Disclosure: This review unit is provided by Nvidia
This is the MSI GTX 1050 OC 2G graphic, Nvidia’s low(est?) current generation graphic card you can get your hands on. Most of these graphic cards have limited performance compared to the GTX 1070, RX 480 and even the GTX 1060. Typical with the GeForce xx50 labeled GPUs, its limited performance is good enough for certain titles without the need to upgrade that cheap power supply. Its also acts as a replacement for upgrading graphics provided by the current generation CPUs. As you would expect, Nvidia did compare this with previous two mainstream processors from Intel. The entire explanation of the 14nm GP107 core is covered in the GTX 1050 Ti review.
Packaging and Specifications
For the MSI GTX 1050 OC 2G graphic card, its a pretty big box. There aren’t any features to talk about, apart from the extra base clock. All discrete graphic cards use solid caps. It does explain in layman terms the benefit of it in this solid capacitors. MSI Afterburner does support multi-GPU, but neither the GTX 1060, GTX 1050 Ti and GTX 1050 cards support a multi-GPU setup.
As you can see, the graphic card is adequately protected. The contents are bare basic- the card in an anti-static bag, a couple of reading materials and a disc.
Specification
Model Name GeForce GTX 1050 2G OC Graphics Processing Unit NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Interface PCI Express x16 3.0 Core Name GP107-300 Cores 640 Units Boost / Base Core Clock 1518 MHz / 1404 MHz Memory Clock Speed 7008 MHz Memory 2GB GDDR5 (128-bit) Output DisplayPort (Version 1.4) / HDMI (Version 2.0) / DL-DVI-D HDCP Support 2.2 Power consumption 75 W Recommended PSU 300 W Card Dimension(mm) 177 x 118 x 34 mm Weight (Card / Package) 330 g / 687 g Afterburner OC Y DirectX Version Support 12 OpenGL Version Support 4.5 Maximum Displays 3 G-SYNC™ technology Y Adaptive Vertical Sync Y Digital Maximum Resolution 7680 x 4320 ![gpuz-stock]()
The graphic card is so light, its packaging weighs more. Because of the video output limitation, it can support up to four displays. The GTX 1050 does support 4K resolution.
Graphics Card Design
The GPU shroud is a matte-finish plastic with white highlights around a 90mm fan. There is no backplate and as you can see the shroud extends a bit. The graphic card does have protection caps for its PCIe x16 interface and its outputs.
The graphic card does not require additional power. The 90mm fan blows air through the metal heatsink inside.
MSI is sticking with the default video outputs choices- a dual-link DVI-D, a DisplayPort and an HDMI output. If it wasn’t for the cooler, this card is easily a single-slot one.
Ease of Maintenance
Inner PCB and heatsink
All you need to do is remove the spring-loaded screws. One of the screws has a warranty void label. There’s no need to carefully pry out the cooler since there aren’t any thermal pads.
Closer Look
The MSI GTX 1050 OC uses a 3+1 phase design. The GDDR5 chips are made by SK Hynix. The heatsink is just metal surface. Its just strange not to see any thermal pad over the memory chips. Even if these are low-cost graphic cards, they have a factory overclock and people may want to overclock further. You’ll also notice solder points for a six-pin PCIe connector. Most likely this PCB is also the same for its GTX 1050 Ti??
You’ll also notice the absence of VRM sink, but it does have mounting holes on the PCB.
The post MSI GTX 1050 OC 2G Graphic Card Review appeared first on Hardware BBQ.