Always stay cool: Sapphire RX Vega64 Nitro+ in review

Sapphire took its time, which certainly did not harm the whole project. While some competitors have already scattered PVT samples, i.e. the small series, among the media before the start of the actual mass production, S... Board layout Sapphire differs significantly from AMD's reference design when designing the board. This even makes sense in many places, as the cooling has been optimized and is in the foreground. Due to the elimination of the external spokes... Important preliminary remark In some games we were able to register the phenomenon that the nominally faster Sapphire RX Vega64 Nitro+ fell behind the reference card of the RX Vega. However, that this is not a measurement error or even ... Results in WQHD (2560 x 1440 Pixel) Breathe in sapphires, because the much cooler card now (as expected) not only has the reference card fully under control, but also scores above all with the frame times and thus also the minimum frame rates. You... Results in WQHD (2560 x 1440 Pixel) Although Destiny 2 is actually a DirectX-11-based game, which should be more the GeForce cards, AMD's Vega cards can stand up to their GeForce competitors. The Sapphire RX V... Results in WQHD (2560 x 1440 Pixel) Now the picture returns, because the Sapphire card is slightly slowed down (obviously by the driver), which makes it just behind the reference card. But you don't have the GeForce cards... Results in WQHD (2560 x 1440 Pixel) Doom and Volcano are not anything that could shake the RX Vega64. Here, the Sapphire RX Vega64 Nitro+ is again, as expected, in front of the nominally weaker reference card, although not quite as clear as... Results in WQHD (2560 x 1440 Pixel) Even if the RX Vega64 has to be sorted just behind Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1080, the hierarchy within the AMD guild remains consistent. The Sapphire card is in front of the reference model, if only breathless... Results in WQHD (2560 x 1440 Pixel) All three interesting cards are in fact equal, with the Sapphire card surprisingly pulling the shortest in this trio. Driver optimizations shouldn't really come into play here ... Results in WQHD (2560 x 1440 Pixel) If one had to name a prime example of the advantage of a board partner card, then this game, at least in WQHD, would probably be a really good candidate. Despite DirectX11, you have the GeForce GTX 10...results in WQHD (2560 x 1440 pixels) All relevant cards are very close together, with the Sapphire RX Vega64 Nitro+ leading the upper-middle-class trio as expected. However, the lead is very close. Results in U... Power consumption at different loads The power consumption in the gaming loop is at the measured approx. 327 watts well above the 300 watt mark and thus also above what was measured in the reference model. For this there is the more constant leis... Overclocking Due to the good cooler, the limits of this map are well above what the reference map can do and even comes close in places to the water-cooled conversions. But more than what we have achieved is hardly anything more ... Cooling system and backplate Of course, the generated waste heat is directly related to the recorded power, for which the cooling solution is responsible for optimum dissipation. This cooling system, which is therefore almost monumental, is designed by a rie... Summary Since we have not been able to definitively clarify the question of the drivers and some of the performance disadvantages of the board partner cards compared to the reference at this point, we leave this point out of un...

If we then consider the problems with which the "leaked" cards had to contend in part (e.g. Thermal paste problems at Powercolor), then Sapphire did really well to keep the lid on it a little longer.

Well, of course, you can already bring enough experience from the production of the reference cards, which were produced in order in order in order in the used premises at the PC partner's plant in Dongguan. But such a Nitro+ with its own cooler and other board design is then another house number. The fact that we have had to wait so long is certainly not sapphire's fault, so we do not want to take up this issue again at this point.

And finally, they didn't crack, they knocked properly. So that what came out of it doesn't put too much strain on the motherboard, Sapphire also gives a bracket for free. After all, the almost 1.6 kilos want to be kept.

Unboxing and Features

The card, which weighs 1596 grams, is 31 cm long (from outside edge slot aperture to end case), 13 cm high (from top board slot to top of housing) and 4.8 cm deep. This makes it 2.5-slot card, especially since the backplate is once again approx. 0.5 cm on the back.

Whoever puts the card in the first slot will have to take note of the fact that it can then become scarce. This also applies to the installation height, because with plugs and cables, 3 cm and more are quickly added to the already not exactly low 13 cm. Even with the weight, this is such a thing, but in the accessories there is also a suitable relief for the motherboard on the house.

The Sapphire logo below the backplate is illuminated and with the unavoidable RGB feature also, thank God, can be adapted in colour and even switched off if necessary.

Of course, Sapphire provides the right software and the interface is truly self-explanatory.

The housing cover relies on plastic and two transparent rings on the two openings for the large fans. Visually, this may take getting used to at first glance, but at the latest when the RGB LEDs make the whole thing shine, the user's eyes will probably shine. Depending on your taste for joy or pain, the bright steel blue that receives an out-of-the-box.

The top is characterized by the three 8-pin PCIe clamping supply connectors, as well as the backlit Sapphire logo. RGB here too, where you have to use Sapphire's software if you want more than the bright blue for all diodes.

We also find a BIOS switch that provides access to a BIOS with significantly low power consumption. Quiet, cooler and of course a little slower. Together with the three modes in the WattMan "Turbo" (max. Power Limit), Balanced, and Power Saver (min. Power Limit) results in several variations, which we have already discussed in detail in previous articles.

We also clearly see in the side view that the vertically arranged slats above the GPU are slightly inclined. This gives the airflow a flow direction along the way and thus also increases the directly blown surface of the cooler.

The end of the card is virtually closed thanks to the vertically arranged slats. The slot aperture accommodates two DP-1.4 ports and two HDMI 2.0 ports. A DVI-I has been cleverly dispensed with for fluid reasons, because the aperture is at the same time the outlet of the warm exhaust air from the cooling system, even if no direct outlet can be made due to the vertical slat arrangement.

Model	Sapphire RX Vega64 Nitro +	Radeon RX Vega64 Reference	Radeon RX Vega Fe	Geforce GTX 1080 Fe
Gpu	Vega 10 XTX	Vega 10 XTX	Vega 10 XTX	GP104 (400-A1)
Chip size	484 mm2	484 mm2	484 mm2	314 mm2
Transistors	12.5 billion	12.5 billion	12.5 billion	7.2 billion
GPU base clock/ Boost clock	1423 MHz 1630 MHz	1274 MHz 1546 MHz	1138 MHz 1382 MHz	1607 1733 MHz
Shader/SIMD	4096/64	4096/64	4096/64	2560/20
Texture Units/ROPS	256/64	256/64	256/64	160/64
Pixel fill rate	104.3 GPix/s	98.9 GPix/s	88.4 GPix/s	114.2 GPix/s
Texture Fill Rate	417.3 GTex/s	395.8 GTex/s	353.8 GTex/s	257.1 GTex/s
Memory connection	2048 Bit	2048 Bit	2048 Bit	256 bits
Storage type	HBM2	HBM2	HBM2	GDDR5X
Memory bandwidth	483.8 GB/s	483.8 GB/s	483.8 GB/s	320 GB/s
Speed. Graphics	1.9 Gbps	1.9 Gbps	1.9 Gbps	10 Gbps
Storage expansion	8 GB	8 GB	16 GB	8 GB
DX12 Feature Level	12_1	12_1	12_1	12_1
PCIe sockets	3 x 8-pin	2 x 8-pin	2 x 8-pin	1x 8-pin
Tbp	256 watts	295 watts	< 300 Watt	180 watts

Test system and measurement methods

The new test system and the methodology have already been described in great detail in the basic article "How We Test Graphics Cards" (English: "How We Test Graphics Cards") and therefore, for the sake of simplicity, we now only refer to this detailed Description. So if you want to read everything again, you are welcome to do so. However, we have again improved CPU and cooling to largely exclude possible CPU bottlenecks for this fast card.

If you are interested, the summary in table form quickly provides a brief overview:

Test systems and measuring rooms
Hardware:	Intel Core i7-6900K -4.3GHz MSI X99S XPower Gaming Titanium G.Skill TridentZ DDR4 3600 1x 1 TByte Toshiba OCZ RD400 (M.2, System SSD) 2x 960 GByte Toshiba OCZ TR150 (Storage, Images) Be Quiet Dark Power Pro 11, 850-watt power supply
Cooling:	Alphacool Ice Block XPX 5x Be Quiet! Silent Wings 3 PWM (Closed Case Simulation) Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut (for cooler change)
Housing:	Lian Li PC-T70 with expansion kit and modifications Modes: Open Benchtable, Closed Case
Monitor:	Eizo EV3237-BK
Power consumption:	non-contact DC measurement on the PCIe slot (Riser-Card) non-contact DC measurement on the external PCIe power supply Direct voltage measurement on the respective feeders and on the power supply 2x Rohde & Schwarz HMO 3054, 500 MHz multi-channel oscillograph with memory function 4x Rohde & Schwarz HZO50, current togor adapter (1 mA to 30 A, 100 KHz, DC) 4x Rohde & Schwarz HZ355, touch divider (10:1, 500 MHz) 1x Rohde & Schwarz HMC 8012, digital multimeter with storage function
Thermography:	Optris PI640, infrared camera PI Connect evaluation software with profiles
Acoustics:	NTI Audio M2211 (with calibration file) Steinberg UR12 (with phantom power for the microphones) Creative X7, Smaart v.7 own low-reflection measuring room, 3.5 x 1.8 x 2.2 m (LxTxH) Axial measurements, perpendicular to the center of the sound source(s), measuring distance 50 cm Noise in dBA (Slow) as RTA measurement Frequency spectrum as a graph
Operating system	Windows 10 Pro (Creators Update, all updates)