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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile: A Modest Workhorse for Basic Tasks and Games in 2025

An overview of the relevance of an outdated but still in-demand mobile graphics card.

Architecture and Key Features

Pascal Architecture: A Modest Legacy from 2016

The GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile graphics card is based on the Pascal architecture, which debuted in 2016. Despite being nearly a decade old, this technology is still found in budget laptops. The chip was manufactured using a 14nm process (by Samsung), which seems archaic in 2025 compared to NVIDIA's and AMD's 5nm and 4nm solutions.

What Can GTX 1050 Mobile Do?

The card is equipped with 640 CUDA cores and has a base clock speed of 1354 MHz (boost up to 1493 MHz). However, it lacks modern features such as ray tracing (RTX), DLSS, or support for FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR). This is a "pure" rasterization GPU without hardware acceleration for AI algorithms.

Who Is It Suitable For?

Pascal is ideal for undemanding users: it supports DirectX 12 (Feature Level 12_1) and Vulkan 1.3, but don’t expect advanced effects in new games.

Memory: Modest GDDR5 Potential

4 GB GDDR5: A Minimum for 2025

GTX 1050 Mobile utilizes 4 GB of GDDR5 memory with a 128-bit bus. Its bandwidth of 112 GB/s is 3-4 times lower than that of modern GDDR6/X solutions. In games with high-detail textures (like Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty), this is insufficient even at low settings—video memory fills up instantly, causing FPS drops.

Why Memory Volume Matters More Than Speed?

Even with a modest 128-bit bus, the main limitation has been the memory volume. For instance, in Hogwarts Legacy (2023) at 1080p and medium settings, the game consumes up to 3.8 GB of VRAM, but adding HD mods or enabling anti-aliasing exceeds the limit, leading to “lag”.

Gaming Performance: Realistic Expectations

1080p: A Comfortable Maximum

In 2025, the GTX 1050 Mobile is suitable for undemanding projects and esports disciplines. Examples of FPS (medium settings, 1080p):

- Counter-Strike 2 — 90–110 FPS;

- Valorant — 120–140 FPS;

- Fortnite (without RT and DLSS/FSR) — 45–55 FPS;

- Apex Legends — 50–60 FPS;

- GTA V — 70–80 FPS.

1440p and 4K: Forget About It

Even in older games like The Witcher 3, 1440p resolution drops the FPS to 25–35. 4K is out of the question—the card lacks DisplayPort 2.0 or HDMI 2.1, capping at 60 Hz at 4K through HDMI 2.0b.

Ray Tracing: Absent

Hardware RT support appeared only in Turing (GTX 16 series) and later. GTX 1050 Mobile will struggle even with hybrid rendering, like in Cyberpunk 2077 with FSR 3.1.

Professional Tasks: Minimal CUDA Performance

Video Editing and 3D Modeling

With 640 CUDA cores, the card accelerates rendering in Blender or Adobe Premiere Pro, but its power is only adequate for simple projects. For instance, rendering a 10-minute video in 1080p takes 25–30 minutes compared to 5–7 minutes with a modern RTX 4050 Mobile.

Scientific Computing: Inefficient

For machine learning tasks or simulations, at least 4 GB of VRAM and support for Tensor Cores are required, which the GTX 1050 Mobile lacks. It's better to use cloud services or external GPUs.

Power Consumption and Heat Dissipation

TDP 40–50 W: Easy for Laptops

One of the main advantages of GTX 1050 Mobile is its low power consumption. It doesn't require a massive cooling system: even in thin ultrabooks, one fan and a compact heat sink suffice.

Cooling Tips

- Use cooling pads for gaming sessions.

- Regularly clean the ventilation grilles of dust.

- Avoid overclocking—thermal headroom is limited (maximum 94°C).

Comparison with Competitors

AMD Radeon RX 560X Mobile: Parity with Nuances

The closest AMD analog is the RX 560X (2017) with 4 GB of GDDR5. They show similar FPS in games, but AMD drivers are better optimized for Vulkan (e.g., Red Dead Redemption 2). However, the RX 560X consumes 10-15% more power.

NVIDIA GeForce MX 550: An Ambiguous Replacement

The more modern MX 550 (2022, Ampere architecture) is faster in applications due to 2048 CUDA cores, but it falls short in games due to a reduced memory bus (64 bits). Laptops with MX 550 start from $600, while used models with GTX 1050 Mobile can be found for $300–$400.

Conclusion: GTX 1050 Mobile is the choice for those looking for the cheapest laptop for basic tasks. Competitors are either more expensive or do not offer significant advantages.

Practical Tips

Power Supply: 65–90 W

The card is compatible with laptops without discrete power—it draws enough power through the motherboard. However, for stable operation, avoid cheap power supplies with unstable voltage.

Compatibility with Platforms

- Intel: Supports 7th-12th generation processors (optimal — i5-11300H);

- AMD: Best paired with Ryzen 5 5500U/5600U for a balance of price and performance.

Drivers: Don’t Update Unless Necessary

The latest Game Ready Drivers from NVIDIA (April 2025) officially support GTX 1050 Mobile, but FPS gains in new games are minimal. Sometimes older versions (e.g., 472.12) are more stable.

Pros and Cons

✅ Pros:

- Low power consumption.

- Availability in the second-hand market.

- Support for modern APIs (DirectX 12, Vulkan).

- Quiet cooling system operation.

❌ Cons:

- Weak for games of 2023+ years.

- No ray tracing or AI upscaling.

- Only 4 GB of video memory.

- Outdated 14nm manufacturing process.

Final Conclusion: Who Is GTX 1050 Mobile Suitable for in 2025?

This graphics card is an option for:

1. Students needing an affordable laptop for studies, occasional gaming, and presentation editing.

2. Office workers using a browser, Excel, and Zoom.

3. Retro gamers launching older titles (pre-2020).

4. Owners of external monitors with a resolution of 1080p@60Hz.

Why Should You Avoid It? If you plan to play Starfield or The Elder Scrolls VI—even on low settings, GTX 1050 Mobile won't deliver smooth FPS. In that case, consider laptops with RTX 3050 Ti (starting at $800) or utilize cloud gaming (GeForce NOW, Xbox Cloud).

Price: In 2025, laptops with GTX 1050 Mobile are only found in the second-hand market. Newer equivalents (with GTX 1650 Mobile) start at $550.

Final Verdict: A modest but reliable workhorse for those who value a balance of price and sufficient performance.

Basic

Label Name

NVIDIA

Platform

Mobile

Launch Date

January 2017

Model Name

GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile

Generation

GeForce 10 Mobile

Base Clock

1354MHz

Boost Clock

1493MHz

Bus Interface

PCIe 3.0 x16

Transistors

3,300 million

TMUs

Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) serve as components of the GPU, which are capable of rotating, scaling, and distorting binary images, and then placing them as textures onto any plane of a given 3D model. This process is called texture mapping.

Foundry

Samsung

Process Size

14 nm

Architecture

Pascal

Memory Specifications

Memory Size

2GB

Memory Type

GDDR5

Memory Bus

The memory bus width refers to the number of bits of data that the video memory can transfer within a single clock cycle. The larger the bus width, the greater the amount of data that can be transmitted instantaneously, making it one of the crucial parameters of video memory. The memory bandwidth is calculated as: Memory Bandwidth = Memory Frequency x Memory Bus Width / 8. Therefore, when the memory frequencies are similar, the memory bus width will determine the size of the memory bandwidth.

128bit

Memory Clock

1752MHz

Bandwidth

Memory bandwidth refers to the data transfer rate between the graphics chip and the video memory. It is measured in bytes per second, and the formula to calculate it is: memory bandwidth = working frequency × memory bus width / 8 bits.

112.1 GB/s

Theoretical Performance

Pixel Rate

Pixel fill rate refers to the number of pixels a graphics processing unit (GPU) can render per second, measured in MPixels/s (million pixels per second) or GPixels/s (billion pixels per second). It is the most commonly used metric to evaluate the pixel processing performance of a graphics card.

23.89 GPixel/s

Texture Rate

Texture fill rate refers to the number of texture map elements (texels) that a GPU can map to pixels in a single second.

59.72 GTexel/s

FP16 (half)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy.

29.86 GFLOPS

FP64 (double)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy, while single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

59.72 GFLOPS

FP32 (float)

An important metric for measuring GPU performance is floating-point computing capability. Single-precision floating-point numbers (32-bit) are used for common multimedia and graphics processing tasks, while double-precision floating-point numbers (64-bit) are required for scientific computing that demands a wide numeric range and high accuracy. Half-precision floating-point numbers (16-bit) are used for applications like machine learning, where lower precision is acceptable.

1.873 TFLOPS

Miscellaneous

SM Count

Multiple Streaming Processors (SPs), along with other resources, form a Streaming Multiprocessor (SM), which is also referred to as a GPU's major core. These additional resources include components such as warp schedulers, registers, and shared memory. The SM can be considered the heart of the GPU, similar to a CPU core, with registers and shared memory being scarce resources within the SM.

Shading Units

The most fundamental processing unit is the Streaming Processor (SP), where specific instructions and tasks are executed. GPUs perform parallel computing, which means multiple SPs work simultaneously to process tasks.

640

L1 Cache

48 KB (per SM)

L2 Cache

1024KB

TDP

75W

Vulkan Version

Vulkan is a cross-platform graphics and compute API by Khronos Group, offering high performance and low CPU overhead. It lets developers control the GPU directly, reduces rendering overhead, and supports multi-threading and multi-core processors.

1.3

OpenCL Version

3.0

OpenGL

4.6

DirectX

12 (12_1)

CUDA

6.1

Power Connectors

None

Shader Model

6.4

ROPs

The Raster Operations Pipeline (ROPs) is primarily responsible for handling lighting and reflection calculations in games, as well as managing effects like anti-aliasing (AA), high resolution, smoke, and fire. The more demanding the anti-aliasing and lighting effects in a game, the higher the performance requirements for the ROPs; otherwise, it may result in a sharp drop in frame rate.

Benchmarks

FP32 (float)

Score

1.873 TFLOPS

3DMark Time Spy

Score

2048

Compared to Other GPU

FP32 (float) / TFLOPS

Radeon R7 370

1.957 +4.5%

Radeon Pro WX 4150 Mobile

1.925 +2.8%

GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile

1.873

Radeon Pro 460

1.821 -2.8%

Radeon Vega 10 Mobile

1.756 -6.2%

3DMark Time Spy

Arc A550M

5182 +153%

Radeon RX 580 2048SP

3906 +90.7%

Radeon 780M

2755 +34.5%

GeForce GTX 1050 Mobile

2048

GeForce GT 1030 DDR4

623 -69.6%