Best Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals & Sales 2020:

The GeForce GTX 1050 is a graphics card that sits just below the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti. It targets the same segment, namely players anxious to spend less than € 200, or even less than €. 150 to devote themselves to their leisure. If it is obvious that these models always require making concessions on the graphic settings, we will see that this small model is not without interest.

Best Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals & Sales 2020

1. Gigabyte Geforce GTX 1050 Ti OC 4GB GDDR5 128 Bit PCI-E Graphic Card (GV-N105TOC-4GD)

2. Asus GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Phoenix Fan Edition DVI-D HDMI DP 1.4 Gaming Graphics Card (PH-GTX1050TI-4G) Graphic Cards

3. ASUS ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB GDDR5 Advanced Edition VR Ready DP. HDMI DVI Gaming Graphics Card (ROG-STRIX-GTX1070TI-A8G-GAMING)

4. Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition

5. ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mini, 4GB GDDR5 DisplayPort 128-bit Gaming Graphic Card (ZT-P10510A-10L)

Presentation

Nvidia uses the same GPU on its two variants of GeForce GTX 1050 – Ti or not. We thus find the small chip GP107 which has the particularity of not being engraved in. 16 nm at TSMC as on the superior models but in 14 nm at Samsung. It is the same burning process used by AMD on its Polaris cards (Radeon RX 400), the competitor feeding on GlobalFoundries which co-produced this burning process with Samsung.

The chip is nevertheless used in a lighter configuration, called GP107-300. If there are two GPC blocks with three SM sub-blocks, one of the two GPC blocks has one of its SM sub-blocks “off”. We are therefore faced with a chip composed of 5 SM and not 6 SM as on the GP107-400 of the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti. From a practical point of view, this allows Nvidia to recycle chips where an SM does not work as expected.

More

Each SM block containing 128 calculation units and 8 units dedicated to textures, the chip finally consists of 640 calculation units, 40 units dedicated to textures and 32 rendering units. With these units in fewer numbers than on the Ti (768/48/32), Nvidia decided to slightly increase the frequencies of the graphics chip which pass to 1354 MHz for the basic frequency and to 1455 MHz for the average frequency GPU Boost. This allows in particular to stay within the same consumption limit, at 75 watts. For the record, the higher model is announced at 1290 and 1392 MHz. In the end, the gross power of a GeForce GTX 1050 is around 90% that of a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti.

Nothing extravagant on the memory side. There is talk of GDDR5 at 1752 MHz on a 128-bit bus for a bandwidth of 112 GB / s. On the other hand, if we find 4 GB on the Ti model, it is only a question of 2 GB in this case.

Noise

Nvidia does not plan to deliver a reference model (or Founders Edition) to its partners, who therefore all offer different designs. For our tests, we were able to use an MSI GeForce GTX 1050 OC, slightly overclocked , but lacking a PCIe power connector. This model turns out to be extremely discreet although its cooling system is more than basic.

The vast majority of cards should offer a similar service, the chip only heating slightly. Certain models – this is not the case for that of MSI – moreover propose the extinction of ventilation when the chip is not greatly stressed. It is a process that we appreciate since it makes it possible to extend the life of the fan.

Consumption

Power consumption is still very low even if slightly higher than that of the higher model. In the case of “custom” models, the results may differ slightly depending on the samples, the general idea being that the power consumption of these two samples is almost similar. Generally speaking, the GeForce GTX 1050 alone consumes around 65 watts, which is a little less than a Radeon RX 460. It nevertheless fits in a pocket tissue.

This low electricity consumption is accompanied by excellent energy efficiency. We have the impression of repeating the same refrain with each Nvidia graphics card test of the Pascal generation, but the firm is evolving in a completely different register than AMD at this level. This is one of the reasons – among others – for which Nvidia maintains a lead over its rival as regards the increase in frequency of its chips.

Performance in games

If our test model is overclocked, it remains quite light (chip at 1405 MHz for its base frequency and 1519 MHz for its GPU Boost frequency; the gain is therefore 51 and 64 MHz). As the memory has not been affected, the practical gain compared to a non- overclocked model must be between 0.5% and 1%, an insignificant gain in practice in games. The actual frequency of our test copy also fluctuated between 1595 and 1671 MHz after more than an hour of uninterrupted play.

On average, the GeForce GTX 1050 is 8% slower than the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti  – which therefore fits perfectly with the raw power we talked about a little earlier. The two models are therefore quite similar and this “classic” version remains on average 35% faster than a Radeon RX 460 . The performance is broadly similar to that of the GeForce GTX 960 and there is also a 9.5% lead over an overclocked GeForce GTX 950 . It is therefore possible to play decently on a Full HD monitor, at the cost of some more or less pronounced compromises on fairly greedy games.

The final word

Available from € 125, the GeForce GTX 1050 therefore offers 92% of the performance of a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti for a base price which is 24% lower – the Ti starts at € 155. The performance / price ratio therefore plays in favor of the classic version, especially since the service it offers in games does not differ greatly either. In both cases, it is possible to play up to Full HD with a level of details set to. High – therefore not maximum – in most cases, and to Medium / Normal in some other cases. A game that is not fluid on the. 1050 version will not necessarily be really more fluid on the Ti version.

Compared to the competition, the Nvidia card is located between the Radeon RX 460 and Radeon RX 470. AMD has understood this well and has adjusted its pricing accordingly by switching the RX. 460 under the bar of 100 € and the RX 470 under 200 €. Nvidia therefore offers a nice alternative to all this pretty world and gives its partners the possibility of making particularly silent models. 

In addition, Nvidia’s fairly complete software ecosystem is always there, with growing possibilities over the months – although we regret that the GeForce Experience utility now requires authentication and systematically sends several data from the computer on which it is installed.

STRONG POINTS

  • Energetic efficiency.
  • Low power consumption, which allows very quiet models to be obtained.
  • HDMI 2.0b and DP 1.4 “ready”.
  • Nvidia software ecosystem.

WEAK POINTS

  • Nothing special.

CONCLUSION

With overall performance very close to that of the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, this “classic” GeForce. GTX 1050 proves to be an interesting solution for those who wish to play in Full. HD while spending just over a hundred euros. Certainly, at this price, it is necessary to make some compromises on the graphics options. But the card is capable of displaying fluidly a game set to a “High quality” or “Medium”.

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