Sapphire RX 5700 XT Nitro+ Review: In-Depth Thermals, Noise, Overclocking, & Power
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Date: 2020-05-06
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Comments and reviews: 10
Artcore103
Late comment obviously, and I got this card for 429 instead of 439, and of course there are other 5700xt's that can be had for slightly less depending on the day and model, but here's one actually very good and important reason to get an AMD card such as this over an nVidia card, even if you found a great deal on an nVidia card and the price/perf was equal or better (which is rare, or even if you were willing to stretch your budget for an nVidia card: here's why one WOULDN'T do that, and instead stick with an AMD card. TV gamers. I think there are a lot of TV/couch gamers, I'm one of them. There are lots of great affordable TV's for gaming these days, with low input lag, and a dozen or more TV's that can take and run a native 120hz input at up to 1440p (still 60hz 4k until we get hdmi 2. 1, or if you get some crazy TV that takes display port. Some of these TV's, like my Samsung 2019 Q70 along with at least 4 other Samsung models, and a few from other brands, support variable refresh rate / Freesync. ONLY AMD CARDS can utilize VRR/Freesync over HDMI with these TV's. Whether or not nVidia is simply holding back this ability and could unlock it with a driver update I do not know. But for me, as a TV gamer wanting to take full advantage of the q70 and get 120hz and freesync, AMD is THE ONLY OPTION PERIOD. That's a big win!
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Late comment obviously, and I got this card for 429 instead of 439, and of course there are other 5700xt's that can be had for slightly less depending on the day and model, but here's one actually very good and important reason to get an AMD card such as this over an nVidia card, even if you found a great deal on an nVidia card and the price/perf was equal or better (which is rare, or even if you were willing to stretch your budget for an nVidia card: here's why one WOULDN'T do that, and instead stick with an AMD card. TV gamers. I think there are a lot of TV/couch gamers, I'm one of them. There are lots of great affordable TV's for gaming these days, with low input lag, and a dozen or more TV's that can take and run a native 120hz input at up to 1440p (still 60hz 4k until we get hdmi 2. 1, or if you get some crazy TV that takes display port. Some of these TV's, like my Samsung 2019 Q70 along with at least 4 other Samsung models, and a few from other brands, support variable refresh rate / Freesync. ONLY AMD CARDS can utilize VRR/Freesync over HDMI with these TV's. Whether or not nVidia is simply holding back this ability and could unlock it with a driver update I do not know. But for me, as a TV gamer wanting to take full advantage of the q70 and get 120hz and freesync, AMD is THE ONLY OPTION PERIOD. That's a big win!
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Mike
I've re-watched this video for who knows how many times, and no matter how much I want to justify something like an EVGA 2070 Super FTW3 or XC card, I just can't over this Sapphire card or the Asus Strix 5700 XT OC Edition. Plus, there is the SE edition of the Nitro+ that is clocked slightly higher even. I know these are reaching the 500 USD price range, but the 2070 Super cards that I would consider are at least 100 more, if they are even in stock. The EVGA 2070 Super Black edition is even around 20 higher. I look at a GPU as an investment. I don't swap them with every new generation, so I'm willing to spend more now. Bang per buck, it just seems that the higher tier 5700 XT cards that are on my radar provide more long term value. The major thing people may question is about RTX. I don't game. Enough said. As useless as it is at this point and probably will be for a very long time, I'd get more use out of the PCI-E Gen 4 capability on my current Crosshair VIII Hero that's paired with a R7 3700X. So yeah, neither feature carries much weight in my scenario.
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I've re-watched this video for who knows how many times, and no matter how much I want to justify something like an EVGA 2070 Super FTW3 or XC card, I just can't over this Sapphire card or the Asus Strix 5700 XT OC Edition. Plus, there is the SE edition of the Nitro+ that is clocked slightly higher even. I know these are reaching the 500 USD price range, but the 2070 Super cards that I would consider are at least 100 more, if they are even in stock. The EVGA 2070 Super Black edition is even around 20 higher. I look at a GPU as an investment. I don't swap them with every new generation, so I'm willing to spend more now. Bang per buck, it just seems that the higher tier 5700 XT cards that are on my radar provide more long term value. The major thing people may question is about RTX. I don't game. Enough said. As useless as it is at this point and probably will be for a very long time, I'd get more use out of the PCI-E Gen 4 capability on my current Crosshair VIII Hero that's paired with a R7 3700X. So yeah, neither feature carries much weight in my scenario.
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Joshua
I find it amusing that people are wanting to buy these things for competitive overclocking. There is no competitive overclocking scene. Der8auer, Kingpin, and the other professional extreme overclockers are going to take over any record you could even look at before you could look at it. Yeah, it's fun to see what you can get out of your hardware. I should know, I thoroughly enjoy pushing my equipment to its absolute limit. FX4100 to 4. 5GHz 1. 35v on air, but it degraded on me to 4. 4 or to bump voltage, and I've tinkered with GPU overclocks on almost every video card I've owned that didn't have a thermal situation due to my case. (I'm upgrading my case to solve a thermal situation) But the competitive scene is dead and over.
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I find it amusing that people are wanting to buy these things for competitive overclocking. There is no competitive overclocking scene. Der8auer, Kingpin, and the other professional extreme overclockers are going to take over any record you could even look at before you could look at it. Yeah, it's fun to see what you can get out of your hardware. I should know, I thoroughly enjoy pushing my equipment to its absolute limit. FX4100 to 4. 5GHz 1. 35v on air, but it degraded on me to 4. 4 or to bump voltage, and I've tinkered with GPU overclocks on almost every video card I've owned that didn't have a thermal situation due to my case. (I'm upgrading my case to solve a thermal situation) But the competitive scene is dead and over.
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Braiteyy
I always told everyone, If you want AMD card and you have some extra money, go for Sapphire, you will not be disappointed, I guess this is a proof. I currently own 2 Sapphire cards. RX 550 4GB Pulse in my parents PC and RX 580 8GB Nitro+ Special Edition in my main PC. These cards are insane. The overclocking headroom is big and those coolers are very good. My RX 580 undervolted is stable at 1570Mhz core and 2250Mhz Memory. Never goes above 62C. RX 550 is overclocked too. I don't remember those clocks but I gained more than 12% increase of FPS in most of the games. It was running little hot but after changing thermal paste, never goes above 65C. Next card is gonna be Sapphire again, hopefully.
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I always told everyone, If you want AMD card and you have some extra money, go for Sapphire, you will not be disappointed, I guess this is a proof. I currently own 2 Sapphire cards. RX 550 4GB Pulse in my parents PC and RX 580 8GB Nitro+ Special Edition in my main PC. These cards are insane. The overclocking headroom is big and those coolers are very good. My RX 580 undervolted is stable at 1570Mhz core and 2250Mhz Memory. Never goes above 62C. RX 550 is overclocked too. I don't remember those clocks but I gained more than 12% increase of FPS in most of the games. It was running little hot but after changing thermal paste, never goes above 65C. Next card is gonna be Sapphire again, hopefully.
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Arthur
I couldn't quite understand - by how much is the Nitro+ better than the Pulse? It consumes more power, produces less heat, is less noisy and provides (slightly) better FPS. I can see all the numbers but I can't figure out how much difference do they make. Is 15 degrees heat critical? Is the difference in the noise it produces that noticeable? No OC intended. Playing on FHD 24 monitor. I don't mind some noise but I don't like a spaceship. Heat is important to me but I have Meshify C case with 2 extra Noctua 140mm fans so I think I'm good
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I couldn't quite understand - by how much is the Nitro+ better than the Pulse? It consumes more power, produces less heat, is less noisy and provides (slightly) better FPS. I can see all the numbers but I can't figure out how much difference do they make. Is 15 degrees heat critical? Is the difference in the noise it produces that noticeable? No OC intended. Playing on FHD 24 monitor. I don't mind some noise but I don't like a spaceship. Heat is important to me but I have Meshify C case with 2 extra Noctua 140mm fans so I think I'm good
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ImaITman
Steve one thing you didn't mention in this that really needs to be mentioned in this market space is consumer morality. In other words how do consumers perceive the company. It matters in all markets, but in the tech giants market it matters more. We see it in gaming, and we definitely see it between Nvidia, Intel, and AMD. Objectivity is necessary, however objectivity also leads to honesty. Honesty in my opinion leads to revealing how Nvidia has been treating it's consumer base because of its market dominance for years.
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Steve one thing you didn't mention in this that really needs to be mentioned in this market space is consumer morality. In other words how do consumers perceive the company. It matters in all markets, but in the tech giants market it matters more. We see it in gaming, and we definitely see it between Nvidia, Intel, and AMD. Objectivity is necessary, however objectivity also leads to honesty. Honesty in my opinion leads to revealing how Nvidia has been treating it's consumer base because of its market dominance for years.
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SinusTikToks
Doesn't seem like Sapphire does any particular binning for the Nitro+. I got unlucky with my own model and though I can run 965mhz mem (1930mhz effective) I could not reach those core frequencies without serious instability and run at 1950mhz peak ( 1900mhz game clock) at 1. 1v on my dual monitor setup (a 200hz Freesync 2560 1080 panel and a 60hz 1920 1080 panel) which is pretty terrible. At least the cooler is awesome, though I might still consider liquid cooling mine to see if overclocking improves.
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Doesn't seem like Sapphire does any particular binning for the Nitro+. I got unlucky with my own model and though I can run 965mhz mem (1930mhz effective) I could not reach those core frequencies without serious instability and run at 1950mhz peak ( 1900mhz game clock) at 1. 1v on my dual monitor setup (a 200hz Freesync 2560 1080 panel and a 60hz 1920 1080 panel) which is pretty terrible. At least the cooler is awesome, though I might still consider liquid cooling mine to see if overclocking improves.
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Delta9K
Thanks for the review. I have a reference XT already been waiting pick up an AIB model to add to the collection - this is the card I'm going to pop on. I actually like that it has a main, backup and a still a third bios to use with their software suite. Not that I would but heck yeah, its there if you do. The thermals and the noise also very nice. That separate cooler plate/fin stack just for the GDDR6 - nice touch same with user replaceable fans, nice. And It looks good too. Take my money Saphire.
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Thanks for the review. I have a reference XT already been waiting pick up an AIB model to add to the collection - this is the card I'm going to pop on. I actually like that it has a main, backup and a still a third bios to use with their software suite. Not that I would but heck yeah, its there if you do. The thermals and the noise also very nice. That separate cooler plate/fin stack just for the GDDR6 - nice touch same with user replaceable fans, nice. And It looks good too. Take my money Saphire.
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Bensam123
Please break down the cards as well. This seems to be overlooked now days (amount of heat pipes, contact, VRM cooling, in addition to figuring out whether or not the fans are ball, sleeve, or something else. That very much determines how long the fans on the card will last. Gigabyte and Asus have notoriously bad fans and they eventually cease. Save. 1 on fans hoping no one will notice or by the time they go bad no one will care. Sleeves are terrible.
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Please break down the cards as well. This seems to be overlooked now days (amount of heat pipes, contact, VRM cooling, in addition to figuring out whether or not the fans are ball, sleeve, or something else. That very much determines how long the fans on the card will last. Gigabyte and Asus have notoriously bad fans and they eventually cease. Save. 1 on fans hoping no one will notice or by the time they go bad no one will care. Sleeves are terrible.
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User
Would you rather buy this card for x dollars or spend a few more for the better teir? I guess I'll go fo the better teir. Ok ok ok so now that you have decided on this card wouldnt you rather spend a few more dollars on a more quiet version? Um. Ok sure. But wait wait if you go for this one the super version is just a few dollars more. .sure I mean since you spent this much you might as well should have just bought this. .
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Would you rather buy this card for x dollars or spend a few more for the better teir? I guess I'll go fo the better teir. Ok ok ok so now that you have decided on this card wouldnt you rather spend a few more dollars on a more quiet version? Um. Ok sure. But wait wait if you go for this one the super version is just a few dollars more. .sure I mean since you spent this much you might as well should have just bought this. .
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