Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GB Graphics Card Review

Introduction Sapphire is one of the biggest names out there when it comes to creating great AMD graphics cards. We've already taken a look at their lovely Nitro+ RX 570. Not forgetting quite a few other RX 580's and they have been impressive regarding value for mone. This is especially true for 1080p gaming, even at ultra settings. However, the new Pulse series from Sapphire promise performance close to that of their more expensive Nitro+ cards, but a more attractive price for those who may be on a slightly tighter budget. Radeon Chill, HDR, FreeSync 2 and much more! Cheaper doesn't mean missing out though, as this card comes factory overclocked, with a robust cooling solution, 8GB of memory, and a range of features such as quick connect fans, support for Radeon Chill, HDR, FreeSync 2 and much more! With 2304 Stream Processors, and a 1366 MHz Boost Clock speed, this card is no slouch, and with 8GB of 2000 MHz (8000 MHz effective) memory, it should also be pretty competent in VRAM hungry titles, possibly even at resolutions above 1080p. For added value, you only need a quick look at the "Feature" section below and you'll see that it has a lot to offer; not bad for a card that costs just £220. Packaging and Accessories A Closer Look The PULSE RX 580 is a great looking card and features the new shroud design we see on nearly all the new Sapphire RX cards. It looks pretty similar to the NITRO+ series of cards, which are the faster RX 5xx series, but the PULSE has a slightly smaller shroud and heatsink, and no silver trim running down the middle. The card features two huge fans, which can simply be lifted out, cleaned, then clipped back in with ease. The large heat sink uses four thick heat pipes, which pass through a huge contact plate to cool the GPU, VRM, and memory. At the end of the card, you'll find 2 x HDMI, 2 x DP, and 1 x DVI, as well as a few large ventilation slots to get heat out of the card. The best feature of this card, however, has to be that gorgeous backplate with the heart rate "pulse" on the back. The thick metal backplate is a nice surprise for a more affordable card like this. Finally, the Pulse RX 580 takes its power from a single 8-pin PCI connector. Testing & Methodology Please note that on 16/04/2017, that the graphics cards featured in this review had been retested. This testing 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 The Sapphire Pulse RX 580 is technically designed to be a more affordable card, but straight away it beats out the overclocked Red Devil from Power Color, making it the fastest mid-budget card before we move up to the Fury X and GTX 1070. Pushing up the resolution, the Pulse drops down a few spots as the GTX 1060 and Red Devil pull ahead, but again all the cards in the mid-range score quite closely to each other. Time spy didn't change the lead much either, although the scores are still extremely close even between the GTX 1060 and the RX 580's. Unigine Superposition The Red Devil is slightly in the lead, but the more affordable Pulse RX 580 is breathing right down its neck at 1080p Extreme, and again at 2160p; very impressive! Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Clearly, the 8GB of VRAM is a big advantage here, with the Pulse RX 580 leading the mid-budget cards, even beating out the more expensive GTX 1060, and the new 9Gbps GTX 1060 from ASUS! The lead is only small, but the 580's are still pulling ahead, although the slightly faster Red Devil takes the lead, but only by 0.1fps. Again, just 0.1 difference between the more expensive Red Devil and the Pulse RX 580, although the GTX 1060 is neck and neck at 18.6. Again, competitive results from all the cards here, all are just under 30fps. Rise of the Tomb Raider The 580 is just behind the GTX 1060 at all four resolutions in Tomb Raider but has a much higher minimum frame rate in all tests too, no doubt thanks to the extra VRAM. Far Cry Primal Far Cry prefers Nvidia graphics cards, and the GTX 1060 ploughs ahead at 1080 and 1440p, although not to take too much credit away from the RX 580, which still put out excellent frame rates too. Identical performance between the RX 580 and the GTX 1060! Ghost Recon: Wildlands AMD cards just do not work well with this game, something we hope to see fixed in driver updates. The older generation of RX 4xx cards tends to do better than the 5xx cards in this game, very strange. However, the Pulse still did fairly well, bu this game is certainly better suited to Nvidia cards until these issues get resolved. Overclocking Using MSI Afterburner for a simple overclocked, I managed to add another 50Mhz to the Boost Clock and a more impressive 150 MHz to the memory clock of the Pulse RX 580. However, this was enough to take its score from 2524 to 2605. That's a modest improvement of 3.15%, and while it would have been nice to get at least 5%, it's not bad for the budget card of the series which comes with a slightly smaller cooler. Acoustic, Thermal and Power Testing Acoustic Performance The Zero RPM fan mode mean that this card, like many others on our charts, was able to run completely silent. The card runs silent, and when the temperatures hit 60c or above, the dual fans will spin up. However, even then it was remarkable quiet at just 41dBa. This makes it one of the quieter cards we've ever tested. Thermal Performance As you can see, the slightly smaller cooler does mean the card runs a bit warm. However, it's well within safe limits. Of course, the card is quiet enough that I would be comfortable applying a slightly more aggressive fan curve to balance the acoustics and thermals a bit better, especially if you're overclocking the card. Power Usage The 4xx series of cards weren't exactly efficient, and the 5xx is a tuned up and overclocked version of that chipset, so the efficiency doesn't look great. However, it's not all terrible, although we won't see improvements until AMD release a new chipset architecture. Final Thoughts Price The Sapphire Pulse RX 580 8GB Graphics Card is available now for a very reasonable £240, and the price range for the RX 580 8GB cards is around £230 to £320, so I would say this is pretty incredible value for money. Furthermore, it's also about £30-40 cheaper than Sapphires Nitro+ RX 580 8GB, which is the slightly bigger and better-overclocked version of the Pulse. Overview The Sapphire Pulse RX 580 is one of the best RX 5xx cards we've tested to date. Yes, I have tested some that are faster and more expensive, but the fact that the latest Sapphire card comes with performance figures that so closely matches that of rival brands, and even manages to mix it up with the slightly more expensive Nvidia GTX 1060 is certainly impressive. Which is better bang for your buck between the red and green team is always something up for debate, but at just a little over £200, both companies are offering strong products right now. However, what can tip the balance in the cards favour is that it does have an impressive set of features. The first is that this card offers more VRAM than the GTX 1060, clocking in with 8GB vs 6GB. Sapphire also have that sleek-looking cooler, which comes with removable quick-release fans, which are perfect for maintaining your card. Gaming at Ultra settings at 1080p resolution has never been so easy! This card can indeed deliver some rock solid frame rates. The decent clock speeds and plentiful VRAM also mean it's no slouch when it comes to 1440p and Ultrawide gaming, although you'll want to wind back some of the graphical settings from Ultra to do so. Of course, that's to be expected at this price range. Finally, we have added value from Radeon Chill, HDR video support, ReLive, FreeSync 2, a good amount of display connections, removable fans, and more. That certainly helps make this an attractive package. However, the only thing we would love to see improved is the efficiency. Of course, it's hardly a deal breaker right now, but it is something we expect will improve with the Vega chipsets. Pros Ideal for 1080/1440p gaming Very competitive performance Quiet fans with zero RPM mode Quick release fans Supports latest Radeon features; HDR, FreeSync 2, Chill and more Very competitive price 8GB of VRAM Nice design and unique backplate Cons Efficiency "The Sapphire Pulse RX 580 is one of the best mid-budget cards we've ever tested, while also looking great and delivering excellent frame rates. Most of all, it does it all at a price that is kind to your wallet. Overall, we highly recommend it to anyone looking to spark new life into an older gaming system."