There's a new price range GPU in town, the 3GB version of the GeForce GTX 1050, and boy is that this one a abnormal animal.

Recently we checked out the disaster this is the DDR4 version of the GT 1030, a horribly misleading product that shouldn’t exist. We count on that to go down as one of the worst graphics card launched in records.

We don't anticipate this GTX 1050 3GB version to be nowhere close to as horrific, in truth it might not also be horrific at all. However we bring up the GT 1030 to memory as it's an unnecessary odd launch and a piece deceptive.

Prior to May 2018 there has been handiest one version of the GTX 1050 (code-named GP107-three hundred) and it got here with a 2GB memory buffer. That's the same GPU we've visible on retail when you consider that October 2016 when we first tested it. However, on May Nvidia quietly up to date the GTX 1050 web page on their internet site to include a 3GB version that seemed to slot-in between the existing 2GB 1050 and the 4GB 1050 Ti, although it’s a chunk more complicated than that.

The 3GB 1050 isn’t merely a 1050 with a further gigabyte of VRAM. Instead it features 768 CUDA cores but on a smaller ninety six-bit reminiscence bus and that is because of a trade in the backend configuration. Ok, so it's a GTX 1050 Ti with a gigabyte much less VRAM... Nope now not that either.

In this desk you can see that whilst it has the same CUDA middle count number as the 1050 Ti it has 25% less ROPs and that means it has 25% less than the unique 1050 as well. Although you get the equal 7 Gbps GDDR5 reminiscence, the reminiscence bus is now simply ninety six-bit because of the reduction in ROPs which sees one of the 4 reminiscence controllers disabled. The result is just eighty four GB/s of memory bandwidth, down from the 112 GB/s of the 2GB 1050 and 4GB 1050 Ti.

Additionally, this also approach the L2 cache capability has been reduced down from 1MB to 768KB. Nvidia is clocking the cores better to compensate, however we anticipate that in some cases this gained’t assist conquer the 25% reduction in memory bandwidth, ROPs and cache.

So why is Nvidia selling a 3GB version of the GTX 1050 that possibly received’t carry out like a 1050 with an extra gigabyte of VRAM?

Given the specifications we count on that for the maximum part it will sit down between the 2GB 1050 and 1050 Ti, but there'll no question be times where it’s definitely slower than even the 2GB 1050. The most probably clarification is they had a stockpile of defective GP107 dies that had one faulty memory controller, for instance. So Nvidia is salvaging the ones components by way of creating the 3GB 1050. It’s a piece bizarre to see this so overdue inside the product cycle but that’s not genuinely the difficulty right here. What we see as an difficulty over again is providing a couple of GPU configurations below the identical name.

At the very least the 3GB model should were known as the 1050 SE, or LE, or anything aside from just the 1050 3GB. It’s not in contrast to the 3GB and 6GB GTX 1060 state of affairs and I’m awaiting to find a comparable result.

On hand for checking out we've got the EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 SC Gaming. It comes with a small 5% manufacturing unit overclock and proper now it is promoting for $one hundred forty which is basically what you could count on to pay for a 2GB model, making it round $30 cheaper than the GTX 1050 Ti. Our test includes 23 games, all of which have been examined at 1080p the use of diverse nice settings. However we are most effective going to speak about the highlights for 8 of the video games and then leap into our performance breakdown, which appears at the entire image.

Our take a look at mattress construct around Corsair's Crystal Series 570X become used. Inside we have a Core i7-8700K clocked at five GHz with 32GB of DDR4-3200 memory. We realise this hardware configuration is overkill for these GPUs, but as normal the concept is to eliminate any ability device bottleneck that might mask GPU overall performance. Onto the great things…

Benchmarks

Starting with the Battlefield 1 outcomes we see that the 3GB 1050 is 9% quicker than the 2GB model and 16% slower than the 1050 Ti. So that’s a splendid end result for the 3GB model as it's far indeed quicker than the unique 1050 on this name. That said it is nonetheless pretty a chunk slower than the 1050 Ti due to the downgrades I stated in advance.

Despite the high-quality performance just seen, whilst checking out with Wreckfest we discover a very specific photo. Here the 3GB 1050 turned into sincerely slower than the authentic 1050, thirteen% slower in fact and that meant it became 21% slower than the 1050 Ti. A troubling end result there so permit’s move on.

Now while testing with Rainbow Six Siege we see that the 3GB 1050 is 22% faster than the unique 2GB model and just eleven% slower than the 1050 Ti. So like Battlefield 1 that is a superb result for the new 3GB model.

Interestingly we see an eleven% reduction in performance for the 3GB 1050 when playing ARMA 3 and as a end result the 1% low end result dropped underneath 60 fps. So some other negative result for the new 3GB model.

Finally we’re going to look at the Warhammer Vermintide 2 consequences and here we see a tie between the 2GB and 3GB variations of the 1050, making them thirteen% slower than the 1050 Ti.

On the subsequent page we will be searching at power intake and the whole recreation benchmark effects throughout 23 video games to get a fuller photograph as well as our evaluation of where the 3GB GeForce GTX 1050 stands.