I recently got the chance to run XFX RX 480 GTR Black 8GB and the Nitro RX 470 8GB in the same machine. I am keeping RX 470 and here are few observations.
First of all the, the PC serves gaming HTPC duties and has a Sandy Bridge i5 2500k with 16GB RAM in a Silverstone GD04B case. Noise and power consumption are both quite important factors, and so is the card dimension since GD04B is an HTPC case. I had custom 7950 running there (and before that, 6950) and both were a tight fit, dumping lot of heat in the box and surroundings.
I first got the XFX card, which comes out to about $275 thanks to $30 jet.com coupon. The card is about 11" long, and is slightly taller than custom 7950s like MSI Twin Frozr or Sapphire Dual X. The power connector is at the top, and was pretty much squished by the top lid of the case. Also the heat sink has a curve at the edge, and the top edge was just at the case's edge, and required some downward force to close the lid. It was an extremely tight fit.
Firestrike graphical scores were
1) 13500 - Stock settings (1340MHz core/8000 MHz mem) 1150mV core and 1000 mV mem
2) 13150 - Underclocked and undervolted (1300MHz core / 8000MHz mem) 1080 mV GPU, and 1000 mV mem
3) 13350 - Same GPU clocks and volts (1300 MHz, 1080 mV), but overclocked and undervolted memory (8200MHz, 950 mV)
I also modified the temperature targets (moving them higher from 70°C to 75°C), and reduced fan speed.
With these changes the PC case was a bit hot to touch, but still much less than what it would be with 6950 or 7950.
I returned this card.
Pros:
+ Decent cooler keeping temperatures under control (within 60-75°C)
+ Fans stop at idle and light loads.
+ Comes factory overclocked to 1340 MHz
+ Great performance
+ Detachable fans
+ 3 yr warranty + 2 extra years on fans
Cons
- Fans had a tonal noise of varying amplitude at higher than 2200 RPM. It was quite annoying especially for an HTPC. Perhaps the only reason I decided to return the card.
- Price at $280-300 is a bit high for what else is out there. I wouldn't have bought it without the jet.com coupon.
- At stock settings (which are way overclocked) was dumping more heat out that I expected.
Let's move on to RX 470 now. The card is 8/9 th of RX 480 in terms of shaders and texture units, while the memory interface width and ROPs are same. At first glance it looked like a decent GPU to try out. RX 480 tests had shown that Polaris GPUs gained a lot from memory overclocking. Almost all RX 480 8GB cards have 8000MHz memory, which can be overclocked a bit too.
All RX 470s whether 4GB or 8GB, come with 6600-6700MHz memory - all except one, which is the Sapphire Nitro RX 470 8GB. I found it again through the $30 coupon, for about $210, and decided to give it a try. With the same memory interface and speed as an RX 480, the only difference was the 11% fewer shader cores, and texture units, which I expected to affect the performance by 3-5% in most cases.
Nitro RX 470 box itself is way smaller and lighter compared to XFX RX 480 one. Sapphire didn't include any power cable adapters in the box. However the card itself is quite impressive in build quality. The back plate gives the card a solid feel, and the heat sink looks more than decent.
Beware though, that the card is quite tall. To account for that Sapphire have moved the power connector to the side, instead of at the top. At less than 9 and half-inch long, this gives you some room to attach the power connector at the front even with tighter space requirements. The card was actually so tall, that it hit the center metal strip on GD04B case, which holds the optical drive. No amount of tweaking could make the GD04B lid close. In the end I took out the card's backplate, which gave me just enough room (height wise) to fit the card in that case.
The card being shorter than XFX RX 480 GTR, gives more space for air to circulate, and while losing the backplace adds a bit of a wobble to the cooler attached to the front (backplate is fastened through the same long screws which hold the cooler shroud) the cooler still served admirably during load situations. I left the spring wound screws back in to hold the cooler shroud and they now kind of stick out from the back because of the absence of back plate.
Here's the performance numbers for Firestrike graphical score:
1) 11900 - Stock settings - 1260MHz core/8000MHz mem (1156mV core, 1000mV mem)
2) 13000 - 1330 MHz core / 8000 MHz mem (1090mV core, 1000 mV mem), +15% power target
3) 12950 - 1320 MHz core / 8400 MHz mem (1070mV core, 950 mV mem) +15% power target
This third setting is the one I'll be persisting with for now. It's within 3% of the best result I got from RX 480. Temperatures were under control (68-76°C) at load, and keep in mind the cramped HTPC case that I have, and noise is not noticeable. Case was only a bit warm to touch. It definitely was dissipating far less heat than RX 480, and orders of magnitude less than 7950s or 6950, while performing at a completely different level.
I'll be keeping this card.
Pros
+ Lower price than custom RX 480 8GBs. In my case $60 cheaper than XFX RX 480 GTR Black
+ Memory speed same as RX 480 8GBs.
+ Awesome cooler. Shuts down at idle, and no noise at higher RPMs.
+ Much less heat dissipation
+ Within 3% of the highest factory overclocked RX480, once the clocks and voltages are tweaked without obliterating the power or noise properties.
+ Potentially a very good overclocker. The card comes overclocked already at 1260MHz, and hitting 1340 MHz is no big deal. I only stopped because I wanted less voltage and less heat and noise. Still 1320 MHz is pretty good.
+ Detachable fans.
Cons
- Still expensive, without the $30 off coupon.
- Card is too tall, and may not fit some smaller cases.
- Stock BIOS limits memory overclocks to only 8400 MHz. I can get this rate while undervolting the memory, so there must be more room to play with here.
Hope this helps someone trying to decide between the two GPUs. Now admittedly, Nitro RX 470 8GB is easily the best 470 out there, because of its 25% faster memory at stock, then other 470s, but I'd think in real world gaming scenarios, any 470 would do more than fine.
[4GB version of Nitro RX 470 has the standard 6600MHz RAM]
First of all the, the PC serves gaming HTPC duties and has a Sandy Bridge i5 2500k with 16GB RAM in a Silverstone GD04B case. Noise and power consumption are both quite important factors, and so is the card dimension since GD04B is an HTPC case. I had custom 7950 running there (and before that, 6950) and both were a tight fit, dumping lot of heat in the box and surroundings.
I first got the XFX card, which comes out to about $275 thanks to $30 jet.com coupon. The card is about 11" long, and is slightly taller than custom 7950s like MSI Twin Frozr or Sapphire Dual X. The power connector is at the top, and was pretty much squished by the top lid of the case. Also the heat sink has a curve at the edge, and the top edge was just at the case's edge, and required some downward force to close the lid. It was an extremely tight fit.
Firestrike graphical scores were
1) 13500 - Stock settings (1340MHz core/8000 MHz mem) 1150mV core and 1000 mV mem
2) 13150 - Underclocked and undervolted (1300MHz core / 8000MHz mem) 1080 mV GPU, and 1000 mV mem
3) 13350 - Same GPU clocks and volts (1300 MHz, 1080 mV), but overclocked and undervolted memory (8200MHz, 950 mV)
I also modified the temperature targets (moving them higher from 70°C to 75°C), and reduced fan speed.
With these changes the PC case was a bit hot to touch, but still much less than what it would be with 6950 or 7950.
I returned this card.
Pros:
+ Decent cooler keeping temperatures under control (within 60-75°C)
+ Fans stop at idle and light loads.
+ Comes factory overclocked to 1340 MHz
+ Great performance
+ Detachable fans
+ 3 yr warranty + 2 extra years on fans
Cons
- Fans had a tonal noise of varying amplitude at higher than 2200 RPM. It was quite annoying especially for an HTPC. Perhaps the only reason I decided to return the card.
- Price at $280-300 is a bit high for what else is out there. I wouldn't have bought it without the jet.com coupon.
- At stock settings (which are way overclocked) was dumping more heat out that I expected.
Let's move on to RX 470 now. The card is 8/9 th of RX 480 in terms of shaders and texture units, while the memory interface width and ROPs are same. At first glance it looked like a decent GPU to try out. RX 480 tests had shown that Polaris GPUs gained a lot from memory overclocking. Almost all RX 480 8GB cards have 8000MHz memory, which can be overclocked a bit too.
All RX 470s whether 4GB or 8GB, come with 6600-6700MHz memory - all except one, which is the Sapphire Nitro RX 470 8GB. I found it again through the $30 coupon, for about $210, and decided to give it a try. With the same memory interface and speed as an RX 480, the only difference was the 11% fewer shader cores, and texture units, which I expected to affect the performance by 3-5% in most cases.
Nitro RX 470 box itself is way smaller and lighter compared to XFX RX 480 one. Sapphire didn't include any power cable adapters in the box. However the card itself is quite impressive in build quality. The back plate gives the card a solid feel, and the heat sink looks more than decent.
Beware though, that the card is quite tall. To account for that Sapphire have moved the power connector to the side, instead of at the top. At less than 9 and half-inch long, this gives you some room to attach the power connector at the front even with tighter space requirements. The card was actually so tall, that it hit the center metal strip on GD04B case, which holds the optical drive. No amount of tweaking could make the GD04B lid close. In the end I took out the card's backplate, which gave me just enough room (height wise) to fit the card in that case.
The card being shorter than XFX RX 480 GTR, gives more space for air to circulate, and while losing the backplace adds a bit of a wobble to the cooler attached to the front (backplate is fastened through the same long screws which hold the cooler shroud) the cooler still served admirably during load situations. I left the spring wound screws back in to hold the cooler shroud and they now kind of stick out from the back because of the absence of back plate.
Here's the performance numbers for Firestrike graphical score:
1) 11900 - Stock settings - 1260MHz core/8000MHz mem (1156mV core, 1000mV mem)
2) 13000 - 1330 MHz core / 8000 MHz mem (1090mV core, 1000 mV mem), +15% power target
3) 12950 - 1320 MHz core / 8400 MHz mem (1070mV core, 950 mV mem) +15% power target
This third setting is the one I'll be persisting with for now. It's within 3% of the best result I got from RX 480. Temperatures were under control (68-76°C) at load, and keep in mind the cramped HTPC case that I have, and noise is not noticeable. Case was only a bit warm to touch. It definitely was dissipating far less heat than RX 480, and orders of magnitude less than 7950s or 6950, while performing at a completely different level.
I'll be keeping this card.
Pros
+ Lower price than custom RX 480 8GBs. In my case $60 cheaper than XFX RX 480 GTR Black
+ Memory speed same as RX 480 8GBs.
+ Awesome cooler. Shuts down at idle, and no noise at higher RPMs.
+ Much less heat dissipation
+ Within 3% of the highest factory overclocked RX480, once the clocks and voltages are tweaked without obliterating the power or noise properties.
+ Potentially a very good overclocker. The card comes overclocked already at 1260MHz, and hitting 1340 MHz is no big deal. I only stopped because I wanted less voltage and less heat and noise. Still 1320 MHz is pretty good.
+ Detachable fans.
Cons
- Still expensive, without the $30 off coupon.
- Card is too tall, and may not fit some smaller cases.
- Stock BIOS limits memory overclocks to only 8400 MHz. I can get this rate while undervolting the memory, so there must be more room to play with here.
Hope this helps someone trying to decide between the two GPUs. Now admittedly, Nitro RX 470 8GB is easily the best 470 out there, because of its 25% faster memory at stock, then other 470s, but I'd think in real world gaming scenarios, any 470 would do more than fine.
[4GB version of Nitro RX 470 has the standard 6600MHz RAM]
