Because it’s hard to get a modern graphics card, some suppliers are now trying to meet demand for entry-level options by re-launching older products. Earlier this month we reported that Japanese vendor Kuroutoshikou decided to re-start sales of its GeForce GTX 1050 Ti boards. This past weekend the card made it into retail, but its price is far from what we usually consider an entry-level. The unit costs ¥22,800 ($210 with taxes), according to Akiba PC Hotline. Meanwhile, such boards can cost even more in the U.S.
The Kuroutoshikou GF-GTX1050Ti-E4GB/SF/P2 is produced by Palit Microsystems and is based on Nvidia’s GP107-400 graphics processor, with 768 CUDA cores (featuring the Pascal architecture and introduced in October 26, 2016) paired with 4GB of 128-bit GDDR5 memory with a 7 GT/s data transfer speed. The card has three display outputs: DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0b and a DVI-D for legacy monitors (fitting for a legacy architecture). As for compatibility, the board does not require an auxiliary PCIe power connector and will fit into most desktops, including Mini-ITX systems, but not low-profile machines.
Nvidia’s 4.5-years old GPU will hardly deliver sufficient performance in modern games (unless maybe you’re happy to dial down most settings). Its performance should be comparable to or higher than that of Intel’s Iris Xe G7 (96 EUs) integrated GPU, so it is still faster than the vast majority of integrated graphics solutions that are used today.
Given that the GeForce GTX 1050 Ti is outdated in terms of performance and architecture, demand for such a product would be close to zero under normal conditions. But today the GPU market does not act normally, which is why the price of the product exceeds $200. In fact, Akiba PC Hotline claims that a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti was priced at ¥11,000 with taxes in October, 2019. So, in less than two years this outdated product has become twice as expensive in, at least in Japan.
But if you thought that was bad, it’s worse in other countries. Based on data from CamelCamelCamel, new GTX 1050 Ti boards were recently sold for betwee $399 – $599 at Amazon.com. So maybe it’s time to dig through your closet and see if your old graphics card could finance a new CPU or SSD upgrade.