Sapphire Radeon RX 470 Nitro OC 4GB Review

Conclusion

AMD has a history of releasing one SKU followed by another that is very close to it in price and performance. Culling four Compute Units was the difference between the HD 7970 and HD 7950; the R9 280X and R9 280; the R9 380X and R9 380 and now it's the difference between the RX 480 and RX 470. In doing this, it risks leaving its SKUs a bit too close together, which is especially true in this case where both of these cards are set to have 4GB and 8GB variants. We've heard conflicting reports about when the RX 470 8GB will be available – it could even be today – but it's a SKU that doesn't seem to make much sense, especially as the price seems almost certain to climb above that of the RX 480 4GB

Anyway, it's not for us to dictate AMD's product strategies. The focus today is on the RX 470 4GB, and more specifically this Sapphire variant. Looking at the numbers paints, overall, a pretty strong picture for this card. It is certainly more than capable of handling itself at 1080p, with consistently smooth frame rates and averages that hover around 60fps. It even offers decent 1440p performance – we wouldn't recommend it for that resolution, but it could certainly see you through a future monitor upgrade while you save for a more powerful GPU.

The Sapphire RX 470 Nitro OC 4GB also impresses in most regards. Features like the extra display connectivity, upgraded power input and PCB components, LED lighting and dual BIOS switch mean it ticks plenty of boxes, and it comes with both core and memory overclocks as well. The cooler is by no means silent but noise output is best described as audible and average rather than distracting or loud, and it keeps the GPU tamed. The power consumption is on the high side, but whether that's an issue with this card or all RX 470s remains to be seen.


Of course, with a mid-range card like this, it's all about the price point. Unfortunately, we've received mixed messages about what the price of this card will be. The official word from AMD is that pricing will start at £165.99 for basic models (although you may not see this price until Monday) with £179.99 being the price for this card, amongst other partner cards and a few premium SKUs going for £199.99. We won't know for sure until this review goes live and the products appear online, so we'll leave it at this: at £180, this card is a solid purchase. In fact, it's your best option for under £200 right now, and that's enough for this card to earn a Recommended award. However, there is the caveat that if it creeps much above this £180 price, even to £190, then the RX 480 4GB becomes the better buy – Sapphire itself has a model that retails for £200 and it's custom-cooled and factory overclocked. The performance difference between it and this card won't be much, but it's more a case of 'might as well' by that point.

Ultimately, the RX 470, and this card in particular has what it takes to be a very strong mid-range contender but it all depends on how the pricing settles in the coming weeks. AMD needs to keep just the right amount of separation between this and the RX 480. If it can do that, it's onto a winner.