AMD RX570 2019 Review vs GTX 1650 Cards

Conclusion

We’ve given a lot of coverage to graphics cards at the affordable end of the price spectrum lately, so if you’re a regular reader you’ll have to forgive us for a moment whilst we go over some familiar ground.

There are two primary reasons why you’d be buying a GPU at this price. Firstly, you don’t really have much interest in games beyond the undemanding types, whether because you are a big fan of the wave of pixel-art indie titles, or like World of Warcraft, League of Legends, DOTA2 or any of the other titles which have been specifically designed to work on the largest selection of setups. If that’s you then the RX570 and GTX 1650 both tick a lot of boxes, as would second hand older generation cards for similar prices. The area in which the MSI RX570 Armor definitely wins out over its Nvidia competitors is the build quality of the cooler, and its cooling capacity. Whilst the MSRP is close between the two the MSI is very much a card that feels like a more expensive offering, rather than one that feels like it’s been built down to hit a price point. Obviously all modern cards are well built and even if it doesn’t look like a premium item it will perform like one, but the twin fan design on the RX570 Armor could easily be mistaken for a much beefier model, whilst the Nvidia cards look like exactly what they are.

The second reason is probably the more likely one, namely that you love gaming but have a limited budget with which to indulge your hobby. If you count yourself amongst this group then the RX570 starts to flex its muscles and move from being a solid option to the unquestioned wisest choice. There is always a tacit understanding that if you wish to extract the highest frames per second from cards at the affordable end then you’ll have to indulge in some overclocking to really bring the best from your card. The Nvidia ones overclock okay, but nothing to be shouting from the rooftops about. The stock MSI RX570 Armor is in the ballpark of the GTX 1650 in either stock or overclocked trim, but where it really shines is when you do overclock it. This is easily done with the many tools available including MSIs own Afterburner, and boy will you be pleased that you take the time necessary to tune your card to its fullest performance. A quick glance at our graphs shows that the GTX 1650 gets maybe 5 or 6 frames per second extra from its overclock, but the MSI RX570 Armor gains 13 FPS in Far Cry 5 and F1 2018, 17 FPS in Hitman and Resident Evil 2 and even gains 10 FPS in Battlefield V. For many of these titles that overclock boost is enough to break through from around 60 FPS to comfortably 70 FPS. If you haven’t yet invested in a Freesync display that means you can run with V-Sync on, and all the image quality benefits – lack of screen tearing etc – it brings.

On a purely hardware level the RX570 has already got the battle won, but it has the additional icing on the cake of the free games you get from the AMD package. The value of any free games are partly about how interested you are in them, but the RX570 currently comes with the excellent World War Z and The Division 2 Gold Edition. Whilst The Division 2 might not set the world alight with its gameplay its a lot better than its predecessor and, most usefully, looks like a modern AAA game. Whenever we get a new graphics card our first thought is to find out what new eye candy it brings us and these games let you do that with no further outlay.

Overall if you’re gaming on a budget either because you have average requirements or because you have a tight budget the MSI RX570 Armor is a fantastic choice. It’s affordable gaming done correctly. More than enough horsepower to run anything at 1080P above 60FPS with maximum settings, and with some careful tweaking it can really fly. It reminds us of the old days when you brought the card below the one you wanted and overclocked it up. The MSI RX570 can often match the stock RX580 and we can think of no higher praise than that.

  

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