Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 & 1050 Ti Review

Features
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Project CARS, StarCraft 2, The Witcher 3 & World of Warcraft

Project CARS

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The same observations from GTA V apply to Project CARS. Radeon RX 470 is fastest, Radeon RX 460 shows up in an unenviable position toward the bottom of our field, and the GeForce GTX 1050s appear right next to each other, the 1050 Ti less than 4% quicker.

StarCraft 2

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AMD and Nvidia both want to dominate the e-sports space, and they’ve called out their Radeon RX 460 and GeForce GTX 1050 as affordable, yet fast enough for competitive gaming. At least in StarCraft, Nvidia has the leg up. Then again, even the slowest card averages 130 FPS and never dips under 106.

The Witcher 3

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Although it’s a DX11 game, we’re used to seeing AMD fare well in The Witcher 3. Indeed, the Radeon RX 470 is way out in the lead with a minimum frame rate that exceeds the 1050 Ti’s average. But when it comes to the real competition—Radeon RX 460—vanilla GeForce GTX 1050 comes out ahead by more than 17%.

World of Warcraft

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The two GeForce GTX 1050s place second and third behind AMD’s Radeon RX 470, while the vanilla 1050 beats Radeon RX 460 by almost 59%.

Back when we reviewed the RX 460, we thought upgrading to a 4 GB card might make sense for 1920x1080 gaming. But the GeForce GTX 1050 serves up a lot more performance at a similarly entry-level price point, and its 2 GB of GDDR5 doesn’t appear to cause any consistency issues.

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Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
85 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Corwin65
    Seeing pricing at $200 for the 1050 Ti.
    Reply
  • ingtar33
    yeah, no way in heck the 1050 sells at 110, probably will be much closer to 150-170
    Reply
  • WildCard999
    EVGA GTX 1050 ti around $150
    http://www.evga.com/Products/ProductList.aspx?type=0&family=GeForce+10+Series+Family&chipset=GTX+1050+Ti
    EVGA GTX 1050 around $120
    http://www.evga.com/Products/ProductList.aspx?type=0&family=GeForce+10+Series+Family&chipset=GTX+1050

    It will probably be about $20-$30 more for the SSC & FTW versions.
    Reply
  • elbert
    Leaks suggested the 1050ti is as fast as the 960 and R9 280. I would love to have seen if that was true. My 280 is getting old and needs an upgrade. Any chance those can be added to the benchmarks?
    Reply
  • tslot05qsljgo9ed
    Blind Troll

    Zortac GTX 1050 Mini: $109.95
    Zortac GTX 1050 Ti Mini: $139.95

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&Description=1050&bop=And&SrchInDesc=zotac&Page=1&PageSize=36&order=BESTMATCH
    Reply
  • Onus
    I wonder if a low-profile single-slot GTX1050 will come out...
    Reply
  • Corwin65
    18776894 said:
    Blind Troll

    Zortac GTX 1050 Mini: $109.95
    Zortac GTX 1050 Ti Mini: $139.95

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&Description=1050&bop=And&SrchInDesc=zotac&Page=1&PageSize=36&order=BESTMATCH

    If you're in the market snag one of those before prices jump.
    Reply
  • cdrkf
    @Elbert no way the 1050ti is going to best the 280, it's just not got enough resources behind it.

    You'd be far better looking at an RX 470 / 480 card or one of the 1060 cards imo. The only advantage to the 1050ti over your current card is lower power consumption, although the 280 isn't that bad anyhow.
    Reply
  • artk2219
    All I am seeing is a nice pricewar brewing for the midrange segment. The RX 460 needs to drop to 90 to 95. and the 470 should ideally drop to 150 to 160. On Nvidias end the 1050 is just fine at 110, but the ti needs to drop to 130 to 135. Either way, i would save a little more and take a used R9 290 over any of them, but thats me. The only real reason to be crazy excited about the 1050, is if your limited to a single slot case and need a low power but decent performance card. In which case the 1050's are an excellent option, we really could use a nice single slot card.
    Reply
  • spdragoo
    @Elbert: Didn't find direct comparisons to the R9 280, but Techspot's review showed benchmark comparisons to the R9 380 (which is pretty much on par with the 280):

    http://www.techspot.com/review/1269-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050/

    @CDRKF: Technically, you're correct: the GTX 1050Ti didn't (consistently) put in a better performance than the GTX 960 or R9 380. However, there were a couple of games that it beat them in (beating the 960 more often than the 380), & even when it didn't beat them its performance was right in the ballpark. To me, that says that either the 1050 or 1050Ti would make an excellent card for someone wanting to replace a broken R9 280/280 or GTX 960, but doesn't have the budget for a GTX 1060 or RX 470/480, & especially a good choice for someone whose system (*cough* OEM garbage *cough*) doesn't allow them to use a GPU that requires PCIe power connectors...as long as they're not expecting to game any higher than 1080p resolutions.
    Reply