Gainward GeForce GTX 1630 Ghost Review - Challenging the AMD RX 6400

kac77

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Gainward GeForce GTX 1630 Ghost Review - Challenging the AMD RX 6400

Today, we have for review the Gainward GeForce GTX 1630 Ghost. This card is a real "ghost" from the past, as it's the first GeForce GTX product we've reviewed in almost two years. The GTX 1630 is, surprisingly, a brand-new SKU being launched today. Based on the older "Turing" graphics architecture and positioned in the 16-series which lacks real-time ray tracing or DLSS support, the GTX 1630 is expected to become NVIDIA's new entry-level product.
 
I'm sad this exists.

im-sad-a956fd2527.jpg
 
Sounds like a card for people that need to display a desktop and maybe wanting hardware video encode/decode. Or people that accidentally bought a CPU with no onboard graphics. Not for gamers though.
 
Sounds like a card for people that need to display a desktop and maybe wanting hardware video encode/decode. Or people that accidentally bought a CPU with no onboard graphics. Not for gamers though.

I thought this didn't have a hardware video decoder?
 
I thought this didn't have a hardware video decoder?
According to what I read at techpowerup, it lacks hardware-accelerated AV1 decode, but has media features consistent with the rest of the "Turing" family of GPUs.

Which is still better than an RX6400 which lacks hardware-accelerated AV1 decode and all encode functionality.
 
At least Nvidia didn't call it GTX 1650* (*GDDR6 64 bit) like they did with the GT 1030 DDR4.
 
These things are pathetic... You can get an old ass Quadro K5000 or Firepro W5000/5100 and beat the pants off of these "new normal" low end GPU's.
 
As much as it pains me to put the 1630 in a positive light, so far I'm not certain either a k5000 or w5000 would beat the pants off this. K5k might also consume almost 2/3 moar watts. At least its TDP is that much higher, what it's really doing who knows.

1050pass.jpg


INNO3D-GTX-1630-3.jpg
 
The GTX 1630 looks to be a solid upgrade over my AMD RX500. Thanks Nvidia. ♥️
 
The GTX 1630 looks to be a solid upgrade over my AMD RX500. Thanks Nvidia. ♥️

I hope that is sarcasm.

While better than APUs and anything below an rx560 or gtx 1050ti, the release price is what makes this an insult to the budget gaming community and those looking to dip their tows into pc gaming. Its about the same cost as what the 1650 was released years ago and loses by up to 40%. Its basically 1050ti performance with maybe 10w lower power usage. This card gets the same encoders as that 5 year + old card as well, so you might as well grab a used one of those for far less.
 
I hope that is sarcasm.

While better than APUs and anything below an rx560 or gtx 1050ti, the release price is what makes this an insult to the budget gaming community and those looking to dip their tows into pc gaming. Its about the same cost as what the 1650 was released years ago and loses by up to 40%. Its basically 1050ti performance with maybe 10w lower power usage. This card gets the same encoders as that 5 year + old card as well, so you might as well grab a used one of those for far less.
I feel like it's priced this high because AMD prices the RX6400 at $159 and Nvidia thought they could get away with it. But I totally agree, if I were looking for something along these lines I would likely just nab a 1050 Ti which is competes with and sometimes loses to; and I just checked and saw amazon has an MSI version for $170.26 which is still better than the MSRP on the GTX 1630.
 
This wouldn't be a bad card if it was priced for around $89.

Charging any more than that for this card in 2022 should be criminal.
I agree the price is ridiculous. $89 might be a tad low. You can get a GTX 970 or a 1050 Ti for between $80 and $100 used, and both of those cards beat the 1630 single-handedly. I would not pay more than $100-110 for a 1630 NIB. But unless a brand new card is a requirement for a build or something, I'd sooner get a more powerful used card for the same cost or even a tiny bit higher.
 
I only saw one review that had the ($129) with 2 free AAA games RX570 4Gb kicking this thing to the crub, but Steve's review at the end says this is was the best product AMD never released to sale more RX6400's

 
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If it had HDMI 2.1 I would have been all over it as I'm using a HTPC with a 4K TV that supports 120Hz, unfortunately it is still based on the Turing architecture, why couldn't they have used a more recent architecture instead?
 
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