This is the saddest GPU launch in history and for once I'm not talking about the Intel Arc A380

We knew it was coming, but I still didn't want to believe Nvidia was really going to release such a graphics card as the GTX 1630. I didn't want to believe that in 2022 things were so bad that the green team would go back and scrape out the silty bottom of the Turing GPU well.

And yet here we are; a new GPU sliced to the bone with almost a third of the CUDA core count of the GTX 1650 Super, retailing with an MSRP of $10 more than that actually pretty damned good mainstream GPU.

The $169 MSRP has come via Colorful, which is releasing a modestly higher clocked version of the card with a dual-slot cooling design and a 6-pin PCIe connector. Asus has also announced to us three different versions, including a couple of nominally more overclocked cards. And I would expect those to be priced into the $200 mark.

In terms of the GTX 1630's pallid specs list, the TU117 GPU boasts just 512 CUDA cores, features 4GB of GDDR6 memory on a 64-bit memory bus (yes, you read that right), and clock speeds of 1,815MHz. In fairness, that's the one place where the GPU has the edge on its Turing brethren—it's the highest clocked GTX 16-series card Nvidia has ever produced. Yay.

By contrast, when it was released back in 2019, the GTX 1650 Super came with a TU116 GPU featuring 1,280 CUDA cores, 4GB GDDR6, and a 1,725MHz boost clock speed. All for a more modest $159.

Remember when graphics cards actually had some notion of value attached to them? I would understand if you don't, it's been a while. 

We've been talking about it today and still can't settle on where this has come from. Did Nvidia uncover a stash of broken TU117 GPUs it had hoarded away for a rainy day and has now chopped them up and resold them on to AIBs? Or has it actually decided to start manufacturing these cheap old chopped-down GPUs afresh knowing it can sell them on for a massive profit?

Neither sounds like a particularly positive outcome for us PC gamers.

The GTX 1650 Super was actually a great 1080p GPU when it launched, and would still deliver an effective 1080p gaming experience on a host of popular games. The new GTX 1630, by contrast, absolutely won't. Checking out TechPowerUp's review of the Gainward version and its average frame rates across its full suite of gaming benchmarks sees the GTX 1630 performing 54% slower than the GTX 1650 Super.

The argument, I guess, is that you can't buy a GTX 1650 Super new for that MSRP right now, but honestly there are enough listed second-hand on Ebay today, for way less than the price of a GTX 1630 that I would totally recommend giving the used market a go before you go anywhere near this latest Nvidia card.