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NVIDIA recently introduced new solutions in the budget sector. The GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and GeForce GTX 1050 based on the GP107 graphics processor are designed to refresh their market segment and raise the performance bar for lower-end graphics cards. With the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, we have already seen in a separate article. Now let’s talk about the GeForce GTX 1050. This video card is based on a stripped-down GPU with 640 stream processors instead of 768, and is also equipped with 2 GB, not 4 GB, like the older solution. Testing will show how critical all this is for the final performance. In the meantime, let’s look at a specific model of this series from ASUS.
ASUS Expedition GeForce GTX 1050 (EX-GTX1050-2G)
The focus of our attention is once again on the budget ASUS video card, which represents the Expedition line – simple graphic solutions with a high-quality element base. Before us is the usual “workhorse” with standard frequencies. And for the first acquaintance, this model is best suited.
The video card comes in a small box. It comes with a mandatory CD with software and instructions. A nice bonus for the buyer will be an invite code for 15 days of World of Warships premium.
Externally, this model does not differ from the ASUS EX-GTX1050TI-4G. Both are made in the same design and use identical cooling with two fans.
In the external appearance of the case, some features of the top ROG products are inherited. But since we have a budget video card, the design of the cooler is certainly simpler.
When studying the reverse side, you can note an empty space for an unsoldered auxiliary power connector. Initially, such a connector is not used in the GeForce GTX 1050, because the power consumption of the card is very low.
Three connectors for connecting displays are placed on the rear panel: HDMI, Display Port and DVI.
The plastic casing with fans is dismantled independently of the radiator. This allows you to clean the cooler from dust if necessary. Under the casing is a one-piece finned radiator.
Aluminum heatsink, no heat pipes are used in the design. Everything is rustic, but with a TDP of 75 W, such cooling is quite enough. Moreover, the dimensions of the radiator are decent, and two fans are responsible for blowing at once. Due to the presence of slots in the radiator, the entire board with elements on it is partially blown.
A pair of fans with a diameter of 80 mm is used (the actual size of the impeller is about 75 mm). Their marking is FirstD FD7010H12D.
The printed circuit board completely repeats the design of the older model ASUS Expedition GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, which is quite expected. The GPU power subsystem uses three phases. High-quality electronic components are soldered, which can also be seen in more expensive graphic products from ASUS.
Full marking of the GP107-300-A1 processor. Its capabilities are represented by 640 CUDA streaming cores with 40 texture units and 32 ROPs.
Two gigabytes of memory are provided by four SKhynix H5GC4H24AJR R0C chips.
ASUS EX-GTX1050-2G operates at standard frequencies. Base core clock 1354 MHz with Boost Clock 1455 MHz. These values are slightly higher than the frequency indicators of the Ti-version, which should partially compensate for the gap in the number of computing units. Effective memory frequency 7 GHz.
The real core frequency turned out to be closer to the level of 1600 MHz, with deviations both up and down. And we observed about the same frequencies in ASUS EX-GTX1050TI-4G. When operating on an open stand with an indoor temperature of about 23 ° C, the core of the video card heated up to only 61 ° C. At the same time, the fans spun up to 1250 rpm. All this is illustrated below in the screenshots of monitoring parameters during the passage of Metro: last Light and Tom Clancy’s The Division benchmarks.
This ASUS model, like their Ti-version, has a locked power limit. And even at face value, we have a situation where games easily bring the card’s power consumption to the maximum, which is the reason for the floating Boost frequency. Under such conditions, it is clear that the power limit will act as a limiting factor in overclocking. A similar situation was with the GeForce GTX 750 Ti, where the power limit was also blocked. But some manufacturers released the GeForce GTX 750 Ti with an initially high power margin. The GeForce GTX 1050/1050 Ti line also has such improved versions with which you can count on higher overclocking.
In this case, we managed to raise the base frequency by 190 MHz with the peak Boost value up to 1848 MHz.
The average Boost frequency stayed above 1700 MHz, that is, the effective increase in core frequency is about 100 MHz. The memory was able to work without failures at a frequency of 8078 (4039) MHz.
The fan speed was manually increased to 1600 rpm, which even reduced the heating from the initial values. The noise remained low.
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