Sapphire Nitro+ RX 480 OC 8GB Graphics Card Review

news · July 27, 2016

The RX 480 is AMD's flagship product in the Polaris range and

designed to make premium VR gaming more accessible to a mainstream

audience. While a great deal of media publicity surrounds higher-end

products like the GTX 1080, it's important to remember that this is a

niche section of the market. According to AMD's internal research, a

staggering 84% opt for a graphics card within the $100-$300 price

range. Up to this point, the overwhelming majority of affordable

graphics card struggled to cope with the vigorous demands of modern

games especially when using a 1440P or ultrawide monitor. Thankfully,

the RX 480's astounding price to performance ratio encourages more

people to give the PC platform a try and ensure those with a tighter

budget can still enjoy a rewarding experience. Of course, there is

competition from the recently launched GTX 1060 and it will be

interesting to compare the performance results. Sadly, the RX 480's

launch was overshadowed by reports of the card exceeding the PCI-E

power specification although this has since been rectified in a driver

update. Also, the stock cooler wasn't great which resulted in

temperatures around 85C. This restricted the overclocking headroom

substantially and the noise output from the blower design left a lot

to be desired. After speaking to AMD, they've acknowledged that AIB

partners will produce better designs and the reference model was

simply a way of introducing the Polaris series.

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