Graphics cards
GROUP TEST
2
While plenty of other GTX 1050 Ti cards use just
one fan and have short PCBs, the Expedition offers
two high-quality fans and a spacious circuit board
layout, making for a much lower chance of the card
overheating and meaning a longer overall life.
Crucial to the appeal of the GTX 1050 range,
though, is that you don’t need any extra power
inputs. It can draw all its power from your
motherboard, which is demonstrated in its power
consumption figures, with the whole system
consuming just 103W when gaming.
With this power consumption comes relatively
modest performance, though. This card will hit
63fps average at 1080p but drops to 41fps at
1440p. You wouldn’t want to be playing anything
competitive at the latter resolution.
Moreover, in terms of bang for buck, the GTX
1050 Ti loses out to the vanilla GTX 1050 and the
GTX 1060 3GB. It sits nicely between the
two when it comes to price, but is closer
to the GTX 1050 in performance.GEFORCE GTX 1050 TI
EXPEDITION 4GB http://www.asus.com £160
80 %
132It’s only a few frames-per-second behind the more
expensive GTX 1050 Ti but is available for a much
lower price. As a result, this card has the second
best bang for buck score in this test. If you’re mainly
concerned with 1080p gaming then it’s ideal.
Its appeal stretches further than just raw
performance and value, too. This is a compact card
that’s no taller than a PCI bracket. It is two
expansion slots thick, but is still a card ideally suited
to small form factor PCs.
Moreover, it doesn’t need any extra power, other
than what’s supplied by its PCIe slot, so it makes for
a great drop-in upgrade even on PCs that aren’t
equipped with fancy power supplies. This is also
reflected in its power consumption, which peaks at
just 104W under load.
Meanwhile, its single fan and small heat sink do
an ample job of keeping things cool and quiet, with
the fan not spinning up when idle and
remaining quiet when under load. For
just over £100, this is the card to get.1
EVGA GEFORCE GTX 1050
GAMING 2GB http://www.evga.com £120
85 %
The EVGA GeForce GTX 1050 Gaming is one of the
smallest and cheapest cards featured here, but it still
packs a surprising punch.Expedition? What’s that all about? It’s Asus’s graphics
card equivalent of its TUF motherboard brand. This
means they’re designed to cope with being used in
always-on PCs.