Sapphire AMD RX 470 Crossfire Graphics Card Review

Introduction

Multi-GPU support has become an afterthought for developers in recent years and this niche section of the market is often forgotten. Granted, I always recommend opting for the best single card solution over two weaker products because Crossfire and SLI scaling is very unpredictable. This results in hitching, micro-stutter and generally, a poor return on investment. In theory, DirectX 12 could revolutionise the level of optimisation on multi-GPU configurations and allow each card’s video memory to be fully utilised. Not only that, this API gives the end-user the freedom to pair graphics products from NVIDIA and AMD. Despite this potential, NVIDIA doesn’t seem to be entertaining the idea of multi-GPUs and restricted the support of more than two cards on the GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 to synthetic applications like 3DMark. Furthermore, NVIDIA disabled the GTX 1060’s SLI functionality because they don’t anticipate many people going down that route on the lower-end. Whether you agree with this decision or not, it’s a negative aspect of the GTX 1060 and restricts its upgrade path.

In direct contrast, AMD’s Polaris 10 architecture which includes the RX 480 and RX 470 allows consumers to use up to 4 cards in a Crossfire setup. Now that the RX 470 has released, we’re analysing the performance benefits of a low-cost Crossfire rig and comparing it to a wide range of alternatives. Has Crossfire had its day or can it uphold a smooth and powerful gaming experience on a budget?