The Sapphire RX480 Nitro+ was one of the first cards to be available relatively shortly after launch, albeit initially in fairly manageable quantities. Compared to the simpler (and slightly newer) Nitro, it also offers elaborate RGB illumination and a special silent BIOS, otherwise the models don't take much.
The design of the map seems tempting at first glance, because with a maximum clock speed of 1342 MHz, the card on paper is far ahead in the field of competitor cards. What really comes of it after warming the map and under load, this test will have to clarify.
But if it gets too loud and too hot, the Silent BIOS is optionally available, which effectively clocks the card back to reference level at 1266 MHz. Since we generally test the cards "out-of-the-box", the Sapphire card went through all the tests as the customer would use them: uncastrated. However, we will also discuss the Silent BIOS at the important points, we will also be promised.
1. External appearance and key data
At 774 grams, this lightweight is the most fluffy card in the test so far, but this in turn also suggests a rather mediocre cooler. With a true installation length of only 24.2 mm (slot panel outside to rear edge radiator cover), it is also pleasantly short. Unfortunately, this is again relativized via the BACK mounted PCIe voltage supply connection, so that one has to use the plugged-in cable to charge 27 cm.
With a built-in height of 12.2 cm (upper edge slot to top edge radiator cover) and a mounting depth of 3.5 cm, it is a true dual slot card that should fit well even into narrower midi towers. The backplate requires an additional 0.5 cm of installation depth on the back, which has to be taken into account in ITX projects and CPU tower coolers.
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The radiator cover made of plastic is visually and haptically plentiful, as the silver-coloured backplate with its imprints with its Nitro logo makes much more. We already know the two 95 mm fans from other Nitro cards. The rotor blades have a diameter of 90 millimeters net and are optimized for throughput rather than static pressure.
The slat alignment is horizontal, which relieves the motherboard below the cards and helps to transport some of the warm exhaust air through the slot panel. At the top, an illuminated Sapphire logo dominates, while it completely obscures the cooler. Here we also find the switch for the Silent BIOS, which we will address several times during the test.
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The end of the card shows us once again the slat cooler and the 8-pin PCIe power supply connection, while on the underside you can see two 8 mm heatpipes and a slightly concealed 6 mm heatpipe.
The slot panel is equipped differently from the reference design and carries a DVI-D connector, two connectors for the DisplayPort 1.4 and even two HDMI-2.0 outputs. This makes them particularly suitable for connecting certain VR glasses. In addition, there are some air openings, which release some of the waste heat to the outside.
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2. Board layout and power supply
If we remove the backplate and the cooler, we can take a look at the board. Sapphire positions the voltage converters for the GPU ind all on the right side to the card end, while you can still find a single phase for memory and peripherals/controllers on the left.
In terms of memory, Sapphire, like its competitors, uses the K4G80325FB HC25 to a total of eight 1GB DDR5 modules from Samsung. This consumer memory is specified for operating temperatures of up to 85°C and is operated on this card with 2000 MHz.
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The GPU relies on only five individual phases (even if the board would have made six possible) provided by an often used IR 3567 from International Rectifier. The voltages for the GPU are generated at each stage by a highly integrated IR3553 from International Rectifier, which combines gate-driver, MOSFETs for high- and low-side, as well as the Schottky diode.
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This saves space, but can also create unnecessary hotspots, as our measurements will unfortunately confirm later. A distribution of waste heat among several components has never been a bad idea.
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The coils used rely on encapsulated ferrite coils, which have been shed in a cup. They should definitely be higher quality than the usual suspects on the reference designs.
In the case of the voltage converters for the memory, one relies on a rather conservative solution, whereby one phase must suffice. The APW8722 relies on a simple single-buck converter that controls the three single-N-channel MOSFETS of type 4C10N, one of which act for the high-side and two for the low-side.
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The BIOS chip is located directly below the small slide switch at the top of the board and includes the OC BIOS, which is preset ex works, and the decommissioning stage at reference level for all those who care more about reason than perhaps one or two FPS more.
3. Power consumption and compliance
The power consumption of this overclocked map is also above what we were able to measure for the reference design – but with a very interesting special feature. The almost 16 watts are roughly at the level of the reference card and thus also below what most competitor cards demand.
In the gaming loop, the 223 watt card achieves one of the highest measured values, due to the combination of clock setting, voltage specification and very high power limit. Nevertheless, the clock breaks down extremely quickly under load, although the performance performance is hardly reduced even then. With the Torture loop, the GPU then buckles properly and approves itself even less than the gaming loop at just under 219 watts. We should remember this behaviour and remember it when it comes to clock rates and cooling later on.
At this point we also refer again to the "Silent" BIOS, which pushes the power consumption into the area of the reference card: 16 watts in the idle, approx. 165 watts for gaming and 168 watts in stress test. This, of course, costs gaming performance, but it saves money and probably also the ears.
The two graphs that follow illustrate the course over 2 minutes each in the gaming loop and in the Torture test, on which the respective calculation of the average power consumption is based.
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Now let's come to the evaluation of the flowing currents and they let the user sleep very quietly compared to some other maps. First, let's take a look at the current flows of the individual supply rails corresponding to the diagrams above:
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What we see can be reassuring. A maximum of 5 amperes instead of the maximum specified 5.5 amperes is no hurdle for old mainboards. Anyone who objects that the power consumption on the PCIe power supply connection thus exceeds the recommended 150 watts by 23 watts is reassured. We have already supplied up to 400 watts of real DC voltage and 300 watts of alternating loads via such a connection in our own tests, without overheating.
Since the power supply on the external PCIe connector exceeds the specified 150 watts by up to 10 watts, this card should be connected directly to a real 8-pin connector for safety and adapted to adapter solutions from 6 to 8 pins or the use of drive mole strands. for the supply.
4th. Cooler structure and temperatures
The cooling concept relies on a conventional design as a full cooler with integrated heat sinks. Sapphire also uses a backplate insulated inside with foil, which has been incorporated (somewhat unambitiously) into the cooling concept and additionally serves for stabilization and optics.
Normally, Sapphire has inserted a piece of thermal guide pad between this backplate and the back of the board, which sits directly under the VRM and is supposed to release the waste heat to the backplate. Apart from the fact that the insulation of the backplate is likely to almost choke off the heat transfer, this alibi pad unfortunately sits completely crooked and warped far too far outside for any effect to be achieved. The super projection of the rear and front sides shows in red the functionless pad on the back:
The memory is cooled directly via the cooling frame attached to the GPU heat sink. For the voltage transformer series, another heat sink was anchored in the radiator construct, whereby the coils are not cooled with (which is to be avenged). The cooler itself consists of a copper heat sink for the GPU, the back of which a short 6mm and two 8mm heatpipes were dotted but not pressed, as well as the aforementioned cooling frame plus VRM heatsink.
We wrote about the fans at the beginning, with Sapphire relying on fewer rotor blades than many of the competitors, but they are slightly larger. The resulting airflow is swirling, which suits the small cooler, because static pressure simply does nothing on this small and also very modest cooling surface.
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The cooling performance is unfortunately only mediocre, because in the gaming loop the maximum clock of 1342 MHz is constantly undercut and breaks down quite significantly. The fact that the temperatures are generally somewhat high is mainly due to the much too high set power limit (which is completely out of place at this height) and the significantly undersized heat sink for something like this.
Especially during the stress test in the closed housing, you can see how the clock goes down to the basement due to the high GPU temperatures. One more reason to no longer just test with the open benchtable!
We can only recommend to the buyers once again to use the Silent BIOS experimentally, which cuts the card down to the reference level at the clock, but also heats it up to 4 Kelvin lower on average.
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Let us now consider the temperatures not as a curve, but check what consequences the load leaves on the board. With just under 94°C for the gaming loop in the open and the 96°C in the closed housing, you are already very borderline on the road. Sure, the MOSFETS still run up to 150°C without damage, but the board material can already take irreversible damage in the long run (disdry, bending), which can lead to hair cracks of the traces in the case of multi-layer boards. The CPU and memory are both still in the green area.
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In the stress test, we measure 95°C or a good 97°C for the voltage converters. The CPU is still in the race with a plentiful 77°C in the open setup. In the closed setup we see the GPU at over 79°C, whereby even here the warmest memory module still falls below the 80°C mark.
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The cooling is therefore also reasonably fine in the closed housing, at least until one starts a stress test. Despite everything, Sapphire just wanted too much and we refer once again to the Silent BIOS, even if the manufacturer certainly does not like it.
5. Fan speeds and noise emission
If we now look at the fan speeds, we experience an unpleasant surprise, which we can also hear (and later prove as a measurement). The fan curve is set extremely aggressively, which does not suggest anything good.
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At almost 2300 rpm, the card is therefore really loud in the housing, which is also reflected in the reading of just over 47 dB(A). Compared to the other cards, this is already a correct house number, whereby the frequency spectrum of the fan and all its noise emissions indicate the sound. Possible bearing and voltage transformer noises are completely obscured and are no longer audible individually.
In the Silent BIOS, the card operates with approx. 42 dB(A) is much quieter, but is still a tick louder than the much heavier guys of the competitors with the really big coolers.
6. Intermediate conclusion
The Sapphire RX480 Nitro is not a fake card per se, but suffers from the combination of far too high factory overclocking and completely undersized cooler, where audible airflow has to compensate for what is simply missing from the radiator surface. This is a pity in that the card is highly recommended for smaller housings due to its rather moderate dimensions.
Then you really have to switch to the optional Silent-BIOS, which can be easily activated by slider. Those who depend on small sizes can of course lower the clock manually and also significantly reduce the recorded power and thus the waste heat with an undervoltage. As a result, you also get much quieter acting fans, which no longer torture the owner's ears so intrusively.
The card should be operated on a power supply with a real 8-pin connector and at least AWG18 cables. For (especially older) low-cost power supplies, an unexpected reason for failure could arise here, which is actually unnecessary. Otherwise, it should be noted that this card only exists with a combination of Yes and but. So it's not a real failure, but it gets quite loud, no matter what BIOS.
- 1 - Einführung, Übersicht und Test-Setup
- 2 - AMD Radeon RX480 Reference
- 3 - Asus RX480 Strix
- 4 - HIS RX480 IceQ X² Roaring Turbo
- 5 - MSI RX480 Gaming X 8G
- 6 - Powercolor RX480 Red Devil
- 7 - Sapphire RX480 Nitro+
- 8 - XFX RX480 GTR Black Edition
- 9 - Übersicht: Gaming-Performance
- 10 - Übersicht: Temperatur, Lautstärke und Leistungsaufnahme
- 11 - Zusammenfassung und Fazit
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