Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 570 4GB Graphics Card Review

Introduction Gaming on a tighter budget isn't anywhere near as hard as it used to be. With many cards now falling into the sub-£200 price bracket, you can get fantastic performance from any game at 1080p, sometimes even 1440p, without spending a small fortune. The latest cards from Sapphire look set to tick all the right boxes for affordable gaming, and the PULSE RX 570 4GB especially. Priced at just £180 the card delivers a refresh of the older RX 470 chipset, but with upgraded hardware, features, a new cooler and more to make it better value for money than ever before. "For gamers on a slightly smaller budget, the SAPPHIRE Pulse Radeon RX 570 is the card to pick for smooth 1080p gaming in high details @ 60 FPS. This model is powered by 2048 GCN stream processors that run at a 1284 MHz boost clock. The card is cooled using the quiet Dual-X two-fan solution, with an easy fan swap Quick Connect system in place as well." Sapphire are pulling out all the stops with this card, offering a robust feature set, while still keeping the card affordable. This means you'll still find their new Twin-X cooler design, which comes with quick connect fans that can easily be moved, cleaned, or even replaced should they ever fail. You get VRM cooling, black polymer caps, fuse protection, and more. As you can see, the card comes with a 14nm FinFET chipset design, featuring 2048 Stream Processors, 1284/1750 MHz clock/memory speeds and a rather fantastic looking set of features; HDR, Chill, FreeSync, etc. Packaging and Accessories A Closer Look First impressions of the card are excellent indeed. It looks very similar to the Sapphire Nitro+ graphics card, albeit with a slightly shorter design, and a few minor bits of silver trim have been removed, but otherwise, it looks just as neat and tidy as its faster and more expensive counterpart. Around the back of the card, you'll find a metal backplate which adds a lot of extra strength to the PCB, while also giving some extra cooling to the hardware, and giving it a more premium look and feel. Keeping with the "Pulse" branding, you'll find a cool heart rate monitor graphic too. The shroud stays within the two-slot boundary, so those planning to run them in Crossfire shouldn't have any issues. Tucked under the shroud, you can just about see those thick heat pipes running over a rather large base plate; this ensures that the GPU, VRM and memory are all cooled at the same time. Down the otherwise, a tasteful Sapphire logo and a bit of pinstriping, while the rear of the card features comprehensive display connections; 2 x HDMI, 2 x DP, 1 x DVI. The PULSE draws its approx 180w power requirement from a single 8-pin PCI connector, so it should be widely compatible with just about any PSU on the market. Testing & Methodology Please note that on 16/04/2017, the graphics cards featured in this review were completely retested. This was done to implement new changes in the way we test, the settings we use, the software and more. We've also made some slight hardware changes to our test benches, and all games have been recently updated, as has the OS, graphics drivers, etc. This would mean new results would not be a fair comparison to old. For your reference, the last review to feature our old results can't be found here. Here is the test system used for all graphics card reviews (pictured above) and game performance analysis: Graphics Card Test System Motherboard – Asus Rampage V Extreme X99 Processor – Intel Core i7 5960X at stock with turbo enabled RAM – Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 2666 MHz Graphics Card – Varies per review CPU Cooler – Noctua NH-D15S Power Supply – Be Quiet Power Zone 1000W Main Storage Drive – Toshiba OCZ VX500 500GB Chassis – Lian Li T80 Open Air Test Bench Operating System – Windows 10 64-bit Additional Hardware "Killawatt” style electricity usage meter wall plug Precision Gold N05CC Decibel meter Games Throughout the testing procedure, we always use demanding presets which stress graphics cards to reasonable limits. However, in the interest of fairness, any technology which favours either AMD or NVIDIA is disabled. More specifically, this refers to PhysX, Hairworks and similar technologies. Additionally, we also disable all forms of AA, including FXAA, to gauge performance levels which aren't impacted by sophisticated AA. Theoretically, we could have employed FXAA because it only has a minor impact on the frame-rate, but many users strongly dislike the hazy image this causes. N-Sync is always disabled in our testing, graphics card power usage is set to optimised or balance, system power mode is set to High Performance. Some benchmarks may feature more cards, this is due to some tests being older or newer than others, and being used in other game specific feature tests we have conducted, so you'll find all relevant cards included in each chart as we add or remove new and old tests. Selecting strenuous presets especially at higher resolutions can cause hitching and other performance problems on graphics cards with lower amounts of video memory. For example, Rise of the Tomb Raider's Very High textures requires 4GB of RAM to maintain a smooth frame-rate. In theory, we could run the benchmarks at the High setting, but this defeats the purpose of high-end graphics cards which are designed to cope with the absolute best graphics on the market. Furthermore, the notion of enthusiast cards sporting less than 4GB memory has become less of an issue. Of course, whenever we're tackling more affordable GPUs, the settings will be altered accordingly and detailed for clarity. Identical settings are used for all resolutions, 1080, 1440, 2160, and 1440 Ultrawide, unless otherwise stated. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Graphics Settings For this game, we use the Very High preset, with some small changes to increase the Texture Filtering, turn off the AA, and all V-Sync settings. Preset: Custom Fullscreen: On Exclusive Fullscreen: Off DirextX 12: On VSync: Off Anti-aliasing: Off Texture Quality: Very High Texture Filtering: 16x Anisotropic Shadow Quality: Very High Sun Soft Shadows: High Depth of Field: Very High Level of Detail: Very High Dynamic Foliage: High Ambient Occlusion: On PureHair: Off Specular Reflection Quality: Normal Vignette Blur: On Motion Blur: On Bloom: On Tesselations: On Screen Space Reflections: On Lens Flares: On Screen Effects: On Film Grain: On Rise of the Tomb Raider Graphics Settings Preset: Custom Fullscreen: On Exclusive Fullscreen: Off DirextX 12: On MSAA: Off VSync: Off Texture Quality: Very High Texture Filtering: 16x Anisotropic Shadow Quality: Very High Ambient Occlusion: Very High Contact Hardening Shadows: On Parallax Occlusion Mapping: High Depth of Field: Very High Level of Detail: Very High Volumetric Lighting: On Screenspace Reflections: On Temporal Anti-Aliasing: Disabled Motion Blur: On Sharpen: On Bloom: On Lens Flares: On Cloth Physics: On Subsurface Scattering: On Chromatic Aberration: On Tesselations: On Far Cry Primal Graphics Settings Graphics Quality: Custom HD Textures: On Textures: Very High Shadow: Ultra Post FX: High Geometry: Ultra Terrain: Very High Water: Very High Environment: High Anti-Aliasing: Off Volumetric Fog: Very High Motion Blur: On Ghost Recon: Wildlands Graphics Settings Preset: Custom Antialiasing: Off Ambient Occlusion: SSBC Draw Distance: Very High Level of Detail: Ultra Texture Quality: Ultra Anisotropic Filtering: 16 Shadow Quality: Ultra Terrain Quality: Ultra Vegetation Quality: Ultra Turf Effects: Off Motion Blur: On Iron Sights DOF: On High-Quality DOF: On Bloom: On God Raws: Enhanced Subsurface Scattering: On Lens Flare: On Long-Range Shadows: Ultra Software 3DMark Firestrike 3DMark Time Spy Unique Superposition Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Rise of the Tomb Raider Far Cry Primal Ghost Recon: Wildlands CPU-ID HWMonitor TechPowerUp GPU-Z Noise Everyone has their own reasonable noise level when it comes to comes to components on a computer. Some can handle all fans at 100% load to keep temperatures down; some want an entirely silent computer. To accurately gauge the noise output of a graphics card, we position a Precision Gold N05CC Decibel meter from one metre above our open air test bench and take an average reading at idle and load. Power Consumption With electricity becoming increasingly expensive across most parts of the world the need for computer components to become power efficient has never been more relevant. Graphics cards are often the most power-hungry components of a desktop system so having an efficient graphics card is crucial to keeping power bills under control. Power is tied to heat, so lower power consumption means a graphics card is likely to run slightly cooler and put out less heat into your system meaning your other components will run cooler with improved longevity. AMD and NVIDIA have both made power consumption an integral part of the way graphics cards dynamically overclock, so the need for graphics card vendors to use efficient VRM and PCB designs is becoming essential to maximise performance. We take power readings during idle state with no background applications running. Then again at 25%, 50%, and 99% completion of the Unigine Superposition benchmark, using the average as the final published result. Temperatures The cooling solution which graphics card vendors choose to implement is one of the main differences that consumers have to contend with when selecting a graphics cards. Apart from their acoustic properties, the thermal properties of graphics card coolers are critical. Lower temperatures are always better, and with AMD and NVIDIA opting to use dynamic overclocking algorithms that take temperature into account, it is important that graphics card vendors use high-performance cooling solutions to maximise performance. The era of graphics cards reaching critical temperatures are now in the past, but the importance of low temperatures remains. Lower temperatures mean better stability, longer component longevity and lower fan speeds. We take temperature readings after 10 minutes of desktop idle with no background programs running, then take the recorded maximum delivered from Unigine Superposition after a 4K optimised run, confirming the numbers are accurate with HWMonitor. Ambient temperature is always kept +/- 1c from 21c. 3DMark As expected, this isn't the fastest card in the world, but it's holding its own against other RX 570's, so it's right where I would expect it to be in all four 3DMark tests; all excellent scores for a card of this value too. Unigine Superposition Similar results here again, it's faster than the older RX 470, and just behind the more expensive RX 570 from Powercolor. Of course, the Sapphire Nitro+ 570 pulls nicely ahead, as it should being a higher spec model of this card. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Another good result here, just under 60fps, but we're using extremely demanding settings. Even at 1440p, this is still a good score for such high settings. Obviously, the card's not powerful enough for 4K, but it's still competing well with all the other RX 570 series cards. Rise of the Tomb Raider The RX 460 didn't do too great with Tomb Raider, but as you can see, the upgrade has paid off, as the RX 570 blasts ahead with much better frame rates at all resolutions. The card is more than powerful enough for stable frame rates at 1080 and 1440p. Far Cry Primal Again, another competitive result, the Pulse is giving performance close to that of the more expensive 570's at all resolutions, while still showing that it's faster than the older RX 470 series of cards. Ghost Recon: Wildlands Ghost Recon is savage when it comes to VRAM usage, and our high settings don't help that much either. However, the card still put out a score that came out above 30fps at 1080p, and honestly, this will be nicely around 60fps with medium to high settings. What's strange is that the RX 470 did a little better, no idea why, but it's something we've seen with the 480/580 too, and most likely is a driver issue with what is an Nvidia optimised game. Overclocking With a 50MHz boost on the GPU Boost clock and a tasty 150Mhz on the memory clock, the card comes quite close to the performance of the Nitro+ model. Of course, it's easy to see why the Nitro+ costs a little more, but the Pulse is pretty darn close to the GTX 1060 here, which is certainly respectable. Acoustic, Thermal and Power Testing Acoustic Performance So many cards have a zero RPM fan mode these days, and even the more budget focused Pulse doesn't miss out on that action. It runs completely silent up to around 60c, so you'll never hear it in day-to-day usage. Even while gaming, it is a reasonable 44 dBa, which is more than reasonable for a dual-fan graphics card. Thermal Performance Sapphire's Twin-X cooler does a fantastic job here, clocking in at just 67c, a whole 7c cooler than the Powercolor Red Devil RX 570! Power Usage The RX5xx series isn't the most efficient chipset in the world, but there are some small improvements here over the older 4xx cards, which is always welcome to see. Final Thoughts Price The Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 570 4GB Graphics Card is available for around £180, which is pretty great value for money given the general feature set on offer, and it's about £50 cheaper than the Nitro+ 8GB, while still offering comparable performance at 1080p. Overview While the RX 5xx series of cards offer very little in the way of innovation, they take an already price vs performance competitive chipset and makes it better than ever. Sure, AMD has some new hardware on the horizon, but when it comes to sub £200 thrills, the RX 5xx series is some of the best value for money around today. The new card comes running faster, cooler, and quieter than before, giving excellent gaming performance at 1080p resolutions, even with ultra settings. It'll even hold its own at 1440p, although those that want game above 1080p should look into one of the 8GB variants to meet the demands of modern games. The build quality is sublime on this card, and for what is effectively the budget model of the series, it looks strikingly similar to their premium one. You do get a slightly smaller cooler design, but it uses the same high-performance fans, which can be easily removed and cleaned, helping you keep your graphics cards in premium condition with minimal effort. There are a lot of great features on this card, which are certainly welcome additions to the sub-£200 market. These older AMD chipsets aren't known for their efficiency, but with Radeon Chill, you can drastically cut power consumption by limiting the number of frames the card renders without compromising game performance; such as limiting it to 60fps. On top of that, you'll find HDR support, and while it's unlikely you have an HDR PC monitor, if you have an HDR 4KTV you'll see the benefits by hooking up to that, especially if building an HTPC gaming system. Other displays benefit from this card too, and with support for FreeSync 2, you can get smoother gameplay on compatible monitors, the number of which are growing steadily. Pros A nice improvement on the 4xx design Powerful and quiet cooler Stylish and durable build quality Cool custom "PULSE" backplate HDR, FreeSync 2, Chill and more supported Excellent 1080p gaming performance Superb value for money Cons Efficiency could be better "The Sapphire Pulse offers exceptional 1080p gaming performance, impressive build quality, and plenty of features at an affordable price, making it a great solution for those who find the Nitro+ RX 570 a little too expensive."