ASUS ROG GTX 1050 Ti STRIX OC Graphics Card Review

To sum the ASUS ROG GTX 1050 Ti STRIX OC up in the easiest way, it would be to say that this is certainly the perfect graphics card for those who mainly play eSports linked games. When I say that, I mean games like Counterstrike Global Offensive, League of Legends, DOTA2, Team Fortress 2 and Overwatch etc. Those looking for a graphics cards to play AAA titles at maximum settings at 1080p might be a little disappointed however; the GTX 1050 Ti just doesn’t have the grunt to perform as well as the GTX 1060 in those scenarios.

The major dissatisfaction with the GTX 1050 Ti in my humble opinion is the price; it just costs too much for what it is. Although ASUS ROG has done a superb job with they had to work with, the core price of NVIDIA’s GTX 1050 Ti is probably around £30 more than it should be. This is especially a problem given the target audience of the card (budget gamers) and at £170 for this model, it’s not far away at all from the next card up, the GTX 1060; the GTX 1060 performs MUCH better in all honesty for the price.

When compared to the AMD RX 460, the GTX 1050 Ti beats it convincingly in all aspects in all areas but pricing; the ASUS ROG GTX 1050 Ti STRIX is around £40 more than the RX 460 STRIX model and the only main benefit really is the memory bandwidth; it’s much better on the NVIDIA card.

Overall, the GTX 1050Ti STRIX has a great footing in the market albeit with an inflated price. If I was purely into eSports related titles, then it would be a solid purchase, although I would have to really sit down and think about which I would buy. If NVIDIA put a mass price drop on the budget GTX 1050 Ti, then it would definitely be a great purchase, but until then, it looks like the RX 460 might be the better option if value for money is more important than just performance!

Huge thanks to ASUS ROG for sending the GTX 1050 Ti STRIX OC graphics card in for review.