NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (Laptop) vs MX250 (25W) – the GTX GPU is two times faster than the MX one but the latter is much cheaper

LaptopMedia.com Comparaisons NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (Laptop) vs MX250 (25W) - the GTX GPU is two times faster than the MX one but the latter is much cheaper

De: Nikolay Palaozov 16 Mars 2020 / 01:41 1

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is the entry-level GTX video card when it comes to the latest (green) Turing architecture. It’s around 40% slower than the 1660 Ti but when you pick the latter instead of the GTX 1650 the price of the laptop that you are configuring becomes heftier. No matter what, this GPU is able to show good FPS results in a lot of new games if you aren’t greedy for a maximum eye-candy quality.

The video card is good for esports games like CS:GO because those titles aren’t that heavy and if you have a high refresh rate monitor you can expect some serious advantage during multiplayer matches thanks to the combination of a fast monitor and high FPS values.

As we said, the GTX 1650 is the entry-level Turing GPU and we decided to pick for today’s comparison the GeForce MX250 (25W) – 1D13 as an opponent. This is the fastest NVIDIA video card in the lower GPU segment. This video adapter is faster than any other MX video card and iGPUs (including the Intel Iris Plus G7). Yes, it’ll be Budget Turing GPU vs The fastest MX-based video card.

See all configurations with GeForce GTX 1650 / GeForce MX250 (25W)

Specs overview
GPU comparison table
Synthetic benchmarks
Gaming tests
Performance summary (gaming tests)
Verdict

Specs overview

The GeForce MX250 (25W) has 384 shader units and 16 ROPs. The base and boost frequencies are 1518 MHz to 1582 MHz, the memory clock is set to 7000MHz, the GPU has up to 4GB GDDR5 memory, and a 64-bit memory bus. This is a Pascal video card that is based on the GP108 chip.

The GTX 1650 uses a small TU117 chip (for a Turing product). The mobile version of the GTX 1650 comes with unlocked 1024 shaders while the desktop version has only 896. So, the full specs are – 1024 shaders, 32 ROPs, 4GB of video memory (GDDR5), a 128-bit memory bus, and 50W TGP. The base and boost clocks are the following – 1395 Mhz to 1560 MHz. As for the memory – it’s clocked at 8000 MHz.

On paper, the GTX 1650 looks like a much faster GPU, and it really is. We just want to see the performance gap between the two video adapters.

GPU comparison table

	GeForce GTX 1650	GeForce MX250 (25W)
Architecture	Turing	Pascal
GPU chip	TU117	GP108
Shader units	1024 (+167%)	384
ROPs	32 (+100%)	16
Base Clock (MHz)	1395	1518 (+9%)
Boost clock (MHz)	1560	1582 (+1%)
Memory clock (MHz)	8000 (+14%)	7000
Memory size (MB)	4096	2048-4096
Memory type	GDDR5	GDDR5
Memory bus width (bit)	64	64
TGP (Total Graphics Power)	50W	TDP:25W
DirectX version	12.1	12.1
Technology	12nm	14nm
RTX capabilities	No	No
Release date	04.2019	02.2019
Detailed specs	Link	Link

Now, it’s time to check the performance of the GPUs with the aid of some benchmarks.

Synthetic benchmarks

The words aren’t enough to describe that kind of difference – the Turing video card is 197% faster in those synthetic benchmarks than the Pascal GPU. This is almost 4 times the performance of GP108.

GTX 1650 over MX250 (25W)	3Dmark Fire Strike (G)	Unigine Heaven 3.0	Unigine Heaven 4.0	Unigine Superposition	Average difference %
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650	153%	171%	175%	290%	197%
NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)

Gaming tests

We have the feeling that we are going to see the same flawless victory for the GTX 1650 like the one above.

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GO	HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)	HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)	HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650	151 fps (+21%)	198 fps (+80%)	192 fps (+121%)
NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)	125 fps	110 fps	87 fps

Good FPS results from both sides. Expectedly, the GTX 1650 is much faster in CS:GO but MX250 isn’t bad at all and if this is your main game you can save a lot of money – the MX GPU is fast enough for this case.

For Honor	Full HD, Medium (Check settings)	Full HD, High (Check settings)	Full HD, Extreme (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650	66 fps (+120%)	63 fps (+125%)	52 fps (+136%)
NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)	30 fps	28 fps	22 fps

For Honor isn’t that light but you’ll have no problems with this game if you choose the GTX 1650. The MX250 is good for Medium details – above that, we observed a lot of stutters.

Darksiders Genesis	Full HD, Medium (Check settings)	Full HD, High (Check settings)	Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650	66 fps (+94%)	62 fps (+114%)	58 fps (+123%)
NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)	34 fps	29 fps	26 fps

The same story – you can enjoy Darksiders Genesis no matter the preset (with almost or over 60FPS) but the GP108 can handle the Medium quality and with some FPS compromises – High settings too (but with just 29 FPS).

Metro Exodus	Full HD, Low (Check settings)	Full HD, High (Check settings)	Full HD, Extreme (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650	54 fps (+116%)	30 fps (+172%)	14 fps
NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)	25 fps	11 fps	– fps

Metro Exodus is one of the heaviest games at the moment and the Extreme preset is a no go even for the GTX 1650. With the latter, you can play the game at Low (54 FPS) or High quality – if 30 FPS are enough for your likings. Sadly, with MX250 you’ll have to drop the resolution to 900p or even 768p if you want the game to be playable.

For Honor	Full HD, V.Low (Check settings)	Full HD, High (Check settings)	Full HD, Badass (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650	56 fps (+75%)	49 fps (+277%)	29 fps
NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)	32 fps	13 fps	– fps

The Turing video adapter is almost good for Badass settings in Borderlands 3, unlike MX250 that struggles hard above Very Low quality.

For Honor	Full HD, Low (Check settings)	Full HD, Medium (Check settings)	Full HD, Max (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650	95 fps	90 fps	83 fps
NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)	103 fps (+8%)	95 fps (+6%)	91 fps (+10%)

It’s a bit of a surprise but the MX250 is faster than the GTX1650 in Team fortress 2. This is strange because this game is CPU intensive and our test GTX 1650 device is configured with i7-9750H. Nevermind, the game runs well with both GPUs.

For Honor	Full HD, Minimum (Check settings)	Full HD, Medium (Check settings)	Full HD, High (Check settings)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650	50 fps (+138%)	35 fps	19 fps
NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)	21 fps	– fps	– fps

Red Dead Redemption 2 is maybe the hottest PC game right now. Its open-world “melts” the hardware of our laptops. Still, the GTX 1650 can handle the game at Minimum-to-Medium quality while the MX250 isn’t powerful enough for this title at Full HD and you have to drop the resolution for smoother gameplay…at Minimum.

Performance summary (gaming tests)

Without further ado – the GTX 1650 is two times faster than the MX250 (25W), end of the story.

GTX 1650 over MX250 (25W)	Full HD, Low	Full HD, Normal	Full HD, High	Average difference %
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650	+79%	+127%	+93%	+100%
NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (25W)

Verdict

As we said in the beginning, we just wanted to see how big the gap is between both GPUs. Actually, it’s a big one – a 100% higher performance for the Turing GPU is no joke in terms of FPS. The good news is that the TU117 is powerful enough for every new game, even for Red Dead Redemption 2 and Metro Exodus. You can’t play them on Max settings but you’ll not spend a big amount of money if you choose this GPU for your future machine. This video card has other pros too when compared to its other bigger and more expensive siblings – with just 50W TGP it has lower power consumption and that leads to a cooler laptop because the chip doesn’t dissipate the same amount of heat like the other powerful and hungrier GTX and RTX video cards. That contributes to lower fans’ speeds so you can enjoy your favorite game without distracting noise from the cooling fans.

The MX250 (25W) has its own place under the sun – it’s an affordable GPU and if your budget is tight this one is a good choice. We are happy to see that this “small” and unexpensive product can handle a big portion of heavy games at 1080p (Low settings) like Borderlands 3, Darksiders Genisis, For Honor, etc. Of course, some lighter games like CS:GO, DOTA 2, and Fortnite are “flying” with this GPU so if you don’t play heavy games you can save a big amount of money thanks to the MX250 (25W). Additionally, for a dedicated chip, this one consumes a smaller amount of power when compared to the GTX 1650 and if your laptop has a big battery under the hood you can expect (probably) a pretty long battery life from it.

The GTX 1650 offers a decent amount of power at a lower cost than the other more expensive NVIDIA GPUs and it’s two times faster than the 25W version of MX250.

All laptops equipped with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650

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