Leaked benchmarks for AMD Radeon RX 480 hits minimum VR spec for $199

[JEMC]

First custom RX 480 card reviewed:

Sapphire Nitro+ RX 480 review: Polaris rethought and refined

http://www.pcworld.com/article/3098825/components-graphics/sapphire-nitro-rx-480-review-polaris-rethought-and-refined.html

Sapphire’s Nitro+ RX 480. It’s hitting online stores next week on an unspecified date at $219 for a 4GB model (which we tested) and $269 for an 8GB version.

The core clock speeds for the two models also differ. Both ship with a dual BIOS featuring both “Quiet” and “Boost” modes. The optional Quiet mode actually sticks to the same 1,266MHz boost clock as the reference RX 480. The default Boost mode comes enabled out of the box, hitting a modest 1,306MHz on the 4GB Nitro+ RX 480 and 1,342MHz on the 8GB version.

Sapphire redesigned the power system on the Nitro+ RX 480, swapping out the reference model’s 6-pin power connector for a beefier 8-pin and altering the power phase design so that no more than roughly 60 watts courses in via your motherboard’s PCI-E slot.

The card features Sapphire’s Dual-X cooling solution, a pair of fans over a beefy, high-density heat sink riddled with copper heat pipes of various sizes. The Nitro+ RX 480’s fans have been upgraded to 95mm, dual ball-bearing models. Sapphire claims the redesign results in a 10-percent noise reduction compared to the previous generation of Dual-X coolers. The fans actually won’t spin at all until the GPU temperature hits 52 degrees Celsius, making the card completely silent when you aren’t gaming or rendering videos.

Sapphire also tweaked the RX 480’s connectivity. While the reference board packs a single HDMI 2.0b and a trio of DisplayPort 1.4 connections, the Nitro+ RX 480 cuts the DisplayPorts back to two in order to squeeze in a second HDMI port as well as a DVI port. The latter will come in handy on lower-end monitors, while the extra HDMI port allows the Nitro+ RX 480 to output to both a monitor and a VR headset. Sapphire’s decision to swap out an extra DisplayPort in favor of those two connectors seems smart indeed considering the RX 480’s budget-friendly price and its position as the cheapest VR-ready graphics card around.

 

In summary, it's faster than a stock RX 480 (obviously) and slower than a reference GTX 1060. The 8GB version, with its faster memory and higher overclock should do better. It also uses less power than the reference card at idle but more at load and, while it can be overclocked past the 1,400MHz, it's not worth it.

 

*Edit* I found another review of the Nitro+, but this time it's the 8GB model: http://www.eteknix.com/sapphire-nitro-rx-480-oc-8gb-graphics-card-review/