The NVIDIA GTX 1050 is getting a little long in the tooth, and no longer remains a competitive GPU on today’s market. If you’re looking to upgrade, there are numerous budget-friendly options you can find that will be up for modern games.
Now, the choices contained in this list are still very much entry-level GPUs, but they are far more powerful than the GTX 1050. Computer components continue to advance at a rapid rate, but there are still options for gamers looking to upgrade without breaking the bank.
You can still find GTX 1050s in the wild, usually preowned, but this isn’t a wise investment. If you’re looking for something that can just drive multiple displays for business use, you might have better luck with your CPU’s built-in graphics adapter.
If you’re looking to game, then here are five options that are affordable, modern, and have a fair amount of power to play the latest and greatest releases at 1080p.
GTX 1050 Overview
- 2GB of VRAM
- 128-bit memory bus
- No power supply connection needed
- Released in 2016
The GTX 1050 is part of the Pascal architecture released from NVIDIA. It has an original release date of October 25th, 2016. The GTX 1050 serves as the entry-level model for the Pascal line of GPUs. It has 2GB of VRAM, and utilizes GDDR5 VRAM.
At the time of its release, it was a decent enough GPU. However, the intervening seven years have left it as an extreme budget choice. If you’re after just a simple GPU meant to drive multiple monitors and do some light gaming, it’ll handle the task.
With that in mind, the GPU itself isn’t going to run much well these days. Time has left the GTX 1050 behind. There are far more modern choices that will run today’s games without having to make extreme compromises in visual fidelity.
NVIDIA GTX 1660
- 6GB GDDR6 VRAM
- 192-bit memory bus
- Still great for modern games at 1080p
- 1785MHz clock speed
- 14Gbps memory speed
The GTX 1660 serves as the bridging point between the Pascal and Turing architectures from NVIDIA. It has plentiful VRAM with a wide memory interface so it remains highly competitive despite being an older GPU.
You can find these quite readily new or secondhand, and they’re still a great choice for modern games. The GTX 1660 might not readily handle 4K resolution or ray tracing, but it does support technologies like NVIDIA’s DLSS.
As such, you can expect more than playable framerates for games. This applies to modern releases like the Dead Space remake, Red Dead Redemption 2, and Modern Warfare 2. You might have to adjust settings to keep things smooth, however.
This isn’t the top choice when looking at a newer GPU, but it is a perfectly adequate choice if budget is a concern.
How it Compares to the GTX 1050
The GTX 1660 has more VRAM and a wider memory bus compared to the GTX 1050. The Pascal budget entry only has a 128-bit memory bus and 2GB of VRAM on most models. You can readily find the GTX 1660 with 6GB of VRAM and a 192-bit memory bus.
It also has a higher base frequency, at 1785MHz compared to the 1392Mhz you’ll find the GTX 1050 running at. While there are models of the GTX 1050 which have 4GB of VRAM for purchase, the GPU itself can’t readily address it.
NVIDIA RTX 2060
- Supports ray tracing and DLSS
- Clock speed: 1710 MHz
- Memory: 6 GB GDDR6
- Runs Diablo IV at high on 1080p
The RTX 2060 is the Turing follow-up to the GTX 1060. This is quite a substantial jump up in terms of performance from the GTX 960 and other mid-range GPUs. It doesn’t have quite as much overall power as the 2070 but is still a highly competitive GPU two generations later.
Most base models come with 6GB of VRAM across a 192-bit memory bus. This is more than adequate for plenty of gaming at 1080p. You’ll still find yourself readily maxing out games at full HD resolution but might encounter some difficulty moving up to 1440p or 2160p.
If a 4K monitor isn’t on the horizon, this is a great GPU that’ll serve you well for years to come.
How it Compares to the GTX 1050
The performance of the RTX 2060 is similar to the GTX 1660. As such, you’ll find it has more VRAM, a faster clock frequency, and a wider memory bus than the GTX 1050. It still receives active driver updates and can handle ray tracing on older games.
You also get access to NVIDIA’s DLSS technology, netting performance boosts in games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Jedi Survivor. As with the GTX 1660, you’ll expect some issues when moving up to 1440p or 4K resolutions, despite stated support.
Compared to the GTX 1050, it will not struggle to run most modern games. You might have to lower visual fidelity on more taxing games, but it’ll knock everything else out of the park.
NVIDIA RTX 3050
- Supports HDMI 2.1
- 8GB of VRAM
- No power supply connections
- Great for prebuilts
The RTX 3050 is the budget option for the Ampere generation of GPUs from NVIDIA. You’ll still find it has a comparable memory bus width at 128-bit, but it has four times the RAM at 8GB. The RAM is also faster, relying on the GDDR6 standard to deliver graphical performance.
The RTX 3050 is a great option for users looking for a passive GPU to hook up to a cheaper prebuilt. While the memory bus is a bit of a hindrance for newer games, it should do just fine with a mix of medium to ultra settings.
The RTX 3050 is not ready for 4K gaming by any means, which is to be expected given how NVIDIA’s generational architecture works.
You’ll find it more than suffices for most games on the market today, with the GPU itself being roughly on par with the hardware in use by consoles like the Sony PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
How it Compares to the GTX 1050
Being far more recent than the RTX 3050 quite a bit more to work with compared to the GTX 1050. It comes with raytracing support out of the box, as well as access to DLSS. Like the GTX 1050, it doesn’t need a power supply to function, it uses the passive power draw from the PCI-Express slot.
You won’t be disappointed with the RTX 3050. Sure, it isn’t a massive 4K beast like the RTX 3090 or 4090, but for 1080p gaming it is more than fine. Given the price of used GTX 1050s on the market, you might as well pick up one of these for roughly the same price and massive performance gains.
AMD 6600 XT
- 8GB of VRAM
- 128-bit memory bus
- Great for 1080p
- Can power displays up to 4K resolution
AMD’s GPU offerings are quite competitive if not quite up to the same sort of tasks as NVIDIA. You’ll find raytracing support is lacking on the AMD 6600 XT, but it has enough raw horsepower to handle most tasks.
If you’re looking to use a GPU for cryptocurrency or AI purposes, you’ll be sorely disappointed, as it lacks the useful CUDA cores to make things happen.
For gaming, however, it is more than capable of handling a plethora of modern games.
How it Compares to the GTX 1050
The AMD RX 6600 XT is not the most popular GPU in the RX line, but it compares quite favorably against the GTX 1050. Both are geared towards 1080p gaming, but the 6600 XT just has more of everything most games need these days.
You’ll find it has 8GB of VRAM utilizing GDDR6 as well as a 128-bit memory bus. The RX 6600 XT garnered a fair degree of controversy when this was revealed, but it is more than adequate if you’re coming from a much older GPU.
AMD 5600 XT
- 6GB of VRAM
- 192-bit memory bus
- Runs cool and quiet
- Still highly competitive against the RTX 4060
The AMD RX 5600 XT is most comparable to the RTX 2060 or GTX 1660. It features a similar amount of VRAM and uses the same specification. It also has a 192-bit memory bus, meaning it is up to the task of tackling higher resolutions in older games.
The RX 5600 XT is an older GPU but has more than enough power to handle most modern games on the market today. There is a distinct lack of support for DLSS, which is proprietary to NVIDIA GPUs, however.
As such, you’ll likely want to spend some time fine-tuning settings to get the best performance possible.
How it Compares to the GTX 1050
The RX 5600 XT is a more powerful GPU than the GTX 1050 and will handle newer games at more acceptable framerates.
AMD GPUs generally aren’t great at ray tracing but do support it out of the box. This is in stark contrast to the GTX 1050, which is terrible at ray tracing. This is doubly true for any game that is newer than 4 years old or so.
If you can find one cheap, picking the RX 5600 XT is definitely worth it.
Closing Thoughts
So, there are five options for GPUs that are well within the price range of purchasing a brand new GTX 1050 for yourself.
Given the advances in technology since the GTX 1050’s debut, it is hard to imagine wanting to pick up such an old GPU. Even if considering legacy support, Windows 10 support was in full swing at the time.
That said, you’ve got plenty of options when choosing a GPU in the sub-$300 range these days. If possible, check benchmarks online using the same sort of CPU and RAM configuration you have. It should give a good insight into how you can expect your chosen GPU to perform.
- $247.01Buy Now on Amazon
- 2GB of VRAM
- 128-bit memory bus
- No power supply connection needed
- Released in 2016
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11/30/2023 06:34 am GMT - $234.00Buy Now on Amazon
- 6GB GDDR6 VRAM
- 192-bit memory bus
- Still great for modern games at 1080p
- 1785MHz clock speed
- 14Gbps memory speed
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
12/01/2023 02:57 am GMT - $229.95Buy Now on Amazon
- Supports ray tracing and DLSS
- Clock speed: 1710 MHz
- Memory: 6 GB GDDR6
- Runs Diablo IV at high on 1080p
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11/30/2023 10:25 pm GMT - $229.99Buy Now on Amazon
- Supports HDMI 2.1
- 8GB of VRAM
- No power supply connections
- Great for prebuilts
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11/30/2023 04:43 am GMT - $259.99Buy Now on Amazon
- 8GB of VRAM
- 128-bit memory bus
- Great for 1080p
- Can power displays up to 4K resolution
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
11/30/2023 06:39 am GMT - $449.99Buy Now on Amazon
- 6GB of VRAM
- 192-bit memory bus
- Runs cool and quiet
- Still highly competitive against the RTX 4060
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to you.
11/30/2023 06:39 am GMT
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