[SOLVED] Why can't a GeForce 1050 support RTX through DXR?

DreamBliss

Reputable
Oct 8, 2016
20
0
4,510
Very simple question, requiring a knowledgeable answer. I have been Googling around, looking for any sort of workaround that would allow a 1050 card to support raytracing. For some reason that I do not understand, only the 1060 and up have been given support for this.

OK... Well I don't really need Nvidia's support - an unofficial or custom driver is fine. But I have also read that the drivers which enable this somehow will not enable it for the 1050. No reason is given. I assume the hardware is roughly the same, so what's going on here?

Is the hardware between a 1050 and 1060 so substantially different that the 1050 can not support the DXR (I believe its called) raytacing? If that is the case, I want to see proof. Is it written down somewhere, is there some evidence as to why it can't support raytracing? If there is no reason it can't - just an artificial limitation placed on it by Nvidia, how does one unlock this feature? Where does one get custom drivers that enable DXR/raytracing support?

I appreciate you helping me understand this!
 
Last edited:
Solution
The only way I can see there be any need for such a delay is if they do not actually have the item
If I was paying above MSRP for something, I'd expect it to ship next-day at most. If they give you an expected ship date over a month out, they either have no product whatsoever and merely speculated that they'll be able to source a board to make a profit on by then or the board hasn't left the factory yet, it may still be in the form of discrete parts.
Very simple question, requiring a knowledgeable answer. I have been Googling around, looking for any sort of workaround that would allow a 1050 card to support raytracing. For some reason that I do not understand, only the 1060 and up have been given support for this.

OK... Well I don't really need Nvidia's support - an unofficial or custom driver is fine. But I have also read that the drivers which enable this somehow will not enable it for the 1050. No reason is given. I assume the hardware is roughly the same, so what's going on here?

Is the hardware between a 1050 and 1060 so substantially different that the 1050 can not support the DXR (I believe its called) raytacing? If that is the case, I want to see proof. Is it written down somewhere, is there some evidence as to why it can't support raytracing? If there is no reason it can't - just an artificial limitation placed on it by Nvidia, how does one unlock this feature? Where does one get custom drivers that enable DXR/raytracing support?

I appreciate you helping me understand this!
I believe 1050 and 1050 Ti are so weak cards that they didnt even bother to add Ray Tracing support like they did with 1060 6GB or above. I tried Quake II RTX once with a 1070 Ti and i was getting bellow 10fps. With a 1050 you would get 1 fps? The game maybe would not run at all.
 
Last edited:

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
The RTX2060 is already barely usable for raytracing. Shader-based raytracing is ~10X slower than hardware-accelerated RT and becomes a slideshow on most 10-series GPUs.

Another major issue with the 1050Ti is that 4GB of VRAM is barely sufficient for standard rendering, so the already low performance from limited processing power would be made even worse by having to use system RAM to offset the VRAM deficit. 8GB is probably the bare minimum required to make RT work reasonably well without having to make significant sacrifices elsewhere.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bassman999

yeetbucket

Proper
Jan 14, 2021
170
33
120
don't bother. The 1050 ti has only 4gb vram and you need at least 8 gb vram as stated above. Even the 1080 ti performs the same 40 fps in rtx in 1080p, same as 2060 even though the 1080ti has ~40% more vram.
 

DreamBliss

Reputable
Oct 8, 2016
20
0
4,510
So it may work, just not very well. Nvidia has just decided to not even bother because the performance would be so poor. It isn't that it can't, just that it would be unusable if one enabled it. That about sum it up?

Well I managed to get a new 1050 for about $250.00 including shipping. I know that will be better than the XFX 7870 or whatever it is currently in my computer. So I guess my question is should I return the 1050 and fight to get something else, or will the 1050 make enough of an improvement in my gaming and normal playing (and recording) of Minecraft that it is worth the price?

I would be going down from 256 to 128, but up in RAM from 2 to 4 gigs (on the card.) I crunched the numbers and the throughput comes out just a little less than what I have, but I would gain all of the DirectX 12 support. Might be able to play Obduction finally.

If I should return the 1050 and get something else, considering the nightmare that is the GPU market right now, what other card would be the best to get in the $200.00 - $400.00 range and why? Should I try for a refurb or used card? Why or why not? I was going to stick with new if I could.

Or did really do good by getting the 1050, and should just stick to that until more GPUs become available?

Appreciate your replies and help so far!
 
Last edited:
A gtx 1050or a 1050ti??

If the non-ti then your $250 has gained you around 10% performance wise which is really really bad value.

The ti a little more but still really awful value again.

That old 7870 will actually outperform a 1050 in vulkan based titles, there's no way I would have spent that much on one.
 
  • Like
Reactions: spentshells
OK, according to this, a 1650 is the 4th best card you can get:
https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_value.html

I have to overpay by roughly $360.00, but I think I will get that. Any thoughts?

My thought is still you'd have to be absolutely mad to pay $360 for one.

The 1650 is still a low end card, that $360 is the rrp of a 3060 which is twice as powerful.

I know gpu prices are ridiculous at the moment but if you have a working gpu, no matter how old you should stick with it until prices come down.

The 7870 is still a useable card, especially with an older system like yours.
 

DreamBliss

Reputable
Oct 8, 2016
20
0
4,510
My thought is still you'd have to be absolutely mad to pay $360 for one.

The 1650 is still a low end card, that $360 is the rrp of a 3060 which is twice as powerful.

I know gpu prices are ridiculous at the moment but if you have a working gpu, no matter how old you should stick with it until prices come down.

The 7870 is still a useable card, especially with an older system like yours.

I appreciate the feedback and I will consider your advise. Thank you.

My current card is incompatible with Obduction. I know with a newer video card I would be able to do better in Minecraft and screen recording, AND I could play Obduction. It's not ideal, and likely a waste of money - I agree. But GPUs will only get more expensive the longer a person waits, and there will be no new stock until sometime next year, according to Linus Tech Tips.
 

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
But GPUs will only get more expensive the longer a person waits, and there will be no new stock until sometime next year, according to Linus Tech Tips.
Current grossly inflated GPU prices will come down at some point, we just don't know when or by how much. Miners will eventually run out of space and power to run more GPUs with and their cost-recovery window gets closer as next-gen GPUs get closer to launch, so mining GPU demand is bound to wind down at some point through the year. Vaccination is also proceeding relatively smoothly across most of the world, which means fewer people spending on home entertainment as more go back to doing whatever it is that they would normally be doing and working on-site, which means less demand for new PCs and PC parts too.

New stock is coming into various (e-)stores on a daily basis. What isn't coming until next-year are AMD's 7000, Nvidia's 4000 and possibly Intel's whatever-they-will-be-called series GPUs.

Current prices being what they are, I'm tempted to get an i5-11400, sell my GTX1050 while I can get more than I paid back for it and hope I can make-do with the Xe IGP until I can get an RTX3050, RX6500 or Intel equivalent for a reasonable price.
 

yeetbucket

Proper
Jan 14, 2021
170
33
120
Current grossly inflated GPU prices will come down at some point, we just don't know when or by how much. Miners will eventually run out of space and power to run more GPUs with and their cost-recovery window gets closer as next-gen GPUs get closer to launch, so mining GPU demand is bound to wind down at some point through the year. Vaccination is also proceeding relatively smoothly across most of the world, which means fewer people spending on home entertainment as more go back to doing whatever it is that they would normally be doing and working on-site, which means less demand for new PCs and PC parts too.

New stock is coming into various (e-)stores on a daily basis. What isn't coming until next-year are AMD's 7000, Nvidia's 4000 and possibly Intel's whatever-they-will-be-called series GPUs.

Current prices being what they are, I'm tempted to get an i5-11400, sell my GTX1050 while I can get more than I paid back for it and hope I can make-do with the Xe IGP until I can get an RTX3050, RX6500 or Intel equivalent for a reasonable price.
there will be no rtx 3050 because there would be no point in gtx 16xx or 2060 cards as well as it wouldn't be powerful enough with 4gb of vram to run rtx on any games.
 

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
there will be no rtx 3050 because there would be no point in gtx 16xx or 2060 cards as well as it wouldn't be powerful enough with 4gb of vram to run rtx on any games.
Do a search for "nvidia GA107" and you will find that it is definitely planned, we just don't know when the RTX3050(Ti) will become available.

Not having enough VRAM is not a complete deal-breaker with PCIe 4.0x16 to let the GPU use system memory to make up the difference. If you look at the 4GB RX5500, having access to 4.0x8 (vs 3.0x8 since the die only has x8) allows it to make ~70% of its performance deficit against the 8GB version in VRAM-bound scenarios. 4.0x16 will be a big deal for the continued viability of 4GB GPUs.
 
there will be no rtx 3050 because there would be no point in gtx 16xx or 2060 cards as well as it wouldn't be powerful enough with 4gb of vram to run rtx on any games.
Given that the RTX 3060 was a 12GB card, this makes me think that there's enough supply of 2GB chips to go around. And if that's the case, then I wouldn't be surprised if a 3050 has 8GB of VRAM. Or the 3050 has a 192-bit bus and comes with 6GB.
 

yeetbucket

Proper
Jan 14, 2021
170
33
120
Given that the RTX 3060 was a 12GB card, this makes me think that there's enough supply of 2GB chips to go around. And if that's the case, then I wouldn't be surprised if a 3050 has 8GB of VRAM. Or the 3050 has a 192-bit bus and comes with 6GB.
yeah that would make sense, nevermind my last post. This would be really good as there would be real midrange instead of 400 dollar cards being the new "midrange".
 

Pc6777

Honorable
Dec 18, 2014
1,125
21
11,465
no point its far to weak, I hardly ever use rtx features or play games with dlss with my 2060, its not common yet anyway cards that have decent rasterization performance with suffice for a good while.
 

InvalidError

Titan
Moderator
Given that the RTX 3060 was a 12GB card, this makes me think that there's enough supply of 2GB chips to go around. And if that's the case, then I wouldn't be surprised if a 3050 has 8GB of VRAM. Or the 3050 has a 192-bit bus and comes with 6GB.
A handful of OEM/AIB leaks through regulatory listings say 4GB, so I'd take that as a fairly strong hint that 4GB/128b may very well be it.

Edit: since GA107 is a 128bits die for the 3050Ti and lower GPUs, a 6GB version would need to be derived from the GA106 instead. If it happens, it'll probably become the 3050 Super.
 
Last edited:

Andrewbandrew05

Reputable
Jun 30, 2019
243
17
4,615
Going back to the original question. A 1050 will die with ray tracing. Maybe Minecraft will work if you turn settings down but only maybe. I used some shaders with my vega 64 and I would guess I was in the 40-60fps range using a 12TFlops+GPU. I'd stick with your current card and wait till the market stabilizes. It'll be a while but current prices are ridiculous
 

DreamBliss

Reputable
Oct 8, 2016
20
0
4,510
I have given up on raytracing for now. I am just looking to play Obduction and removing some of these compatibility blocks I have been hitting. If Minecraft will play with shaders better than it is currently, while I am recording it, then that would be a bonus.

Current setup ranges between 10-30FPS with shaders and custom textures. I figure a newer card will do better.

It isn't miners that are the issue, as I understand it. It is the COVID thing, apparently people are flocking to the stores in droves to get components for computers. Too much demand, too few transistors or whatever it is they make in Taiwan. A LOT of people are building their own PCs because they are working from home. I think Linus Tech Tips also mentions this.

It's kind of like the housing market where I live. To get a decent 2 bedroom place you are looking at a minimum of $200,000, but more than likely you will be outbid and paying $400,000. But were you to travel a thousand miles east, for example, you could get a mansion for the same money.

In both cases, demand has outstripped supply, and that sets the price beyond actual MSRP or value or whatever the housing term is called.
 

DreamBliss

Reputable
Oct 8, 2016
20
0
4,510
So I scraped some money together, and using this page to determine the best card to get:
https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_value.html

I bought this for just under $437.00 including shipping:
https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=04G-P4-1357-KR

It's an overpay of $200.00, but for a 4th place card I think I will be happy with it. Ignoring the overpay, let me know if I have a good card here. Make me feel better about my spending spree :/

I always wanted to get an EVGA card.... Things look like pieces of art more than computer hardware...
 
So I scraped some money together, and using this page to determine the best card to get:
https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_value.html

I bought this for just under $437.00 including shipping:
https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=04G-P4-1357-KR

It's an overpay of $200.00, but for a 4th place card I think I will be happy with it. Ignoring the overpay, let me know if I have a good card here. Make me feel better about my spending spree :/

I always wanted to get an EVGA card.... Things look like pieces of art more than computer hardware...

Its about twice as powerful as your 7870.

So yes it's a good upgrade but you were robbed on the price - but you already know that.