulkan. The 570 was still ahead in all regards though, with 8%
higher average FPS at both 1080p and 1440p resolutions.
Shadow of War was tested with the built in benchmark, and generally I’ve noticed newer
Nvidia Turing cards do better in this game over their Pascal counterparts, however that
advantage wasn’t enough to help out here. The 570 was 18.5% faster in this test at 1080p,
and 10% at 1440p.
In terms of overall improvement, over all 18 games tested with a 1080p resolution on
average the AMD RX 570 was performing 12% better when compared with Nvidia’s GTX 1650
in terms of average FPS. As we can see, it really depends on the specific game. There’s
a much smaller difference in esports titles which are closer to the bottom, while graphically
intensive games are closer to the top.
At 1440p on average over the same 18 games the RX 570 was now scoring a little higher
compared to the 1080p results just shown, now with 15% higher average FPS in these titles.
In general we’re seeing a larger difference between the two as 1440p should be more GPU
intensive when compared with 1080p, which is the main reason I included the results
in the comparison, in many cases neither of these are great 1440p cards in my opinion
unless you’re willing to turn down the settings a fair bit.
Here’s what we’re looking at in terms of synthetic benchmarks, I’ve just tested
3DMark’s Firestrike, Timespy and VRMark here. I’ll note that in Timespy with the
1650 I did have some black screen flickering which some others have reported, so I’m
not 100% certain whether that affected results.
Power draw is an aspect where Nvidia graphics have historically been more efficient, and
that trend continues here. While gaming the RX 570 is using 48% more power from the wall
in the same test when compared to the GTX 1650, so while cheaper upfront technically
it will cost more to run long term, though you’d have to put in some serious gaming
hours for that to be an issue.
I don’t think it really matters that I’ve got a lower end 1650 without 6 pin power connector
here. While I don’t personally have such a 1650 to test with, Steve at Hardware Unboxed
found little difference between the two at stock, and besides many people seem to be
arguing that not having the 6 pin power connector is one of the limited advantages of the 1650
anyway.
Now for the final difference, the price. I suggest checking updated prices using the
links in the description, as prices will change over time. The 1650 just launched at $149
USD and can currently be bought for that price on the low end. The RX 570 on the other hand
has been out for around two years, and while not only performing better as we’ve just
seen, it’s also a fair bit cheaper too, with lower end models coming in at the $129
USD mark. With these numbers, the entry level 1650 costs 15% more money while performing
worse as we just saw, granted there may be a little variance between what I’ve shown
here compared to bottom of the barrel cards. To be fair, the specific 1650 I’ve got here
currently goes for a bit more at $159 USD, while my 570 is actually currently more expensive,
though it was less when I got it on sale, there are definitely cheaper models that perform
quite similarly, like this open box one.
Then there’s of course the second hand market. As the RX 570 has already been around for
a couple of years you’re much more likely to find a good deal there, as the GTX 1650
has only just launched you’re unlikely to find any second hand for a good price, unless
there are people selling them in droves after they’ve realised they’ve made a terrible
mistake, though that will change in the future as it ages. The 1650 performs ok, it’s just
priced poorly against what AMD’s been offering for two years.
To me the AMD RX 570 is the clear winner here, it’s available for less money and performs
a fair bit better in all 18 games tested. The GTX 1650 does have the advantage of less
power draw, but that seems to be about it, and the no 6 pin power connector thing in
some niche use cases. As we saw in my 1650 vs 1050 Ti video, Nvidia are doing a good
job of showing how it improves over their older generation cards while also costing
less within their own lineup, however when you look at all options available the RX 570
is offering a significant amount of extra performance for less money up front.
If you were buying today let me know which card you’d pick down in the comments and
why, the newer GTX 1650 or 2 year old yet cheaper and faster RX 570, and if you’re
new to the channel get subscribed for future comparisons and tech videos like this one.