Nvidia's new GTX 1050 and 1050 Ti aim to put your aging desktop back in the game

This pair will be coming to stores within the next few weeks. Though both have an official release date of October 25, Nvidia says it expects availability to lead with the GTX 1050 Ti. That means you will likely have trouble finding the GTX 1050 until sometime in November.

Pricing is low, for base models, at least. The GTX 1050 will start at $109, and the GTX 1050 Ti will start at $139. As a result, these cards will be set to compete against the AMD Radeon RX 460. Assuming, of course, that Nvidia’s cards meet their manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) targets. As gamers know all too well, limited availability can drive up pricing in the early days of a new release.

Nvidia says these cards — and the GTX 1050 Ti, in particular — target gamers who do not have a discrete video card and need a solution that is easy to install, with low-power requirements. A 300-watt power supply is the stated minimum requirement and base versions of the GTX 1050 do not require external PCI Express power. Gamers can install simply by plugging the card into any open PCI Express x16 slot.

There will not be an in-house “Founder’s Edition” version of the GTX 1050 or 1050 Ti produced by Nvidia, so all cards will come from board partners. That means there will be significant variation in design. Still, from what we have seen thus far, the cards are quite a bit shorter than a standard GTX 1060. We were also told some cards will add an external PCI Express power connection to allow for extreme overclocking.

Want some of the technical details? Here they are, in all their glory:

These cards will finally give Nvidia a current-generation competitor to AMD’s RX 460, and perhaps even the RX 470, though that card typically sells for more than the GTX 1050 Ti’s stated MSRP. Review models of the cards are on their way, so look for a full write-up within the next two weeks.