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#118 of 131
Overall rank

GeForce GTX 1050 3 GB

3.5 · 60 votes
Best for 1080p esports gaming

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VRAM
3 GB
CUDA
768
FP32
2.332 TF
Bandwidth
84.1 GB/s
TDP
75W
Boost
1518 MHz
Strengths at a Glance

How it stacks up to the flagship

Each metric is shown as a percentage of the GeForce RTX 5090 D, the strongest card we track.

FP32 compute2.332 TFLOPS2%
vs RTX 5090 D: 104.8 TFLOPS
Memory bandwidth84.1 GB/s5%
vs RTX 5090 D: 1790 GB/s
VRAM capacity3 GB9%
vs RTX 5090 D: 32 GB
Shading units7684%
vs RTX 5090 D: 21,760
Power efficiency10/10017%
vs RTX 5090 D: 58/100
Synthetic Benchmarks

Estimated benchmark results

Each result is shown as a share of the RTX 5090 D's score in the same test.

3DMark Time Spy4,320pts
vs RTX 5090 D: 36,000 pts
3DMark Port Royal (RT)2,160pts
vs RTX 5090 D: 18,000 pts
Blender (samples/min)624spm
vs RTX 5090 D: 5,200 spm
Geekbench Compute28,800pts
vs RTX 5090 D: 240,000 pts

Performance breakdown

Gaming12
Ray tracing12
AI / Compute12
Creator / 3D12
Power efficiency10
Real-World Gaming

FPS Across Resolutions

1080p · Ultra preset1440p · Ultra preset4K · Ultra preset
Cyberpunk 2077avg 10 fps
1080p
14
1440p
10
4K
7
Call of Duty: MW IIIavg 15 fps
1080p
20
1440p
15
4K
9
Alan Wake 2avg 9 fps
1080p
12
1440p
9
4K
5
Forza Horizon 5avg 15 fps
1080p
21
1440p
15
4K
9
Baldur's Gate 3avg 12 fps
1080p
17
1440p
12
4K
8
Community Feedback

What Owners Say

Owners love it sips power and runs cool, a perfect drop-in upgrade for older PCs. The main gripe is that the 3 GB VRAM chokes modern games, causing stutters even when the core can handle more.

Pros
  • Plays modern games at medium settings
  • Sips power, no extra cables needed
  • Runs cool and quiet in any case
  • Fits small builds without compromise
Cons
  • VRAM too low for modern games
  • No SLI support at all
  • Lacks hardware video encoding

Supported technologies

NVENCAV1 Encode

Full specifications

Graphics processor
Architecture
Pascal
Process node
14 nm
Transistors
3.3 B
SM Count
6
Release date
2018
Core configuration
CUDA Cores
768
TMUs
48
ROPs
24
L2 cache
768 MB
Memory
Size
3 GB
Type
GDDR5
Bus width
96-bit
Bandwidth
84.1 GB/s
Memory clock
1752 MHz
Clocks & throughput
Base clock
1392 MHz
Boost clock
1518 MHz
FP32 (float)
2.332 TFLOPS
FP16 (half)
2.332 TFLOPS
Pixel rate
36 GPixel/s
Texture rate
72.86 GTexel/s
Board & power
TDP
75W
Suggested PSU
150W
Power connectors
None
Bus interface
PCIe 3.0 x16
Length
145 mm
Slot width
2-slot
Display & outputs
Max resolution
7680×4320
Outputs
1x DVI, 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort

API and SDK support

DirectX
12 (12_1)
Shader Model
6.4
OpenGL
4.6
OpenCL
1.2
Vulkan
1.2.131
CUDA
6.1
Verdict

Our verdict on the GTX 1050 3 GB

The GTX 1050 3 GB is a budget Pascal card with a weird 3 GB frame buffer that limits modern gaming.

Get it if you’re building a dirt-cheap PC for older games or light esports and don’t need 4GB. Skip it if you play modern AAA titles or want any future-proofing—3GB VRAM is a hard bottleneck.

Buy it if…

  • You are building a budget PC and don't play the newest games.
  • You need a graphics card that works with an older power supply.
  • You want to play esports titles like Overwatch or CS at high settings.
3.5

60 votes

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