The Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti and the Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti are two of the most popular mid-range graphics cards on the market currently.
Both are great for 1080p gaming, but which one is better?
Let’s compare them!
A graphics card is an essential part of a gaming computer.
It is the computer’s ‘brain,’ interpreting the code and turning it into pictures on your monitor.
Without a good card, you won’t be able to enjoy your games collection.
With a good card, you can play even the most graphics-intensive games.
You will get a more immersive gaming experience because now you can play your favorite games in high-quality details.
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Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti
The Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti is an excellent GPU for 1080p gaming.
It can run most games on high settings at 60 frames per second without any issues.
It’s not the most powerful GPU, but it’s more than capable for most games.
It also uses a little less power than the 1050 Ti, so your laptop battery will last longer.
The only major downside to this GPU is its price.
It’s around $150 more than the 1050 Ti, so it’s not the cheapest GPU on the market.
Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti
The Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti is the cheapest GPU that’s capable of playing most games at a solid 60 frames per second at 1080p.
It can run games like Fortnite, PUBG, and Overwatch on a high setting without any issues.
However, it’s not as powerful as the 1660 Ti.
If you’re willing to turn the graphics settings down a bit, you’ll be able to run games just as well.
The 1050 Ti is also more power-efficient than the 1660 Ti, so your power consumption will be lower using the Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti.
It’s around $150 cheaper than the 1660 Ti as well, making it a great budget option.
1050 TI vs. 1660 TI Differences
Clock Speeds
The clock speed of a card refers to how fast the card can process information.
The higher the number, the faster the card, and the better it will be.
Clock Speeds | GTX 1050 Ti | GTX 1660 Ti |
Boost Clock | 1392 MHz | 1770 MHz |
GPU Clock | 1291 MHz | 1500 MHz |
Memory Clock | 7008 MHz | 12000 MHz |
Dimension
The dimension of the card, usually given in inches, refers to the size of the card.
The bigger the card, the more powerful it will be.
However, a large card will take up more space inside your computer and may not fit.
Dimension | GTX 1050 Ti | GTX 1660 Ti |
Length | 5.7 Inches 145 mm | 9 Inches 229 mm |
Outputs | 1x DVI 1x HDMI 1x Display Port | 1x DVI 1x HDMI 1x Display Port |
Slot Width | Dual Slot | Dual Slot |
Memory
Memory in a Graphics card is essential for a smooth gaming experience. When you are playing a game, and the screen starts to stutter, this means you need more memory.
When you start a new game, it has to load all the information into your graphics card memory.
If you do not have enough memory, it has to keep stopping to get more data from the computer.
This causes the screen to stop and stutter as it loads more data into the graphics card memory.
Dimension | GTX 1050 Ti | GTX 1660 Ti |
Bandwith | 112.1 GB/s | 288.0 GB/s |
Memory Bus | 128 bit | 192 bit |
Memory Size | 4096 MB | 6144 MB |
Memory Type | GDDR5 | GDDR6 |
Power Consumption
The power consumption of a graphics card is how much power it needs to run.
In this case, GTX 1050 Ti has a lower power consumption of only 75 Watt compared to the GTX 1660 Ti, which has 120 Watt.
If your current computer system does not have enough power supply to support power to the graphics card department, you might want to pick the GTX 1050 Ti.
However, I suggest you upgrade your power supply to have enough power to support more graphics cards in the future.
Graphics Processor
A graphics processing unit is an electronic circuit specially designed to quickly manipulate and alter the memory to speed up image creation in the frame buffer that is intended for output to a display unit.
The architecture of the GTX 1050 TI is using an architecture called Pascal.
On the other hand, the GTX 1660 TI is using an architecture called Turing.
The latter is believed to have twice Pascal’s raster performance, resulting in GTX 1660 Ti having almost twice better performance capabilities than the GTX 1550 Ti.
Transistors in the GTX are used to determine the chip’s efficiency, and it also depicts a larger die size.
The GTX 1050 TI has up to 3,300 million transistors indicating that it is not as efficient as GTX 1660 TI, which has about 6,600 million transistors.
1050 Ti vs. GTX 1660 Ti – Real Life Performance Test
Now enough talking about the differences between the two graphics cards.
Let us dive right into the real-life test done by the folks at gpucheck.com, where they tested the two graphics cards to play modern games.
As you can see from the graphics above, the GTX 1660 Ti is the clear winner if you want to run games in 2020.
It delivers almost twice the performance compared to the GTX 1050 Ti in most of the games.
However, if the budget is really your concern, the GTX 1050 Ti can still run games in respectable FPS in 2020.
Is GTX 1660 Ti Good Enough in 2020?
The GTX 1660 Ti is a mid-range graphics card from NVIDIA’s new Turing architecture.
It’s the successor to the GTX 1060 and is supposed to be faster than the GTX 1070.
We believe that the GTX 1660 Ti is good enough to play games in 2020 because it has enough power and memory to give us great FPS when playing even the most demanding games in 2020.
Even though the card was launched back in 2019, it can still run games in high settings, as shown in the charts above.
In fact, we recommend to people that the minimum graphics card they should have in 2020 is a GTX 1660 Ti.
The GTX 1660 Ti has the best price to performance ratio for us, making it very good and enough for gaming in 1080p in 2020.
Is a 1660 Ti is Better Than a 1080 Ti?
Unfortunately, the 1660 Ti is not better than a 1080 Ti.
If you compare the two graphics cards, the 1080 Ti has faster memory, more VRAM, and an overall better graphics card than a GTX 1660 Ti.
However, you should remember that the GTX 1080 Ti cost 3x more money than the GTX 1660 Ti.
So it is to be expected that the GTX 1080 Ti is better than a GTX 1660 Ti.
How to Choose the Right Graphics Card for Your System
We know that GPU is the bloodline for your gaming PC.
There are so many graphics card out there on the market.
Here are three simple tips that will help you choose the right graphics card for your system.
Tip 1: Set Your Budget
Before you start looking at the different models, decide how much you’re willing to spend.
This can be tricky, as graphics cards can range in price from around $100 to several thousand dollars.
We recommend setting a budget of around $200 – $300 for your graphics card because we believe cards at this price point have the best price to performance ration.
One of the cards we recommend is the GTX 1660 Ti discussed in this article.
Tip 2: Choose What Games You Plan to Play
If you’re a gamer, this step is easy. If you’re not, then you might want to reconsider your interest in building a gaming PC.
Why? Because you’ll need to know the hardware requirements of the games you want to play.
For example, you’ll need a more powerful graphics card to play Battlefield 1 than you would for something like Candy Crush.
Another thing you can do is check your games’ website.
They will have some kind of information about recommended specs that the game maker suggest us to have in order to have a good time playing their games.
From these specs, you can just buy the graphics card that they recommend, and you will be good to go.
Tip 3: Decide on Your Resolution
If you’re building a gaming PC, you’ll need a powerful graphics card. But do you really need the most powerful one?
If you choose to play games on a 1080p resolution screen, you don’t need to buy the most advanced GPUs on the market.
For instance, if you are only planning to play games on a lower settings 720p, you might get away with a GTX 1050 Ti rather than buying a GTX 1660 Ti.
Conclusion
The GTX 1660 Ti is a graphics card based on the Turing architecture; it is an improved version of the 1050 TI and has improved all the performance features, as indicated above in the comparisons.
Therefore, if you want to experience good speeds, performance, and enhanced storage, you should probably go with a gaming device equipped with the GTX 1660 TI.
