Nvidia Releases GTX 1050 3GB To Stave Off Crypto-Miners

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Nvidia pulled the veil off of a new GeForce 10-series graphics card, giving gamers a new choice in the low end of the graphics horsepower spectrum with a variation of a GTX 1050 GPU with 3GB of VRAM.

The new GeForce GTX 1050 3GB graphics card borrows much of its design from the GTX 1050 Ti. It shares the same CUDA core count as the Ti (768), but it sports a higher base and boost frequency of 1,392MHz and 1,518MHz, respectively. The 3GB of memory is still of the 7 Gbps GDDR5 variety, the same as the other GTX 1050s, but its bandwidth has been trimmed down from 128-bit to 96-bit.

Some may question Nvidia’s reasoning for releasing a new version of the GTX 1050 at this juncture, especially when 11-series cards are just around the corner. However, those familiar with Nvidia’s product rollouts know that the low-end of the 11-series will come much later than the expected flagships, and we’ll likely see the GTX 1050 remain a viable low-budget contender for at least the next few months.

The new GTX 1050 3GB card also falls into a unique position in Nvidia’s product stack with its reduced memory bandwidth and capacity because crypotminers will likely pass on the new card--you need just under 3GB of VRAM to mine Ethereum these days (and the DAG file size is sure to grow), and memory bandwidth plays a significant role in mining performance--giving gamers the first crack at it. The reduced memory capacity should also slot the GTX 1050 3GB into a price point directly between the other two GTX 1050 cards, giving consumers even more options in the budget-friendly segment.

Pricing and availability of the new GeForce GTX 1050 3GB graphics card is currently unknown, but it will be interesting to see which AIB partners will be joining the GTX 1050 3GB party.

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Derek Forrest
Derek Forrest
Derek Forrest is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He writes hardware news and reviews gaming desktops and laptops.
20 Comments Comment from the forums
  • ikaz
    I think they should have named it 1045 instead
    Reply
  • King_V
    Increased clocks, but reduced memory bandwidth?

    Could this possibly hurt performance relative to the 1050?
    Reply
  • NewbieGeek
    I'm thinking about doing a budget build, where can I get one of these? Neither newegg or nvidia seem to be selling them.
    Reply
  • AnimeMania
    Nvidia should release 3.5GB versions of the 1070, 1080 and 1080 ti and sell them at a very low price as a FU to miners and a thank you to gamers.
    Reply
  • derekullo
    Ethereum isn't the only crypto to mine.

    According to this giant wall of text;
    https://whattomine.com/coins?utf8=%E2%9C%93&adapt_q_280x=0&adapt_q_380=0&adapt_q_fury=0&adapt_q_470=0&adapt_q_480=0&adapt_q_570=0&adapt_q_580=0&adapt_q_vega56=0&adapt_q_vega64=0&adapt_q_750Ti=0&adapt_q_1050Ti=1&adapt_1050Ti=true&adapt_q_10606=0&adapt_q_1070=0&adapt_q_1070Ti=0&adapt_q_1080=0&adapt_q_1080Ti=0&eth=true&factor%5Beth_hr%5D=13.9&factor%5Beth_p%5D=70.0&grof=true&factor%5Bgro_hr%5D=14.5&factor%5Bgro_p%5D=75.0&phi=true&factor%5Bphi_hr%5D=6.0&factor%5Bphi_p%5D=75.0&cn=true&factor%5Bcn_hr%5D=300.0&factor%5Bcn_p%5D=50.0&cn7=true&factor%5Bcn7_hr%5D=300.0&factor%5Bcn7_p%5D=50.0&eq=true&factor%5Beq_hr%5D=180.0&factor%5Beq_p%5D=75.0&lre=true&factor%5Blrev2_hr%5D=14500.0&factor%5Blrev2_p%5D=75.0&ns=true&factor%5Bns_hr%5D=420.0&factor%5Bns_p%5D=75.0&factor%5Btt10_hr%5D=7.0&factor%5Btt10_p%5D=75.0&factor%5Bx16r_hr%5D=4.0&factor%5Bx16r_p%5D=50.0&factor%5Bskh_hr%5D=11.5&factor%5Bskh_p%5D=75.0&factor%5Bn5_hr%5D=15.0&factor%5Bn5_p%5D=70.0&factor%5Bxn_hr%5D=1.0&factor%5Bxn_p%5D=75.0&factor%5Bcost%5D=0.06&sort=Profitability24&volume=0&revenue=24h&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=binance&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=bitfinex&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=bittrex&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=cryptobridge&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=cryptopia&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=hitbtc&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=poloniex&factor%5Bexchanges%5D%5B%5D=yobit&dataset=Main&commit=Calculate

    If we base our calculations on the Geforce 1050Ti the top crypto to mine is indeed Ethereum at 62 cents a day, taking 0.06 per kWh as the power cost.

    If we eliminate Ethereum from the list due to the decreased amount of VRAM on the new Geforce 1050 then the next crypto that is able to effectively be mined it would be Bitcoin Gold and or Zcash at 55 cents a day.

    Never heard of Zencash but you could mine it for 0.59 cents a day.

    55/62 is a 12% loss if miners decided to buy this card and mined Bitcoin Gold instead of Ethereum versus a normal Geforce 1050Ti.

    This card by itself won't stave off cryptominers if they really wanted to buy it, especially if the amount it mines per month / the price of the card brings it to higher efficiency than the Geforce 1060.

    You could put 8 of them in a Biostar TB250-BTC D+ for a low powered $4.40 a day, $132 a month rig.

    What staves off cryptominers is the imminent release of the GTX 11xx or GTX 20xx series which is supposedly much more efficient than the 10xx series.
    Reply
  • Giroro
    This is just a 1050 TI where they have depopulated one of the RAM chips.

    I guess there is still a GDDR5 shortage.
    Reply
  • Daekar3
    I'm starting to hate crypto miners.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    20988107 said:
    its bandwidth has been trimmed down from 128-bit to 96-bit.
    Bandwidth usually refers to the actual data rate, since it's a measure of frequency.

    A better way to phrase it would be that they reduced the aggregate data bus width (each memory channel has a separate address bus and data bus). To be even more precise, I think they actually cut it down from 4x 32-bit channels to 3x.
    Reply
  • longjohn119
    The GTx 1050 was already limited by the memory buss width and making it even smaller doesn't make a lot of sense to me .... The reason I say this is when I increased the memory clock speed I didn't gain squat in performance which tells me the memory buss wirth is already at full capacity ....
    Reply
  • bit_user
    20989240 said:
    The GTx 1050 was already limited by the memory buss width and making it even smaller doesn't make a lot of sense to me .... The reason I say this is when I increased the memory clock speed I didn't gain squat in performance which tells me the memory buss wirth is already at full capacity ....
    I think you have it backwards. If increasing the clock doesn't gain you anything, it shows memory was not a bottleneck (i.e. not maxed).

    Whether it's memory-bottlenecked will depend on the game, the options, and the resolution, however.
    Reply