Bring some Kalm to your computing with the fanless Palit GTX 1650 KalmX

Palit has opted to use the TU117 (GTX 1650) graphics core rather than the newer TU116 (GTX 1650 Super), a decision that was likely made due to the lower TDP. This makes it easier to cool passively and allows the PCI-E slot to act as the sole power source.

The GTX 1650 KalmX uses a shortened PCB that allows it to fit into cube-style ITX cases. It manages to stay within the bounds of a two-slot design, but the heatsink extends well beyond the height of the external PCI slot cover, making it unsuitable for cases requiring low-profile cards. Dimensions are 178 x 138 x 38 mm (L x H x W).

The other fanless options which it will compete against include the Palit GTX 1050 Ti KalmX, several models of the GT 1030, and a few versions of the ancient Nvidia GT 730 and GT 710, or AMD R5 230. The latter three are only useful for basic video output in systems that lack an integrated GPU.

We see two primary uses for the GTX 1650 KalmX. The first is as an addition to a plex/emby media server to move transcoding duties away from the CPU — although the GTX 1650 doesn’t use the Turing NVENC encoder (see full specs) and Nvidia artificially limits GTX cards to two streams at a time. The second scenario is to fit into a lounge gaming PC where quietness is valued, and the longer viewing distance plus the types of games being played (e.g., Rocket League) make lower-powered cards running at medium settings more viable.

While the Palit GTX 1650 KalmX runs at stock speeds and sticks below a 75 W TDP, cases that have a fan positioned close to this card will possibly find more consistent performance in the warmer months. No retail pricing was available at the time of writing.