Nvidia has today unveiled the new GeForce GTX 1630, which is now the cheapest modern graphics card that the company has to offer.
The graphics card’s starting price will reportedly be $150, although the likes of EVGA are already selling the GPU for $200 with their own third-party design.
The GTX 1630 will based on a watered-down TU117 GPU, while packing 512 CUDA cores. The graphics card will also feature 4GB of GDDR6 memory with a 64-bit memory bus.
But what kind of performance can we expect from those specs? YouTube channel Benchmark Lab has shown the GTX 1630 to be less powerful than a GTX 1050 Ti graphics card, despite the latter launching six years ago. Such a performance means you’ll be limited to a 1080p resolution, so don’t expect to play any games at 1440p or 4K.
And with the GTX 1630 using Turing architecture, it will miss out on high-end features such as ray tracing, which improves the graphics of supported games with more realistic shadow and lighting effects. DLSS isn’t supported either, so don’t expect a performance boost thanks to Nvidia’s AI smarts.
So with the GTX 1630 limited to a basic 1080p performance and lacking modern features, it’s only really worthwhile for PC gamers on a tight budget.
Those craving a high-end gaming performance are better off waiting for the upcoming Nvidia RTX 4000 range, with rumours indicating the new graphics cards will be available to buy before the end of the year.
The Trusted Take
It’s hard to get too excited about the Nvidia GTX 1630 graphics card given its low-end specs and entry-level performance. That said, it’s still good to see Nvidia selling graphics cards at a low price for those who want to build a PC on a tight budget, as we can’t all afford an RTX 3080.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
