Believe it or not, it is possible to be both premium and budget—a contradiction embodied by the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050 Ti G1 Gaming 4G video card ($169.99). Of the new, budget-oriented GeForce GTX 1050 and 1050 Ti graphics cards on the market, the G1 Gaming 4G is the best of Gigabyte's offerings available at launch.

For $30 more than you'd pay for a 1050 Ti card meeting Nvidia's basic specifications, you get a rich feature set that includes: RGB lighting, excellent cooling, a metal backplate, one-click overclocking, and a "binned" GPU. (That means Gigabyte has sorted chips that can reach a certain clock speed into a premium bin.) These are all flourishes that, in addition to its 9-inch length and dual slots, lend the G1 Gaming a more expensive feel than its price tag suggests.

The G1 Gaming has 4GB of onboard memory, one dual-link DVI port, three HDMI 3.0 ports, one DisplayPort connector, and a six-pin power supply connector. For cooling, there are two fans that spin in opposite directions to improve airflow. The card also comes with Gigabyte's Xtreme Gaming Engine software, which lets you overclock and monitor the card, as well as adjust the fans and manage the LED lighting. Because it's an Nvidia card, you can also benefit from the company's GeForce Experience software and driver updates, and it supports G-Sync anti-tearing technology. The G1 Gaming is also covered by a three-year warranty.

In testing, the G1 Gaming clocked in around 1,772MHz—above Nvidia's listed boost clock speed of 1,392MHz for this card—and generally turn out good gaming experiences in resolutions below 3,840 by 2,100 (4K). But it didn't outperform the AMD Radeon RX 470, which, given a last-minute price drop to about $169.99, makes that an attractive competitor. Still, the G1 Gaming is a well-made card that should be more than capable of running games at 1080p or at 2,560-by-1,440 at modest graphics settings.

For more details, check out the Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1050 Ti G1 Gaming 4G review on our sister site, Computer Shopper.