Thought I'd make an account on here to post about my experience with this card.
I live in the U.S., and I've been looking for a new low profile GPU for awhile. My Gigabyte GTX 1050 Ti LP card was causing periodic signal loss since I got it two years ago. Two RMAs, multiple HDMI cables, and even a change of TV didn't fix it. As far as I can tell, it's a problem with the 1050 Ti as a whole.
That's where this card comes into play. Ever since I knew there'd be a low profile variant of the 1650, I've been looking for the most reasonable way to get this thing in my hands. I figured the SFF Forums were the perfect place to figure that out. It's a niche product, after all. And it looks like I was right, thanks to Copernicus making a living diary off of the card's availability. I'm actually grateful for that. If it weren't for this thread, I'd have never known that Zotac sold its products on its own website!
I ordered the card from there last Monday. Shipping is pretty hefty, but the final price wasn't that much higher than it'd be if I bought it from a U.S. retailer and paid sales tax afterwards. It got here exactly a week later, and it was well packaged.
The card's box was completely surrounded by foam slabs. Overall a pleasant surprise.
The card itself is fairly standard outside of it being low profile. Two fans, no back shield, no-frills design. But it's really the only card for me at this point nonetheless. The planned Asus card is too long to fit into my Silverstone ML09 case, and the MSI card has absolutely pathetic I/O choices with only one HDMI port and DVI. Not even DisplayPort!
The 1650 was a snug fit, but that's to be expected with SFF builds. As for the actual results: The signal loss issue is gone! That, and this being a more powerful card than the 1050 Ti already makes this card a big winner in my book. Things definitely seem snappier in terms of rendering graphics in games, but I haven't done that much rigorous testing on it. I figure there's not much of a point to stress it. It's a hybrid HTPC and gaming machine, not a master-race-level gaming powerhouse.
I've got to parrot what others are saying: The fans are pretty loud. If I didn't know any better, I'd say they might even be louder than the Gigabyte GTX 1050 Ti LP I was using. And that only has one fan doing all the cooling! To me the sound is fairly ambient, but I know others won't agree on that. It really depends on how much you're focusing on the fans instead of what you're doing on the computer. Now, if it's at load in a game and there's a slow/silent moment going on in it, then it's definitely off-putting.
If you're in the U.S. and still waiting for this card, I'd heavily suggest ordering it from Zotac's website when it's in stock. The process couldn't be more self-explanatory, and delivery time was faster than expected, too. I'm pretty stoked overall. I've wanted to be able to upgrade the GPU for awhile, even forgetting the blackout issue I've had with it. Now I've killed two birds with one stone.
www.overclock3d.net
