Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti: Is the old graphics card suitable for the transition?

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti: An interim solution?

If you are currently looking for a gaming graphics card, you will only find it with luck and then pay unusually high prices. If you just wanted to upgrade, but still have a reasonably decent card, you can cope with this and wait. But if you have a very old or defective graphics card and can no longer play current games without a new graphics card, perhaps even not being able to use your PC, you have to accept significant additional costs. Just like those who no longer have a current PC and actually wanted to buy a new gaming PC.

Table of Contents

Page 1 Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti: Temporary solution? View of the graphics card market 1.1 Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti: A temporary solution? 1.1.1 Graphics cards in short supply Page 2 Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti: Test model from Asus and procedure 2.1 Our test model of the GTX 1050 Ti 2.1.1 Procedure for the tests Page 3 Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti: Test results and conclusion 3.1 Test results Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 3.1. 1 Conclusion: Transitional solution with borderline experiences Page 4 Image gallery for "Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti: Is the old graphics card suitable for transition?" But what about the idea of ​​using a weaker graphics card, at least for a transitional phase, which has certainly already completely disappeared from focus for most?

Anno1800: Pay attention to the lower number of trees in the low details (lower half of the picture), more muddy textures on the path and the pit as well as the lack of depth in the windows of the fire station and the house on the right in the picture. Source: Screenshot Antonio Funes We are talking about the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, which came onto the market at the end of October 2016 and even then only served the entry-level segment. But in contrast to current entry-level graphics cards such as the GeForce GTX 1650 Super, the already outdated graphics card is always available for prices of 160 to 180 euros. The price is - of course only in view of the current situation - okay, if she can handle modern games well. That's exactly what we're testing with Anno 1800 and the following current games, all of which have not been on the market for six months: Assassin's Creed: Valhalla (November 2020), A Total War Saga: Troy (August 2020), Baldur's Gate 3 (October 2020) , Call of Duty: Black OPs Cold War (November 2020), Cyberpunk 2070 (December 2020), Immortals: Fenyx Rising (December 2020) and Watch Dogs: Legion (November 2020). We test low and medium levels of detail - we do not expect high details to be possible with the entry-level card that is over four years old. We have also included two comparison images in the text, you can see the first on the left.

Graphics cards in short supply

Before we look at the performance, let's take another look at the current graphics card situation. For months, the graphics card market has been looking bleak when it comes to the availability of gaming graphics cards. As a result, prices have also risen sharply. This now applies to all graphics cards that are suitable for gaming. And not only for the new models from AMD and Nvidia, which should actually be available from 400 euros and for which you have to accept an extra charge of 300 to 500 euros (!). Rather, graphics cards, which were available for between 140 and 350 euros in autumn, have also risen enormously in price. This shows the following graphic with the prices between October and the end of January for corresponding graphics cards available from stock:

Price development of graphics cards since October 2020 Source: Antonio Funes We emphasize that the prices for the end of January (as of 29 January, 12 noon) often refer to graphics cards, which despite the high price are only available from stock in one or two shops. Other models of the graphics card series are sometimes much more expensive, although the price increase has been at least 60 percent since October anyway.

The reasons for the lack of supply and the resulting prices are numerous: A higher demand for consumer electronics for the home, possibly also due to Corona, alleged production problems and a great demand for GPUs by miners who use graphics cards to make money earn by using their computing power around cryptocurrencies. There are, however, fluctuations - for example, two days ago we were able to spot an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 for "only" 200 euros from stock for a short time, at MediaMarkt and Saturn there was an AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT for 480 euros for a short time - otherwise it has been at least 100 euros more for a few weeks. However, the already outdated Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, which is regularly available in stores for 160 to 180 euros, has been quite stable in the last few weeks - and this is exactly what we are doing today.

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