Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB OC Edition review

Zotac’s GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB OC Edition proves you don’t have to spend a fortune to be able to enjoy the latest PC games without compromising quality settings. Based on Nvidia’s GTX 1050 Ti GPU, the Zotac card supports the newest graphics APIs and display technologies and, more importantly, allows you to play current games at 1080p with smooth high-framerate graphics and High or even Ultra quality.

See also: Best graphics cards to buy right now

Plus, its compact, low-power design means it can fit in the majority of PCs, including those with cramped cases, and low-end PSUs without dedicated graphics card power connectors.

Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 Ti review: Price

You can buy the Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB OC Edition from Overclockers UK for £149.99.

If you’re really strapped for cash the £100 GTX 1050 is an option, but we feel the GTX 1050 Ti will last you longer for what is, in absolute terms, a small amount of extra cash even though it amounts to a 50 percent price hike on the less expensive version. It’s faster processing and 4GB of RAM rather than 2GB gives it plenty of extra headroom for future games which may demand more performance.

The Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB OC Edition also convincingly beats AMD-based rivals, such as the XFX AMD Radeon 4GB Double Dissipation and, at only £24 more, we think it’s well worth the extra cost. To go much faster than this you would need to consider a Radeon RX 470 or a GeForce GTX 1060, and then you’re in a whole different league of supporting hardware requirements

Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 Ti review: Features and design

The GTX 1050 Ti, announced alongside it’s less-powerful stablemate, the standard GTX 1050, features entirely new silicon following Nvidia’s current ‘Pascal’ architecture, which includes such high-end cards as the phenomenal GTX 1080.

With 768 CUDA cores and a Boost clock speed of 1392 MHz, paired up with 4GB of GDDR4 memory this card is clearly at the lower end of the performance ladder, with only the standard GTX 1050 beneath it, but Nvidia has managed to pack all of this into a card which draws less than 75W, meaning it can be powered entirely through the motherboard. As such, the GTX 1050 Ti represents the best performance you can currently fit into a PC which doesn’t support additional graphics card power connections without resorting to adapters.

Zotac’s GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB OC Edition adds a few premium touches to the basic GTX 1050 Ti design. It’s a factory overclocked model, delivering a speed bump from 1,392MHz up to 1,506MHz and the GPU is topped with a substantial heatsink fitted with dual 6mm heatpipes and cooled with twin 70mm fans. At only 174mm by 111mm it’s suitable for installation in the vast majority of PCs; Zotac claims that it will fit 99 percent of existing cases just fine.

To aid with maximising the card’s performance, Zotac has supplied the Firestorm tweaking and tuning utility which gives you control over clock and fan speeds as well as providing handy system monitoring features. This allows you to set your own desired performance and noise levels according to your requirements and save the settings in custom profiles.

The card has a DisplayPort 1.4 output, plus HDMI 2.0 and DVI-D. 

Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 Ti review: Performance

For a card costing only £149, the performance of this card is truly excellent. At the 1080p resolution for which it was designed, it can spit out frames at well over 60fps on high settings and achieve even Ultra quality settings at playable speeds. It comfortably outperforms the previous GTX 950 while drawing less power and with greater system compatibility.

We measured average frame rates 68 fps in Thief at 1080p at High quality and a very playable 56 fps with the quality cranked all the way up to Ultra. We wouldn’t recommend it for higher resolution displays or for VR, but it’s a superb card at this price for 1080p.

Zotac GeForce GTX 1050 Ti review: Benchmarks

Below you can see how the 1050 Ti OC Edition compares to the Palit GTX 1050 and XFX RX 460, and we’ve also included the 1060, 1070, RX 480 and even the older 980 Ti just to show how the new budget cards compare.