MSI GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GAMING X 4G & MSI GTX 1050 2G OC Review

Conclusion: MSI GTX 1050 Ti GAMING X 4G

MSI GTX 1050 Ti GAMING X 4G is the latest card from MSI’s GeForce GTX 10 series. Currently there is no indication NVIDIA is planning GT 10 series (GT 1040), so right now GTX 1050 series will remain the slowest cards based on NVIDIA’s Pascal architecture.

For whom is GTX 1050 Ti? It is definitely not an upgrade for GTX 960 owners (especially those with 4GB variant). However, those who’ve been using GTX 750 or 950 series, might actually find this card interesting.

What makes GAMING X 4G special is the build quality and efficiency of the cooler. There is also no problem with overclocking. While the card is already factory-overclocked, we can easily gain another 10% (or more) just by adjusting few values in Afterburner.

Judging from our performance chart (which is based on very short benchmarks), GTX 1050 Ti GAMING X will offer good performance at 1920×1080 resolution with medium settings enabled. Of course, there are many ways to increase image quality without sacrificing performance, but in our charts we stick only to the games with built-in graphics quality presets.

The MSI GTX 1050 Ti GAMING X 4G is for those who expect hassle-free operation and good build-quality. At the time of writing this card was on sale for 165 USD/170 EUR, which is almost in RX 470 territory. The price is the only downside of this model.

Conclusion: MSI GTX 1050 2G OC

MSI’s GTX 1050 2G OC is the only card in our review with 2GB memory. Some games would not even start at 4K/Ultra resolution. Of course, this card never designed for such configuration, but it was the only way of discovering the limitations of this model. We prepared two more charts for this review, one showing the actual performance and the other – memory usage. The second chart should give you the idea where 2GB memory buffer may be a problem.

According to our tests, GeForce GTX 1050 should be playable at 1080/low settings. However, in the end it will depend on what ‘playable’ means to you. For me it means at least 60 FPS, which is a common refresh rate for most monitors. At that point you can enable V-Sync and enjoy smooth gameplay without tearing or FPS drops. Console players may enjoy this card at higher settings, but also at lower framerate.

The biggest problem of GTX 1050 is small memory buffer. As you know, newer games are not often well optimized, which means you may face memory leakage and slow texture loading. In our tests RX 460 4GB has been proven to be more resistant to such problems.

The best feature of MSI GTX 1050 2G OC is small form factor. This card is not just for gamers, but also for HTPC builders. This card will not need more than 75W, because only that much power can be transmitted through PCI-Express slot, at least according to the specs. This is also the reason why overclocking is not really a domain of this card.

At the time of writing this card was available for 122 EUR, which is around 13 EUR less than RX 460 4GB. I think it’s a fair price for this model, but if you need higher image quality, you might consider GTX 1050 Ti or RX 460 4GB.