Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GB Graphics Card Review

Peter Donnell / 7 years ago

Final Thoughts

Price

The Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8GB Graphics Card is available now for a very reasonable £240, and the price range for the RX 580 8GB cards is around £230 to £320, so I would say this is pretty incredible value for money. Furthermore, it’s also about £30-40 cheaper than Sapphires Nitro+ RX 580 8GB, which is the slightly bigger and better-overclocked version of the Pulse.

Overview

The Sapphire Pulse RX 580 is one of the best RX 5xx cards we’ve tested to date. Yes, I have tested some that are faster and more expensive, but the fact that the latest Sapphire card comes with performance figures that so closely matches that of rival brands, and even manages to mix it up with the slightly more expensive Nvidia GTX 1060 is certainly impressive.

Which is better bang for your buck between the red and green team is always something up for debate, but at just a little over £200, both companies are offering strong products right now. However, what can tip the balance in the cards favour is that it does have an impressive set of features. The first is that this card offers more VRAM than the GTX 1060, clocking in with 8GB vs 6GB. Sapphire also have that sleek-looking cooler, which comes with removable quick-release fans, which are perfect for maintaining your card.

Gaming at Ultra settings at 1080p resolution has never been so easy!

This card can indeed deliver some rock solid frame rates. The decent clock speeds and plentiful VRAM also mean it’s no slouch when it comes to 1440p and Ultrawide gaming, although you’ll want to wind back some of the graphical settings from Ultra to do so. Of course, that’s to be expected at this price range.

Finally, we have added value from Radeon Chill, HDR video support, ReLive, FreeSync 2, a good amount of display connections, removable fans, and more. That certainly helps make this an attractive package. However, the only thing we would love to see improved is the efficiency. Of course, it’s hardly a deal breaker right now, but it is something we expect will improve with the Vega chipsets.

Pros

Ideal for 1080/1440p gaming
Very competitive performance
Quiet fans with zero RPM mode
Quick release fans
Supports latest Radeon features; HDR, FreeSync 2, Chill and more
Very competitive price
8GB of VRAM
Nice design and unique backplate

Cons

Efficiency

“The Sapphire Pulse RX 580 is one of the best mid-budget cards we’ve ever tested, while also looking great and delivering excellent frame rates. Most of all, it does it all at a price that is kind to your wallet. Overall, we highly recommend it to anyone looking to spark new life into an older gaming system.”