Hi Tom,
MSA quickspecs provides a basic guidance of the IOPS that you can expect in few configurations.
Its just a guideline on what you could expect from the array.
MSA 2050 quickspecs page 25:
https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=a00008276enw#
MSA 1050 quickspecs page 22:
https://h20195.www2.hpe.com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=a00005875enw
SSD drives with performance tier will definitely give better performance. However, I cant comment on how fast the applications work from end user perspective with different configurations.
One major difference between MSA 1050 and MSA 2050 is the number of host ports (4 for MSA 1050 and 8 for MSA 2050) which limits the number of paths and load balancing at host port level.
It would be good to engage a pre-sales storage consultant through HPE sales team to get more appropriate answers for your queries.