Rumors Suggest Nvidia is About to Relaunch the 1050 Ti

When it launched back in 2016, the Nvidia 1050 Ti was undoubtedly a very popular graphics card when it came to more budget-focused consumers. Was it a world-beater? Absolutely not. However, it was more than good enough to give a lot of people a very affordable entry-point to the world of PC gaming.

With current modern GPU stock levels so poor though, largely thanks to a combination of consumer demand, scalpers, and cryptocurrency miners, (and the possibility that they’re simply not being made in particularly high volumes), following a report via Videocardz, it is being suggested that in something of a response, Nvidia may be set to re-start the production of the 1050 Ti!

Nvidia RTX 1050 Ti

Now, getting the elephant out of the room, the 1050 Ti isn’t just old, but even when it came out nearly four and a half years ago, it wasn’t particularly potent. So why would Nvidia even bother to do this? Well, there are a number of fairly good reasons, and rather than rambling on, I’m just going to hit you with a few quick bullet points:

• Nvidia still has a very good supply of low-end PCBs/chipsets
• Coming at 4GB of VRAM, the 1050 Ti is mostly unsuitable for modern largescale cryptocurrency farming – As such, there will be little to no demand from that sector
• Nvidia can both make and (through AIB partners) sell them inexpensively
• The 1050 Ti was an exceptionally strong performer in the sales market (it still remains today the 2nd most widely owned (and used) GPU according to Steam)
• Despite its age, it’s still, just about, good enough for most modern games at 720p resolution (with, of course, some exceptions)

Will It Happen?

As part of the rumor, it would appear that this isn’t so much a case of ‘if’ this will happen. It’s rather that this may already be underway! As such, while we doubt that they’ll be much fanfare about it, if you start noticing that 1050 Ti’s are starting to get pushed more on retailers websites, and who knows, perhaps at a lower price, then this is almost certainly why!

I mean, if these GPUs do hit something in the region of a sub-£150 price tag (new), then it would certainly be hard to ignore from a ‘budget-build’ perspective!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!