Sapphire Nitro+ RX 480 OC 8GB Graphics Card Review

3D Mark

In 3DMark Fire Strike, the Sapphire Nitro+ RX 480 OC obtains superb scores and even managed a better Graphics result than the GTX 980. On another note, the deficit to a highly-acclaimed aftermarket GTX 1060 remains quite slim. 

Once the resolution is increased to 2560×1440, the graphics card maintains its strong showing and surpassed the R9 390. This is even more impressive when you consider the affordable price point.

During 4K testing, the Sapphire Nitro+ RX 480 OC is adrift of a factory overclocked GTX 1060, but it’s still a decent set of scores. Clearly, like other products in this performance tier, it’s not designed to run demanding synthetic applications on such a high resolution.

Unigine Valley

Unfortunately, the graphics card doesn’t fare very well compared to rival offerings when tackling the Valley benchmark. To ensure these results were correct, I ran each test multiple times and even re-installed the latest Beta driver. Despite this, it’s shouldn’t cause alarm because the average frame-rate is relatively solid and within an acceptable range of rival products.

Here we can see the graphics card becomes much more competitive and isn’t too far away from the GTX 980. Saying that, the GTX 1060’s commanding lead showcases its superiority in DirectX 11 programs.

When analysing the 4K data, it’s difficult to draw any conclusions due to the low frame rates. Nevertheless, it’s important to note that selecting the GTX 1060 will not improve fluidity on a 4K monitor.

Compute Performance

In terms of OpenCL performance, the Sapphire Nitro+ RX 480 OC does remarkably well and outclasses the MSI GTX 1060 Gaming X. Not only that, it’s able to surpass the GTX 980 and was tantalisingly close to beating the Sapphire Tri-X R9 390X.