GeForce GTX 1050 3GB review
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schmidtbag
It's a good thing they marketed it as a 1050, because that 96-bit memory is pretty crippling. Even when the GPU core is overwhlemed in 4K, the memory still bottlenecks the performance.
I also think they easily could've made this a single-slot GPU. It runs pretty cool, even under full load. Making this a dual-slot reduces the amount of potential cases you could put it in.
Hilbert Hagedoorn
Administrator
Pure curiosity and nothing else, but why do many people still have a fascination for single slot solutions?
I mean from a practical point of view really it doesn't make any difference as all mobos are designed for dual-slot. Next to that dual-slot will cool better and offer improved acoustics. I mean you can argue that it could look nicer, but even that is debatable. Also, you'll have more display outputs with dual-slot.
Or is it just a grasp back to the good old times and we're all getting older and grumpy 🙂
http://www.guru3d.com/miraserver/images/2008/9600gt-xfx/bottom2.jpg
IchimA
Old school HH , but the best was 8800GTX and GTS ... good graphic cards, with a nice bang for buck ... not like now ! 700 - 800 euro for a tier 2 card
rl66
You are not, i love single slot solution and/or passive... as a WC user i use single slot solution when it is possible.
Also it is more cute.
schmidtbag
GPUs like this are ideal for ITX builds, and many ITX cases only support 1 slot. Also, some people have a use for all expansion slots available on their motherboard. I have a BOINC rig with 4x GPUs, 1 PCIe wifi card, and a PCI diagnostic card. This would not be possible if it weren't for single-slot cards. Sure, I could maybe use risers or buy aftermarket coolers, but why should I when I don't have to?
Not all - there are plenty of mobos out there with a PCIe x1 slot directly below the x16 slot (or, larger slots when you consider servers and workstations).
I think of this more in a practicality sense:
If you've got a ~50W GPU that can run perfectly cool and quiet as a low-profile single-slot card, why wouldn't you? It's basically universally compatible with all build types. The manufacturer will maximize their market (and therefore profits) if they can accommodate this. So as far as I'm concerned, this is a missed opportunity.
airbud7
Nice review Boss ....weird card for sure...1060 3GB will blow the doors off of it for a few bucks more.
Vmhasegawa
I still remember reading somewhere about those GTX 1050 3Gb and wondering wha the he... is this card supposed to do? Or fit in? Like, there's no real "gap" there between the 1050Ti and the regular 1050.
But I kept reading, and they mentioned something about lack of availability (same production line of the rest mem chips but lower profit, higher demand from all other chips so no real reason to focus on this model) of 512mb GDDR5 chips. Which kind of made sense, because the 2gb model used 4 of those. So they were not really going to coexist for so long (the 1050 2gb and 3gb), as availability from those 512mb chips was getting smaller, so they could eventually be replaced by the 3gb model. Pricing was also supposed to be either equal or very close. Then again, gpu market is still very weird price wise so...
rl66
the best were GTX 280/260 it was the 1st of the new gen GPU (ok it was hot not only in perf lol)
holler
because PC enthusiasts? love single slot watercooling setups:
Agent-A01
@Hilbert Hagedoorn
"You will spot a product with a nice and white PCB and rather sizable cooler for this rather simple product."
Where's that white PCB? 😉
Hilbert Hagedoorn
Administrator
Single slot water cooling I understand looks nice + you remove the cooling challenges at hand. mITX, sure fair enough. The rest though .. why fit multiple 1050 cards if you can just get one single card that is faster? Ah well, if demand is high enough, surely some manufacturers will offer it at one point. Each his own preference of course.
schmidtbag
I'm not sure I understand. There would be no performance loss with a single-slot 1050, and I personally not suggesting someone get multiple 1050s (especially since you can't SLI them), but rather you can slot in other expansion cards (any kind, doesn't matter) below them.
Stormyandcold
Really, this card is for that market who's consumer agonises over spending an extra £10 or £20, when they already went over their budget 2 components ago.
wavetrex
I think GPU cards have become too big, too heavy, too power hungry.
Yes, there's a massive supercomputer-like performance in that chip, but having just one single component consuming upwards of 150W and heating up to 90 degrees and staying there for hours as a person is gaming... is pretty insane.
Unfortunately, unless some breakthrough in materials is done to make "almost superconducting" transistors with extremely small leakage, allowing current day performance with half or less power consumption, we'll still see these monster GPU cards.
However, such high performance is not always needed, so small GPU's that don't even need extra power cables are welcomed for all the usage cases when supercomputing level performance is not needed, but still nice to have the ability to run 3D games (albeit with lower details) or complpex 3D software (like Google Maps/Earth)
warlord
I wish single slot cards was still the standard. We should have adapters. But instead we reached 3-slot(2.5x more precisely) gpus. Even 2-slot isn't really enthusiastic anymore. We reinforced pci slots just for this weight. Technology doesn't go always forward in all aspects.
-Tj-
I would use single slot only for physx and that would be ideal, don't have room for primary 2-3 slot + another 2slot. 🙂
airbud7
What? they were getting smaller and faster...I have a gigantic hd 6870 that is slower than a little tiny gtx 1050
a cheap 1050ti or 1060/3GB can outperform a xbox1 easy...it used to take more$
But yeah^ ...1080ti is the Big King Now.
schmidtbag
I wouldn't consider that a fair comparison. The 6870 is nearly 8 years old, and XB1 is 5 years old (weird to think about). Transistors and processor architectures themselves may be getting smaller and faster, but power envelopes are being pushed to extremes. For example, the HD 7970 is (to my knowledge) the oldest consumer-grade single-GPU AIB that features 2x 8-pin power connectors. If you include dual-GPU AIBs, I believe the GTX 490 is the oldest. The trend doesn't seem to be dying down.
Celcius
I'll answer that question with one of my own. "Why do motherboard manufacturers insist on placing the sole PCIe x1 slot on many mATX boards below the PCIe x16 slot instead of above?" (As schmidtbag, quite correctly, points out.) I'd offer that all motherboards are not designed for dual-slot, if that means you're losing a PCIe slot as a result of using a dual-width graphics card. I think the buying public has just become too complacent in accepting this situation, and, as a result the engineers don't have any motivation to change it.
XFX was/is producing a 4Gb single-slot RX 560 that proved to be a life-saver for a co-worker when his on-board Realtek NIC decided to go on permanent holiday. He was able to install a 1Gbit PCIe x1 Intel NIC just below it. Since the 560 replaced an older two-slot GTX 750, it turned out to be a step-up in graphics and networking performance for him. I'd like to find one of those single-slot XFX 560's myself, but they seem impossible to locate. I've seen a few on eBay, but the sellers are asking fifty million dollars...
Dimitrios1983
No RX560 4GB card????
