Sapphire RX 5700 XT Nitro Plus in test – sprinting better with less weight and the best Navi card (so far)

1 - Intro and Overview 2 - Tear Down: PCB and Cooler 3 - Benchmarks 1920 x 1080 Pixels 4 - Benchmarks 2560 x 1440 Pixels 5 - Benchmarks 3840 x 2160 Pixels 6 - Power Consumption and PSU Recommendation 7 - Temperatures, Clock Rate, Thermal Images 8 - Fan Speed and Noise 9 - Conclusion and Bottom Line

Board layout and components

Sapphire uses an 8+2+1 phase design for the Nitro+. The well-known IR 35217 from International Rectifier controls the 8 phases for the GPU (VDDC) as a PWM controller with one NCP 302155 each from ON Semiconductor, which are low-cost mid-range dual MOSFETs with an integrated gate driver and a complete power stage at the end (low, high side, driver, Schottky diode). One phase for SoC is equipped with one of these ICs. If you take a closer look at the board, you can see free solder points at the voltage converters as well as in the input area, where further components could find space. Toxic or not? We will have to wait and see.

For the two phases for the memory (MVDD) Sapphire (like others) uses an NCP 81022, a digital 2-phase voltage regulator, which controls one of the already introduced NCP 302155 per phase. The two phases are each located above the two upper memory modules. To the left we see the converter for VDDCI and to the left the NCP 80022.

Sapphire uses a medium-length PCB with very few active components on the back. However, all the soldered LEDs are eye-catching, on the one hand illuminating the large, milky and cloudy plexi block behind the backplate recess and on the other hand the translucent light strip on the top of the card (shroud). These diodes are 90° angled models that illuminate sideways.

A second 8-pin connector here implies a high overclocking potential, but this should be more apparent than actual and could ultimately serve a potential toxic variant. The following table once again contains the most important components:

GPU /SoC
PWM-Controller	IR35217 International Rectifier PWM-Controller (8x VDDC, 1x SoC)
Gate Driver	integrated
VRM	8+1 NCP302155 ON Semiconductor Dual-MOSFET + Driver
Coils	Encapsulated Ferrite Choke 150 mH
Speicher / VDDCI
Module	MT61K256M32 Micron 8x 8GB GDDR6 SGRAM-Modules 2 Channels x 256 Meg x 16 I/O, 2 Channels x 512 Meg x 8 I/O
PWM-Controller	NCP81022 ON Semiconductor 2-Phases used
VRM	NCP302155, 2x MVDD, 1x VDDCI ON Semiconductor Dual-MOSFET + Driver
Coils	Encapsulated Ferrite Choke 220 mH
Other Components
BIOS	2x 25WP080 EEPROM Dual-BIOS
Connectors	Input Filter, 560 mH
MCU	NUC029LAN Nuvoton 32-bit ARM Processor LED
More Fetures
Other Details	8 + 2 + 1 Phases 8-Pin + 8-Pin PCI-Express Power Supply

Cooler

The upper cover carries the three fan modules, two of them with 9 rotor blades and 9.5 cm diameter each (opening 9.8 cm) and one with 8.5 cm diameter and 11 rotor blades in the middle. These fans can also be exchanged for ARGB modules, which Sapphire now offers as an accessory. If you turn the whole thing around, you can see the two-part finned cooler with the vertical fins, which has also been quite cleverly divided.

The airflow of the first large fan goes to the slightly smaller block above the GPU heatsink, which in turn includes all five nickel-plated 6 mm copper composite heatpipes, two of which are continuous and circumferential. Below the middle and smaller fan, which rotates in the opposite direction and thus does not disturb the airflow of the two larger external fans, but rather supports them (Aorus design), lie the areas of the voltage regulators and coils, whereby the MOSFETS for VDDC and SoC are actively co-cooled via the main cooler.

To cool the memory and the voltage regulators for MVDD and VDDCI, Sapphire uses a special cooling frame with real cooling fins on the top and openings for the airflow to the circuit board. Sticky, but quite good 0.5 mm heat conduction pads are used.

The backplate only absorbs the waste heat from the voltage regulators for VDDC and SoC and is integrated into the cooling system, making it more than just an optical device. In addition, there is the backlit logo.