Sapphire RX 470 OC Graphics Card Review

A Closer Look

The Sapphire RX 470 OC opts for a cosmetically modified version of the AMD reference cooling design and utilises 4+1 power phases. In comparison, the RX 480 contains 6+1 power phases due to the higher 150W TDP. Aesthetically-speaking, the silver and black finish works pretty well and I personally prefer it to AMD’s RX 480 colour scheme. Admittedly, I’ve never been that keen on blower design coolers and the graphics card’s appearance pales in comparison to other premium efforts such as the Sapphire Nitro+ RX 480 OC. Nevertheless, the colour combination is relatively attractive and at the price point, aesthetic considerations become less of an issue.

As mentioned in the RX 480 review, this cooling solution doesn’t have any traditional heatpipes and thermal dissipation stems from a metal heatsink with a copper base. Also, there’s an assortment of thermal pads to cool the VRMs and memory chips. This configuration caused a myriad of problems when overclocking the RX 480, so I’m hoping the RX 470 fares much better.

Instead of retaining a fully exposed PCB, Sapphire have included a gorgeous backplate which prevents pressure from being applied to the card and PCI-E socket. The unusual styling is really eye-catching and a major highlight of this particular product. More specifically, the small indentations scattered around the backplate look fantastic and adds a more spectacular finish which should compliment a variety of high-end gaming systems.

Here we can see the Radeon logo is now in a silver finish, and the rubber cover has been replaced to match this theme. While it’s unusual to see an AMD GPU bereft of the iconic red and black colour scheme, it helps this model to stand out from the crowd.

Sapphire’s branding doesn’t detract from the simplistic, understated design and has been implemented in an elegant manner.

The graphics card requires a single 6-pin PCI-E connector which is positioned on the PCB’s edge. Please note, higher-end models will opt for an 8-pin connector to leverage enough power to maintain faster performance.

Please note, neither the Sapphire or Radeon logos light up which is a shame and restricts the amount of user-customisation. It’s not a shocking revelation though as the cooling hardware is engineered on a no-frills basis and RGB functionality is something usually akin to more expensive custom SKUs.

Connectivity-wise, the Sapphire RX 470 OC has three Displayport 1.4 and a single HDMI 2.0b. Sadly, there’s no dual-link DVI-D port which might be an annoyance for some users with older monitors, particularly if they intend to use a VGA to DVI adapter. On a more positive note, the rear I/O has ventilation to expel heat outside of a PC’s case which results in lower temperatures.