GTX 1050 TI 4Gb vs GTX 1060 3Gb for SFF

Engr62

Gawd
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When someone posts in the For Sale forum looking for a 1060, most people will say stay away from the 3Gb version. I'm looking for a low-power card to put in my small form factor PC that has a 450-watt SFX PSU. Would you recommend the GTX 1050 TI 4Gb over the GTX 1060 3Gb? They are both limited to gaming at 1080p, so would the 1050 Ti have less stuttering even though its FPS will be lower?
 
When someone posts in the For Sale forum looking for a 1060, most people will say stay away from the 3Gb version. I'm looking for a low-power card to put in my small form factor PC that has a 450-watt SFX PSU. Would you recommend the GTX 1050 TI 4Gb over the GTX 1060 3Gb? They are both limited to gaming at 1080p, so would the 1050 Ti have less stuttering even though its FPS will be lower?

The 1060 offers significantly better performance than the 1050 Ti. 3GB is just at the limit of not being enough for modern AAA titles. The extra 1GB isn't going to give you much headroom. I would highly recommend spending the extra $50 on a 6GB 1060.

You will always draw more power and create more heat pushing a lower power card faster than a high power card slower to some extent.

Research to fully understand your needs. If you're going to play AAA titles at 1080p you'd be better off with a 6GB 1060. If you're going to play A-AA games or less, a 3GB would be fine. If you're not going to play games at all just use on board graphics.
 
Thanks for the info.

I was looking at the 1060 3gb because it's been going on sale lately at about ~$185 or so after rebates--which puts is closer to the 1050 TI in price than the 1060 6gb.
 
gpu power wise the 1060 shits all over the 1050ti. but lately there has been a lot of vram hog games coming out where the extra 1GB of vram helps a ton. i'd say most of the games i play sit between 2.9-3.5GB of vram usage and i'm just playing at 1080p which is why i prefer my 1050ti. given the performance advantage of the 1060 and being able to turn most settings up to high/ultra at 1080p i could see 3GB being a huge limitation. i agree with the other comment though that spending the 50 bucks for the 6GB model would be a better option over the 3GB. just keep an eye on the sales since some 1060 6GB model's randomly pop up for 225-240 dollars with some of them having rebates on top of that.
 
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Thanks for all of the opinions. Looks like I'll just wait for the right deal on a GTX 1060 6gb to come along.
 
The 1060 offers significantly better performance than the 1050 Ti. 3GB is just at the limit of not being enough for modern AAA titles. The extra 1GB isn't going to give you much headroom. I would highly recommend spending the extra $50 on a 6GB 1060.

You will always draw more power and create more heat pushing a lower power card faster than a high power card slower to some extent.

Research to fully understand your needs. If you're going to play AAA titles at 1080p you'd be better off with a 6GB 1060. If you're going to play A-AA games or less, a 3GB would be fine. If you're not going to play games at all just use on board graphics.

Disagree. That extra gigabyte is 33% more VRAM which is a pretty nice increase. That said, the 1050Ti is a fairly low end gaming GPU. 1060 6GB is a nice balance, but have inflated pricing
 
Looks like the $50 price difference between the 3Gb and 6Gb GTX 1060 is only theoretical. For instance, Fry's has the MSI GTX 1060 Gaming X 3Gb version for $252 while the 6Gb version is $349.
 
Looks like the $50 price difference between the 3Gb and 6Gb GTX 1060 is only theoretical. For instance, Fry's has the MSI GTX 1060 Gaming X 3Gb version for $252 while the 6Gb version is $349.

As ryan_975 linked, you need to shop around.

It's going to be more difficult than shooting fish in a barrel right now due to mining, but they are out there.

You could always go with the AMD bargain value cards :rolleyes:.

If I were you and in the US, I would find the cheapest EVGA 1060 6GB that I could find. I'd probably also stick with a blower card for your use case unless you plan on a nifty cooling setup.

Speaking of, I need to start work on my SFF rig :D
 
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