The Best GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Graphics Cards in 2022

Despite being almost six years old, NVIDIA is still producing the Pascal-based GeForce GTX 1050 Ti in order to meet the high demand due to the global GPU shortage. In 2016, when it was officially released, the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti was considered to be a mid-range graphics card. Like all the other Pascal-based GPUs, the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti was built on Samsung’s 14 nm manufacturing process, and it featured a GP107 graphics chip, which packed 3.3 million transistors.

Read more: The Best Graphics Cards for Gaming in 2022: Top GPUs for Every Budget

The GeForce GTX 1050 Ti was primarily targeted to eSports players, and was meant to serve as an upgrade to the aging GeForce GTX 960. Its direct competitors were the AMD Radeon R9 380, and Polaris-based Radeon RX 470. Even today, the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti still holds up well when it comes to playing eSports titles, such as Rainbow Six: Siege, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and League of Legends. Speaking of its raw specs, the card features 768 shading units, and comes with 4GB of GDDR5 memory which communicates with the CPU via the 128-bit memory bus. The card’s base GPU clock is 1,291 MHz, while its boost clock is 1,392 MHz.

Great thing about the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is that it consumes very low amount energy. In fact, this graphics card doesn’t require any additional power connectors, as it draws all the necessary power from the PCIe x16 slot itself. Speaking of its real-world performance, the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is around 20% faster than the “non-Ti” GeForce GTX 1050, but is also around 110% weaker than the GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER. Although in games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, or Assassin’s Creed Odyssey this card is barely able to hit the 30 FPS mark at 1080p resolution. the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is completely fine for playing games such as Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto V, or Destiny 2 on low to medium settings. In some eSports titles, such as Rainbow Six: Siege, this card can even deliver up to 70 FPS on ultra settings at 1080p. Another thing to point out is that this card isn’t very well suited for mining cryptocurrencies, as it features only 4GB of VRAM, and has a mining hashrate of 10 MH/s.

Since many authorized AIB partners and manufacturers produce different variants of GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, we have compiled a list of the best custom-made models of this card available on the market. Although we don’t recommend buying this card for serious gaming, it is still well worth a purchase, since buying a brand new RTX 30 series or RX 6000 series GPU has become pretty much impossible these days. Take a look, and decide which one best suits your needs.

Best for Overclocking: MSI GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GAMING X 4G

Boost Clock: 1493 MHz | Memory: 4GB GDDR5 | Length: 229 mm | Power Connectors: 1 x 6-pin | Outputs: 1 x DP, 1 x HDMI, 1 x DVI

Featuring Twin Frozr fan, the MSI GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GAMING X can boast with one of the best GPU coolers in the graphics cards industry. Despite being aimed at the mid-range market, this card features a high-end cooling solution that allows it to operate silently, and incredibly cool. The Twin Frozr cooler also enabled MSI to factory overclock this card to a frequency of 1,493 MHz, which is 7% higher compared to the reference model.

The MSI GeForce GTX 1050 Ti GAMING X is also a very slick looking graphics card. It features beautifully crafted fan shroud, as well as improved PCB design. The incredibly powerful Twin Frozr fans also allow this card to be overclocked even further, which is praiseworthy. Peformance-wise, this card can deliver up to 140 FPS in games such as Overwatch and Valorant, which makes it a perfect card for eSports gaming. The only major flaw of this card is that it requires an additional power supply from a one 6-pin power connector, which means it can’t draw enough power from the PCIe x16 slot alone.

Best Low Profile: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC Low Profile

Boost Clock: 1442 MHz | Memory: 4GB GDDR5 | Length: 167 mm | Power Connectors: None | Outputs: 1 x DP, 2 x HDMI, 1 x DVI

The Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050 Ti OC Low Profile is a graphics card designed to easily fit into slim or small computer systems. Featuring length of 167 mm, and height of only 37 mm, the GTX 1050 Ti OC Low Profile enables you to save a lot of space in your computer case, and even improve overall system airflow. Despite being so small, and featuring only one fan, this card comes factory pre-overclocked, which means you can expect from it a slightly better performance in comparison to the reference model.

The Gigabyte GTX 1050 Ti OC Low Profile comes with two HDMI 2.0 connectors, one DisplayPort connector, and one Dual-link DVI-D connector. The card supports a maximum resolution of 7680×4320 pixels, which means it supports multi-monitor setups, and as such is perfect for building a budget office computer. The card also comes with Gigabyte’s intuitive XTREME Engine Utility which allows you to overclock the card even further, adjust its fan speeds, and monitor working temperatures.

Best Budget: ASUS GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Phoenix Fan Edition

Boost Clock: 1392 MHz | Memory: 4GB GDDR5 | Length: 192 mm | Power Connectors: None | Outputs: 1 x DP, 1 x HDMI, 1 x DVI

The ASUS GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Phoenix Fan Edition is the best budget variant of the GTX 1050 Ti currently available on the market. Although it doesn’t come with factory pre-overclocked core clocks, this card still performs quite well when it comes to playing eSports titles such as Overwatch, DOTA 2, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive or League of Legends.

The ASUS GTX 1050 Ti Phoenix features dual-ball bearing fan with longer lifespan and improved cooling efficiency. Like many other variants of the GTX 1050 Ti, this card also doesn’t require any extra power supply connectors to run, and it even comes with industry grade alloy chokes which improve the card’s overall quality and reliability. The card ships with ASUS’ GPU Tweak II software which allows you to overclock the GPU and monitor its temperatures, as well as with XSplit Gamecaster program that enables you to easily stream or record your gameplay right from a convenient, in-game overlay.

Best Compact: ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mini

Boost Clock: 1417 MHz | Memory: 4GB GDDR5 | Length: 144 mm | Power Connectors: None | Outputs: 1 x DP, 1 x HDMI, 1 x DVI

The ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mini is an ultra-compact graphics card designed to easily fit into tiniest computer systems and builds available out there. This impressively small card measures only 144 mm in length, and is able to occupy only two slots in your computer case. The ZOTAC GTX 1050 Ti Mini comes equipped with a single 90 mm fan, as well as with specially designed aluminum sunflower heatsink that is able to offer improved heat dissipation, and keep the GPU running cool.

This card also comes with mildly overclocked GPU that sports a boost core clock of 1,417 MHz, which is around 2% higher compared to the reference model. Thanks to its small dimensions and low power requirements, this card can easily be installed in older computer systems, and deliver good gaming performance at 1080p resolution on low to medium settings. Overall, the ZOTAC GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mini is a perfect small graphics card for building a tiny HTPC on a tight budget.

Conclusion

Although the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti isn’t the best mid-range graphics card out there, it is still a viable option even in 2022. Given how the latest generation graphics cards are hard to come by due to ongoing cryptocurrency mining craze, upgrading your computer with a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti seems like a reasonable decision if you want to give your old system a performance boost. Even nowadays, the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is perfectly fine graphics card for playing games such as Fortnite, League of Legends and Rocket League, and is a perfect budget GPU if you need a more powerful graphics solution to run multi-monitor setups, or stream video conferences via Zoom or Microsoft Teams.

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