Yesterday AMD launched their new RX 470 graphics card, and we were on hand to cover the Asus Strix Gaming OC solution. Today we take a look at the new Sapphire RX 470 Nitro + OC 4GB which features a custom dual fan cooler with enhanced core and memory clock speeds.
This Sapphire RX 470 Nitro+ OC card looks very like their higher end models that we have reviewed in recent months, which is not a bad thing. Its a dual fan solution with thick heatpipes visible close to the PCIe connector.
| GPU | Radeon R9 290X | Radeon R9 390 | Radeon R9 390X | Radeon R9 Fury | Radeon R9 Fury X | Radeon RX 480 | Radeon RX 470 |
| Shader Units | 2816 | 2560 | 2816 | 3584 | 4096 | 2304 | 2048 |
| ROPs | 64 | 64 | 64 | 64 | 64 | 32 | 32 |
| Graphics Processor | Hawaii | Hawaii | Hawaii | Fiji | Fiji | Ellesmere | Ellesmere |
| Transistors | 6200M | 6200M | 6200M | 8900M | 8900M | 5700M | 5700M |
| Memory Size | 4GB | 8GB | 8GB | 4GB | 4GB | 4GB/8GB | 4GB/8GB |
| Memory Bus Width | 512 bit | 512 bit | 512 bit | 4096 bit | 4096 bit | 256 bit | 256 bit |
| Core Clock | 1000 mhz | 1000 mhz | 1050 mhz | 1000 mhz | 1000 mhz | up to 1266mhz | up to 1206mhz |
| Memory Clock | 1250mhz | 1500mhz | 1500mhz | 500mhz | 500mhz | 2000mhz | 1650mhz |
An overview of the Ellesmere RX 470 in GPUz. AMD’s RX 480 has 2,304 stream processors, the RX 470 has 2,048. Both have 32 ROPS, however the RX470 loses 16 texture units, from 144 on the RX 480 to 128 on the RX 470.
The Sapphire RX 470 Nitro + OC card has has both core and memory overclocked. The core is running at 1260mhz, and the memory is running at 1,750mhz (7Gbps effective). This is 10mhz less than the Asus version of the RX 470, although Asus didn’t overclock the GDDR5 on their card.
While AMD told me in email that they could not confirm 8GB RX470’s would be available it would appear that MSI have already released a version. I received one a few hours ago and its in my test bed as we speak and I plan on publishing that review as soon as I can. I am currently chasing the price of this 8GB model, because with 4GB RX470’s only £10 less than 4GB RX480’s it would appear that an 8GB RX470 could actually cost more than a 4GB RX480. What a bizarre launch this has turned out to be.