Rating: 9.0.

1. Introduction 2. Sapphire RX 480 Nitro + OC 4GB 3. Sapphire RX 480 Nitro + OC 8GB 4. Testing Methodology 5. 3DMark 11 6. 3DMark 7. Unigine Heaven Benchmark 8. Ashes Of The SIngularity (1080p) 9. Ashes Of The Singularity (1440p) 10. Ashes Of The Singularity (4k) 11. Middle Earth: Shadow Of Mordor (1440p) 12. Middle Earth: Shadow Of Mordor (4k) 13. Dirt Rally (1080p) 14. Dirt Rally (1440p) 15. Dirt Rally (4k) 16. Rise Of The Tomb Raider (1080p) 17. Rise Of The Tomb Raider (1440p) 18. Rise Of The Tomb Raider (4k) 19. Grand Theft Auto 5 (1080p) 20. Grand Theft Auto 5 (1440p) 21. Grand Theft Auto 5 (4k) 22. Metro Last Light Redux (1080p) 23. Metro Last Light Redux (1440p) 24. Metro Last Light Redux (4k) 25. Hitman 2016 (1080p) 26. Hitman 2016 (1440p) 27. Hitman 2016 (4k) 28. Acoustics Performance 29. Thermal Dynamics/IR Thermometer Readings 30. Power Consumption 31. Overclocking 32. Closing Thoughts 33. View All Pages

We supplement our analysis of AMD partner RX 480 cards today by looking at the two Sapphire Nitro+ OC models, in 4GB and 8GB capacities. The Sapphire cards ship with custom cooling solutions, out of the box clock enhancements, LED lighting and PCB improvements. At price points of £199.99 and £249.95 inc vat for the 4GB and 8GB cards respectively, they certainly look to be competitively priced.

The new AMD Radeon RX 480 is built on the FinFET 14nm process. For Polaris, AMD selected Samsung and Global Foundries 14nm FinFET based process technology, the densest foundry process available. FinFET transistors are crucial to reduce power consumption while enabling operating voltages which are 150mV lower than the previous generation.



GPU Radeon R9 290X Radeon R9 390 Radeon R9 390X Radeon R9 Fury Radeon R9

Fury X Radeon RX 480 Shader Units 2816 2560 2816 3584 4096 2304 ROPs 64 64 64 64 64 32 Graphics Processor Hawaii Hawaii Hawaii Fiji Fiji Ellesmere Transistors 6200M 6200M 6200M 8900M 8900M 5700M Memory Size 4GB 8GB 8GB 4GB 4GB 4GB/8GB Memory Bus Width 512 bit 512 bit 512 bit 4096 bit 4096 bit 256 bit Core Clock 1000 mhz 1000 mhz 1050 mhz 1000 mhz 1000 mhz up to 1266mhz Memory Clock 1250mhz 1500mhz 1500mhz 500mhz 500mhz 2000mhz

We can’t really comprehend how Sapphire ended up with 1,306mhz and 1,342mhz for the core clocks of the 4GB and 8GB cards respectively, they must have been throwing darts at a board. Memory speeds of the GDDR5 on the 4GB model are clocked down, from 2,000 mhz (8Gbps effective) to 1,750 mhz (7 Gbps effective). The 4GB version ships with Hynix GDDR5 memory, the 8GB version Samsung GDDR5 memory.

Additionally the cards have a dual BIOS with ‘quiet’ or ‘boost’ mode.

Quiet mode downclocks the core on both cards to 1,266mhz, further reducing fan noise. We test both cards today in the fully fledged, fast mode, as we do with all the samples we receive. I believe that the overwhelming majority of KitGuru readers will want to game with the card running at full speed.

The product pages for the new Sapphire cards:

Sapphire RX 480 Nitro + OC 8GB HERE

Sapphire RX 480 Nitro + OC 4GB HERE

Become a Patron!