With GPU prices still mucked up from cryptocurrency mining, options in the budget realm are limited.
The two most popular choices are Nvidia’s entry level graphics cards: the GTX 1050 and
its big brother, the 1050 Ti.
Howdy howdy guys ponchato here, and today we’ll be taking a look at the GTX 1050 and
1050 Ti in terms of both their absolute performance and their relative value.
Nvidia’s GTX 1050 was released just over a year ago in late October of 2016 at a launch
price of $109 USD.
The GPU clocks in at a frequency of 1354MHz with 640 shaders, is equipped with 2GB of
GDDR5 memory, and is rated for 1862 GFLOPS of floating point performance.
The specific GTX 1050 we’ll be testing here today is the MSI GTX 1050 2GT OC.
Its big brother is the GTX 1050 Ti, also released in October of 2016.
Starting at a launch price of $139 USD the 1050 Ti runs at a slightly lower frequency
of 1291MHz but comes with 768 shaders.
Additionally it has 4GB of memory and a higher floating point performance rating of 2138
GFLOPS.
The 1050 Ti we’re testing here comes from Zotac, their GTX 1050 Ti Mini.
Both cards are rated for a 75W TDP which means they don’t require an extra PCIe power connector,
both cards have dual slot coolers, and both cards are equipped with a DVI, DisplayPort,
and HDMI connector.
The test setup today is my i5-7500 build with 8GB of DDR4-2400 memory, and all benchmarks
are run at 1080p.
First on the list is Battlefield 1.
The difference in performance here is actually less than I expected, with the 1050 Ti only
about 12-18% faster on average.
The performance increase in 1% and 0.1% lows is also modest at only around 10-12%.
That said, the 1050 Ti can manage nearly 60FPS on ultra settings whereas the 1050 can only
maintain 60FPS on medium to high settings.
Next up is Counter Strike: Global Offensive.
Since it’s an esports title with relatively simple graphics, the only sizeable difference
appears on high settings, with the 1050 Ti about 11% faster on average than the 1050.
1% and 0.1% lows are nearly identical across the board, with the odd exception being low
settings where the 1050 Ti actually dropped lower than the 1050.
It appears that processor speed is generally the limiting factor here, rather than GPU
power.
Third is Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.
Results on low and high settings (which should really be called “medium” since they’re
the middle preset) are very close – less than 9% difference between the two cards.
On ultra, the 1050 Ti does come out ahead with a sizable 25% lead, but the caveat there
is it’s still only running at 25FPS.
Not exactly “playable” territory.
Next up is GTA 5.
As usual, results on low settings don’t make any sense because of a stuttering glitch
that GTA has.
It might be possible to fix this by capping the frame rate, but that’s for a later video.
On medium settings the 1050 Ti comes out about 9% faster than the 1050 in average, 1% low,
and 0.1% low frame rates.
On high settings, the Ti is about 11% faster except for 0.1% lows, where it stayed about
22% faster than the 1050.
It should be noted that both cards averaged over 60FPS on high settings, keeping it comfortably
playable at all times.
The fifth game in the list is Just Cause 3, the first to show a reasonably significant
difference in performance.
Across the graphics settings the 1050 Ti averaged about 15% faster than the 1050, but the big
difference was in the lows.
On low settings, the 1% and 0.1% lows were about 30% faster, while on medium settings
the lows were 37% and 86% faster, respectively.
Basically that translates to the 1050 Ti having much less stuttering at those graphics settings
than the 1050, but this performance gap closes quite a bit once you put the game on high
settings.
Next up is the esports title, Overwatch.
Again, the 1050 Ti averages around 16% faster across the graphics settings but a sizeable
difference appears in the lows.
On low settings, especially, the 1050 Ti comes out far ahead in 1% and 0.1% lows with an
increase of 26% in 1% lows and 64% in 0.1% lows.
On high settings (which, again, should be called “medium” since it’s the middle
preset) the 1050 Ti keeps a still healthy 30% lead in lows over the 1050.
The biggest takeaway here, I’d argue, is that with the game maxed out, the 1050 does
drop to below 60FPS in the 0.1% case while the 1050 Ti always maintains over 60 frames
per second.
Seventh in the list is PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds or PUBG.
The performance difference between the 1050 Ti and 1050 vanilla is somewhat underwhelming;
only about 10% faster on average.
1% and 0.1% lows again show a slightly larger difference, about 23% faster on very low settings
and a pretty big 75-90% increase on ultra.
With that said, however, both cards are really only good for medium settings if your target
is 60FPS.
Also, shoutout to Bluehole for actually naming the mid-level graphics preset “medium”.
Makes sense.
Every developer should be doing this.
Last on the list is Rocket League, another esports title.
If you haven’t played it yet you should pick it up, it’s only like $20 and great
for procrastinating from all the work you should be doing.
Cough cough.
As we’ve seen so far, the difference in average FPS is fairly small, in fact only
about 6% across the graphics settings.
Lows are… a bit wonky.
On low settings, the 1050 Ti comes out way ahead; 16% faster in 1% lows and 55% higher
in 0.1% lows.
On medium settings however, the 1050 Ti drops hard, and on high settings, though the difference
is less pronounced, the Ti does carry much less impressive lows.
Based on all this, I’d call Rocket League a practical draw between the 1050 and the
1050 Ti.
Now to give a general idea of the difference in performance, we’ll look at the average
FPS across esports and non-esports titles.
I have them separated since performance in esports titles like CSGO can be radically
different than that of a more traditional game like GTA 5 or PUBG.
First we’ll look at the non-esports average.
These numbers are the combined results from Battlefield 1, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, GTA
5, Just Cause 3, and PUBG.
Low settings showed the smallest overall difference in performance, likely because lower settings
have a tendency to be partially CPU-bound rather than exclusively GPU-bound.
On medium settings the Ti was about 15% faster across all three metrics, while on the highest
settings it held around an 18% lead.
Next we’ll look at the esports average.
These numbers come from the combined benchmarks of CSGO, Overwatch, and Rocket League.
On low settings, the Ti was only about 5% faster on average, but lows were 10% and almost
30% higher for 1% and 0.1% lows respectively.
On medium settings, the average FPS gap widens a bit to just over 6%, while 1% lows were
nearly identical and 0.1% lows were actually about 25% lower for the Ti.
Performance on high was fairly similar: 10% faster average, 5% faster 1% lows, and nearly
identical 0.1% lows.
Next we’ll look at power consumption and temperatures.
As usual I need to include my disclaimer on comparing GPU temperatures: nearly every graphics
card comes with a different cooler and it’s not reasonable (and really not relevant) to
put the same aftermarket cooler on each one.
In this case for both cards, fan speed was set to 45% (the minimum allowed by their BIOS)
and temperatures were measured in a room at 24C. Power measurements are for the entire
test setup as measured from the wall, idle measurements were taken after the computer
sat idle at the desktop for 15 minutes, and load measurements were taken after 15 minutes
of running Unigine’s Valley benchmark.
At idle, the 1050 drew 32W and settled at 31C while the 1050 Ti drew 47W and sat at
around 33C.
Under load, the 1050 drew 106W and peaked at 76C with the 1050 Ti also drew 106W but
only hit 62C – an indication of a better cooling system from Zotac rather than a difference
in heat output.
The only really interesting note here is how much less power the 1050 drew at idle; almost
50% lower power consumption than the 1050 Ti.
It’s not much in absolute terms, but if you spend more time outside of games than
in them, the 1050 will save quite a bit of power over its lifetime.
Finally we’ll look at performance per dollar, price to performance, or more simply, the
value of each card.
These numbers come from the combined average and 1% lows for all 8 games at medium settings,
divided by the general market price of the cards when the video is uploaded.
Both cards, unfortunately, are going for more than their MSRP right now: about $120 USD
for the 1050 and $160 USD for the 1050 Ti.
The joys of crypto mining.
Anyway, as you can see here, the GTX 1050 is a pretty significantly better value for
the money, about 23% more frames per dollar than the 1050 Ti.
Part of this is due to the 1050 Ti’s modest performance gain over the 1050, and part of
it is due to the 1050 Ti’s roughly $40 price premium – about a third more expensive than
the 1050, while not delivering 1/3 more performance.
To answer the question in the title, how far up the creek are we?
At the moment, pretty far.
PC component value has taken a nosedive in the last year from crypto mining, DRAM shortages,
and NAND shortages, and it really doesn’t look like it’s getting better anytime soon.
A common question when building computers is “should I wait” for better, or cheaper
components, and right now the answer to that is a resounding “no”.
If the last year is any indication, waiting even a few months could double or triple the
cost of some of your parts.
It’s been quite a while since market conditions like this have existed and I have to say,
I did not miss them.
Anyway, rant aside I have to say, I was actually surprised by these results.
Without comparing them side by side, I would’ve assumed the 1050 Ti to be a significantly
stronger card than the 1050, not a mere 10-15% faster.
On top of that, the value proposition of the 1050 Ti is, at least for right now, completely
blown out of the water.
It’s just not worth it to pay the extra $40 to get such a small bump in performance.
If 1080p gaming is your thing, and for the vast majority of people it is, you’ll be
served much better by a GTX 1050 than a 1050 Ti.
Maybe the 1060 will fare better, but that’s for another video.
To pick up a 1050 or 1050 Ti if you’re so inclined, click the links in the description.
If you want to get notified of new videos as soon as they’re up, hit subscribe then
click the bell icon to enable notifications.
So guys if you liked this video, hit the like button, if you want to see more hit subscribe,
and if you have any questions about these graphics cards or the benchmarks, leave them
in the comments below.
Thanks for watching, I hope I helped, and I’ll see you in the next video.