Building gaming rigs by your own is hectic but rewarding. When you already have your prepared list of computer components and hardware, you’re apparently going to focus on CPU, GPU, and Power Supply. If you’re still looking for that best price/performance budget video-card, will the MSI GTX 150 Ti Gaming X be your pick? Let’s find out.
Nvidia’s first GeFore GTX 10xx lineup launched last year with 1070, 1080, and 1060 around May to August 2016. Based from Nvidia’s Pascal architecture, it’s the first GPU lineup that used 14nm and 16nm transistors. On October last year, Nvidia launched their widely known “50” numbered entry-level gaming GPUs to their GTX 10 series, the GTX 1050 and GTX 1050 Ti.
The GTX 1050 and GTX 1050 Ti provides smoother performance with games such as Dota 2, StarCraft 2, Counter-Strike Global Offensive, and Overwatch. In short, this GPU performs well enough for those who want to experience e-Sports games at a higher point. The GTX 1050 and its Ti model are marketed for the general consumers who want to play the aforementioned titles at Medium to High presets – with the Ti model to push it further to Ultra presets in 1080p.
Specifications, Design, and Cooling
The GTX 1050 Ti runs at a boosted core speed and boost clock with 1379 MHz and 1493 MHz respectively. It packs with a 4GB GDDR5 video memory running at 1752MHz, 128-bit memory bus, and a memory bandwidth of 112.1GB per second. It spurts out 768 CUDA cores, 48 texture units and 32 ROPs.
It’s a big bump from the non-Ti model especially the video memory and the CUDA cores. But how does the GTX 1050 Ti really perform when it comes to gaming at 1080p? That’s the big question here. While the GTX 1050 Ti is a half-step up from the last generation’s 50 series, the GTX 950, it doesn’t support SLi unlike the latter. So if you own a GTX 950, it’s better to buy and plug in another GTX 950 – or just simply get the GTX 1060 if your budget approves of it.
MSI’s Twin Frozr VI cooling solution is one delightful way to play games without any awful noise distraction. It’s a big improvement from its predecessor, the Twin Frozr V; the Twin Frozr VI is 40% quieter and 20% cooler.
With how eye-candy MSI’s GAMING graphics card are designed, it goes full force with its black and red dragon scale-like signature aesthetic to give the GPU a more intimidating look than its competitors.
Performance
Tested Games on
OS: Windows 10 64-bit
CPU: Intel Core i5-4440 3.1GHz
GPU: MSI GTX 1050 Ti Gaming X
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) 1600MHz
PSU: Seasonic M12 II EVO 850W
Benchmarking Tool: FRAPS
So now, it’s performance time. How well does the GTX 1050 Ti performs in games? While we can clearly see that the GTX 1050 Ti is marketed to gamers who often play MOBAs and the likes of Overwatch with 1080p monitors, the performance is quite impressive on Star Wars Battlefront II’s Open Beta last week. So we have tested MSI’s GTX 1050 Ti model on the playground, and the overall performance on games were acceptable.
I’m pretty impressed with its capability to run games like Rise of the Tomb Raider on High settings, and as well as Wolfenstein: The New Order.
While there were some noticeable jitters on frame-rates when playing the Star Wars Battlefront II multiplayer beta, things dwindle down and smoothened out after the game successfully loaded its assets. Initially, you’ll definitely see minor stutters, but it’s not something that’s unplayable. The MSI GTX 1050 Ti Gaming X withstands the graphic demanding title like Star Wars Battlefront II on High, but with some little tweaking here and there you’ll be able to play it with ultra-textures.
It may not be the same for Rise of the Tomb Raider. The in-game benchmark results were impressive, however, the game froze when I started the benchmark run on Very High presets. It forced me to restart my PC. Although that game-breaking freeze happened, I managed to get through the benchmark and got some decent numbers. It’s good to note that this entry-level graphics card might not be able to run Rise of the Tomb Raider smoothly on Very High, but give it some tweak and you’ll get fine results.
Wolfenstein might be the game that impressed me the most. It may not be the most beautiful release, but it’s worth noting that the id Software engine does well with the MSI GTX 1050 Ti Gaming X. I had the most consistent run through on High and Ultra presets. So in short, if you’re waiting for The New Colossus to come out and you only have a 1050 Ti, then you’re going to expect to run the game at High.
While we got some pretty impressive numbers from the games we just benchmarked, let’s see how well the MSI GTX 1050 Ti does with games it’s marketed for. Just by looking at the numbers, we can see that StarCraft II is still indeed graphical demanding game compared to Overwatch and Dota 2.
See the results below:
StarCraft II
Configuration: Extreme
Resolution: 1920×1080
Min: 25
Max: 84
Average: 48.42
DOTA 2
Configuration: Max
Resolution: 1920×1080
Min: 92
Max: 102
Average: 99.67
Overwatch
Configuration: Epic
Resolution: 1920×1080
Min: 61
Max: 94
Average: 73.33
Final Thoughts
Considering that the MSI GTX 1050 Ti Gaming X price point, it does have its perks. With its slick design, great Twin Frozr VI cooling solution, and consistent performance throughout the games, although with some minor acceptable jitter, it’s one of the best entry-level GPUs there is in the market. The MSI GTX 1050 Ti Gaming X did not disappoint and exceeded my expectations for an entry-level aftermarket GPU.
If you’re looking for an entry-level card and you have some spare cash to add more, then you better pick up the MSI GTX 1050 Ti Gaming X.
