Overall and Final Verdict
It’s not very often we get two almost matching cards coming in to test together, so I was really happy to see that MSI and Nvidia hooked us up with a pair of cards that really set us up to show the performance difference between the GTX 1050 and the GTX 1050 Ti. Normally I get cards from two different manufacturers with different overclocks and cooling configurations and while close they don’t really give a direct comparison. Even with the matching cards, at the end of the day, my pros and cons ended up being basically the same for both cards. This was partially because they are the same setup so the same issues and benefits apply, but also the GTX 1050 and GTX 1050 Ti just aren’t that far apart when it comes down to it. Going with a Ti does get you a few more games in the playable and ideal FPS ranges, but in a lot of the other games we are only really talking 5 FPS gains. In the end, the GTX 1050 outperforms the RX 460 from AMD across the board and even with AMDs price drop I think the GTX 1050 is currently the better buy (though that could change depending on how pricing works out in the future). The GTX 1050 Ti is just a good chance to get a little more performance for anyone who has a little extra room in the budget at the end of the day but keep in mind that the RX 470 is available for $30 more and it see's a significant bump in performance. So the GTX 1050 is the sweet spot in this price range then when you go up into the next price class it favors the RX 470.
Both of the MSI cards look great with their black and white themes. I love seeing cards that should fit in with any build rather than the standard red and black that half of the manufacturers go with for their gaming cards. Both cards are short and perfect for building small ITX rigs, especially for someone who is mostly into the less demanding e-sports games like CS:GO, LoL, Dota 2, and Overwatch. You could pack this card into a compact build without having to worry about having a power supply with a 6-pin, making the build simpler for a newer gamer and keeping the costs down. The only real issue I ran into was the fan being a little noisy for a single fan setup. The second issue was specific to running the cards with the cooling turned all the way up. They did a great job with stock fan settings, but the cheaper cooler design had its limitations and it showed when the fan speed wasn’t the limiting factor anymore.
All in all, I was impressed with both MSIs card design and Nvidia’s new GTX 1050 and GTX 1050 Ti GPUs. AMDs RX 460 is a good card, but with the GTX 1050 coming in close to the same price I do think AMD might need to look at bringing in a middle range card between the 460 and 470 to compete with what Nvidia has going on here.
Live Pricing: HERE
Live Pricing: HERE
