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How We Tested GeForce GTX 1050 3GB
Our Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 & 1050 Ti Review is coming up on two years old. In that piece, we benchmarked the 1050s against AMD’s Radeon RX 460, 470, and older R9 270X. Really, though, the RX 470 (and newer RX 570) is in a different class altogether, while the R9 270X is approaching its five-year birthday and not as relevant. So, let’s keep this comparison tight: the most important cards to compare include Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1050 2GB, the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB, and AMD’s Radeon RX 560.
The GeForce cards are tested from scratch (no recycled benchmark data) using driver version 398.11. Similarly, we started fresh with AMD’s Radeon RX 560 using Adrenalin Edition 18.5.2. Our test platforms run Windows 10 Pro version 1803.
As for the supporting hardware, we have an MSI Z270 Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard hosting a Core i7-7700K CPU. The platform is complemented by G.Skill’s F4-3200C14Q-32GTZ memory kit. Intel’s Kaby Lake architecture remains one of the company’s most effective per clock cycle, and a stock 4.2 GHz frequency is higher than the models with more cores. Crucial’s MX200 SSD remains, as does the Corsair H110i cooler and be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850W power supply.
Benchmarks
Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1050 family targets the same 1920x1080 resolution and eSports demographic as AMD’s Radeon RX 560, so our test settings reflect more mainstream performance expectations.
- DirectX 12, 1920x1080, Standard quality preset, built-in benchmark, 150-second PresentMon recording
- DirectX 12, 1920x1080, Medium quality preset, custom benchmark, 60-second PresentMon recording
- DirectX 11, 1920x1080, Medium quality preset, FXAA, HDAO, custom benchmark, 60-second PresentMon recording
- Vulkan, 1920x1080, High quality preset, custom benchmark, 60-second PresentMon recording
- DirectX 11, 1920x1080, Normal quality preset, TAA, built-in benchmark, 60-second PresentMon recording
- DirectX 11, 1920x1080, Medium quality preset, FXAA, SSBC, built-in benchmark, 50-second PresentMon recording
- DirectX 12, 1920x1080, Medium quality preset, 16x anisotropic filtering, 2x MSAA, built-in benchmark, 25-second PresentMon recording
- DirectX 12, 1920x1080, Medium quality preset, built-in benchmark, 80-second PresentMon recording
- DirectX 9, Ultra quality preset, Serral vs. ShoWTime 2018 WCS Leipzig, 90-second PresentMon recording from 10:00 mark
- DirectX 11, Medium quality settings, HairWorks disabled, custom Tom’s Hardware benchmark, 100-second PresentMon recording
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