Custom PC - UK (2020-02)

S

apphire’sRadeonRX 5700 XTNitro+is what

happenswhenyoutellyourcomponent

designersthattheyreallycan’thavetoomuch

blingona graphicscard.NotonlyhasSapphireremovedthe

horriblereferenceblowercoolerfromthiscard,butit’salso

fitteda customcoolerthatlookslikeit came

froma cyberpunkfuture.

Ourfavouritepartis theARGBlighting

diffuseralongthetopedge.Assuming

you’renotusinga verticalPCI-Eriser,this

partwillbeondisplaythroughyourcase

window.It hasseveralRGBLEDsbehind

it, andcreatesa smootheffectwherethe

coloursrunintooneanother.Youcanset

thelightingsoftwaretoruna chasereffect

acrossthediffuserontheedge,through

theSapphirelogojustbelowit andthen

backthroughthebackplatetolightupthe

‘SapphireNitro’logo.It makestheredlightat

thefrontofKITTlookpositivelypedestrian.

Thechunkymetalbackplatesoaksup

heatfromtherearofthePCB,witha big

holeinthefrontofit toletthelargestack

ofheatsinkfinsbreathe.It’sassistedby

fivechunkyheatpipesandthree(easily

replaceable)fans– thetwoontheleftand

rightspinanti-clockwise,whilea slightly

smallerfaninthemiddlerunsclockwise.

It’sanarrangementthatSapphiresays

SAPPHIRERADEONRX

5700 XTNITRO+/ £399incVAT

SUPPLIER scan.co.uk

GRAPHICS CARD

ensures optimal airflow over the heatsink fin assembly.

The fans don’t spin up when you’re not gaming either.

However, with a length of 306mm (and a 2.5-slot width),

this card is over a foot long – think about that in terms of a

Subway sandwich and you get the idea. You’ll need enough

room in your case to accommodate this monster, and to

provide enough airflow for its cooling arrangement.

It’s based on AMD’s Radeon RX 5700 XT with 2,560

stream processors, but Sapphire has also taken advantage

of its cooling prowess to boost the specs. The Nitro+ has a

1770MHz base clock, a 1905MHz game clock and a 2010MHz

maximum boost clock, although it leaves the 8GB of GDDR6

memory at the stock frequency of 14GHz (effective).

That’s a substantial increase over AMD’s reference

specs of a 1605MHz base clock, 1755MHz game

clock and 1905MHz max boost clock. Accordingly, the

Nitro+ also ups the power spec, with two 8-pin power

connectors on the top edge, rather than the one 8-pin

and one 6-pin arrangement on the reference cards.

Performance

That extra clock speed stands the Sapphire Nitro+ in good

stead, putting its minimums 4-5fps ahead of the reference

card in Total War: Warhammer II at both 1080p and 2,560 x

1,440, and in Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1080p.

Significantly, that extra clock speed boost brings the

Sapphire Nitro+’s performance much closer to that of the

Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super than the original reference

card. That’s important when the Nitro+ costs £399 from

REVIEWS / GRAPHICS CARD

SPEC

Graphics processor

AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, 1770MHz

base clock, 1905MHz game clock,

2010MHz max boost clock

Pipeline

40 compute units, 2,560 stream

processors, 64 ROPs

Memory

8GB GDDR6, 14GHz effective

Memory interface

256-bit

Bandwidth

448GB/sec

Interface

16x PCI-E 4

Outputs/inputs

2 x DisplayPort 1.4, 2 x HDMI 2b

Cooler

Three fans, 2.5-slot

Power connections

2 x 8-pin

Card width

306mm

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