NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (Desktop) vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop) vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop)

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (Desktop)

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 is an entry level graphics card for desktops based on the Pascal architecture. It uses the same GP107 chip as the GTX 1050 Ti, but with only 640 instead of 768 shaders. The chip is manufactured at Samsung in 14 nm (opposed to the 16 nm TSCM based Pascal chips of the 1060 and up). The performance and specs should be similar to the GTX 1050 laptop version, that will be released later (early 2017). Compared to the faster GTX 1050 Ti, the 1050 offers less shaders (640 instead of 768) and only 2 GB of GDDR5 (instead of the 4 GB of the 1050 Ti).

Gaming benchmarks by Nvidia state that the GTX 1050 is about 30% faster on average than the Radeon RX 460 with 2 GB VRAM. The 4 GB version of the RX 460 should be about 10% slower and the older GTX 950 should reach a similar performance level as the new GTX 1050. Therefore, the GTX 1050 should be ideal for 1080p gaming with high detail settings (but not max settings).

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 (Desktop)

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 is a fast desktop graphics card based on the Pascal architecture. It was announced in May 2016 and offers all 2,560 shader of the used GP104 chip. Furthermore, the GPU is coupled with 8 GB GDDR5X graphics memory using a 256 Bit interface (10 GHz, 320 GB/s). The chip is manufactured at TSMC in 16nm (FinFET). The TDP is specified at 180 Watt and therefore slightly higher than the predecessor, the GTX 980 with 165 Watt.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 (Desktop)

The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 is the second fastest Pascal based graphics card in mid May 2016. It is a high-end desktop graphics card. The mobile pendant is also called GeForce GTX 1070, but features more shaders and a lower core clock (see this page for details on the laptop version of the GTX 1070). Both cards are based on a cut down GP104 chip as the GTX 1080 and manufactured in 16 nm FinFET at TSMC. More details on the Pascal architecture including all features and comparisons to Maxwell, can be found here.

Compared to the GTX1080, the GTX1070 features less CUDA cores (1920 versus 2560) that are clocked a bit lower (maximum Boost 1683 versus 1733). Instead of the new GDDR5X, the GTX 1070 uses slower GDDR5 graphics memory - but still 8 GB. The TDP is also reduced from 180 Watt to 150 Watt.

The performance of the GTX 1070 is between the old GTX 980 Ti and the GTX 1080. Therefore, gaming in 4k at high details is possible with the card and also VR gaming is possible.