Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 with 3GB is now official

[HEXUS]

Gigabyte publishes product page with full specs: 3GB VRAM but 96-bit bus width.

Read more.

[scaryjim]

So ... it's actually a 1050 Ti with one memory partition fused off? That makes even less sense than I was expecting - take a more powerful card, gut its memory bandwidth, hope it doesn't cripple performance too much and people will still buy it? *shrug*

[Ozaron]

Perhaps at this point they're just releasing variants for the fun of it, and to fulfill the "I did X today" quotient.

[EvilCycle]

I think those cards will end up going tit for tat with each other across different games in all honesty, with the 3GB edging it on titles that benefit a lot more from the extra GB RAM.

[AETAaAS]

So its got the same core count as a 1050Ti, but not called a 1050Ti, its called a 1050 3GB but actually the changes go beyond memory capacity as it does not share core count, clocks or bus width as the 1050.

Thank you n-"ensuring that gamers know what they are buying and can make a clear choice"-Vidia.

[OilSheikh]

4GB for a Graphics card should be the minimum these days.

[Pob255]

My guess is that they are binning chips.
So this is basically an LE version, probably got a bunch of chips with bad memory controllers, so you mask off the bad sectors and there you go working chip with fewer ram chip paths and thus lower ram bandwidth.

It's the same as the GTX1060 5gb, which is only supposed to be OEM, I wouldn't be surprised if this too was only supposed to be OEM only, probably aimed at the same market, gaming cafe

[quatermass]

It's simple, these type of disabled cards are sold to shops.
The average buyer has no idea what the cut back in bandwidth means (assuming there is even a reference to 96bit on the outside of the box) and just looks starry eyed at the "3GB" statement.

By only making the card 96bit, the company can save a pack on the RAM because less actual RAM chips need fitting.

Common trick in the Retail Industry to get higher profit. They've been at this trick for decades.

[Pob255]

It's simple, these type of disabled cards are sold to shops.
The average buyer has no idea what the cut back in bandwidth means (assuming there is even a reference to 96bit on the outside of the box) and just looks starry eyed at the "3GB" statement.

By only making the card 96bit, the company can save a pack on the RAM because less actual RAM chips need fitting.

Common trick in the Retail Industry to get higher profit. They've been at this trick for decades.

Not really, for the longest time it's been the opposite in the graphics card market, low end cards with extra ram.
eg gt630 4gb https://www.msi.com/pdf/presale/N630GT-MD4GD3
that's a Core 96, 128bit ddr3 card, that's basically a rebadged Fermi GT440 with 4gb of ram it can never hope to use, but sold because it's got 4gb of ram!

[Xlucine]

What would they call something a semitone lower than a 1050ti? GTS 1050ti? 1050t? Maybe follow the MG naming approach, and step back to 1050th?

[aniilv]

4GB for a Graphics card should be the minimum these days.

what for? i'm on 780 gtx which has 3gb and the games that can utilize full 3gb of vram aint gonna run above 30fps anyway, never mind on budget cards...

[azrael-]

The graphics card noone really wanted or was asking for.

(With the possible exception of some penny-shaving system builder.)

[Moonister]

Nvidia spits out so many different cards now to create an illusion of competition and choice. In fact, you going to pay over the odds whetever you pick.