Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 video card test. Easy Polaris upgrade

 

It seems that the practice of re-releasing existing graphics adapters with minor changes that are given a new name has become a favorite of AMD.

 

A couple of years ago, the series AMD Radeon 2xx has been “rebranded” as AMD Radeon 3xx. Today we again see a similar picture.

 

The new AMD Radeon RX 5XX series video cards are only slightly upgraded models of the previous RX 4XX series based on Polaris GPUs.

 

Functionally (hardware video decoding and transcoding capabilities, proprietary technologies, supported APIs, interfaces, etc.) the RX 5XX and RX 4XX solutions are identical.

 

The manufacturer (AMD) announces the use of an optimized 14 nm FinFET process technology in the fifth series. As a result, one can observe a slight increase in frequencies and, oddly enough, an increase in power consumption in comparable pairs of video cards of two generations.

 

FeaturesSapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GD5

 

We received a Sapphire version of a video card based on AMD Radeon RX 580 for review.

 

The Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GD5 model has a design that is quite traditional for this vendor. In the hierarchy of Sapphire graphics cards, the Pulse series is below the NITRO+ models. If we talk about solutions based on the RX 580, the main differences between the Sapphire Pulse and Sapphire NITRO+ graphics adapters are slightly more modest frequencies and a single rather than double BIOS.

 

 

By the way, this Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GD5 has a slight factory overclock. The boost frequency has been increased from the standard 1340 to 1366 MHz. The memory frequency corresponds to the reference one and is 8000 MHz.

 

 

 

The Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GD5 video card received a powerful proprietary cooling system with a series of heat pipes and two fans.

 

Please note that the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GD5 is relatively compact, but its power consumption and, accordingly, heat dissipation are at a very serious level. How effective was the cooling?

 

 

In our conditions, under high load, the GPU temperature stabilized at approximately 74 °C. The fans, at the same time, rotated at a speed of 1700 rpm.

 

This is a completely acceptable mode both in terms of temperature and noise level.

 

 

But, if, for example, we compare it with dual-fan video cards based on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, which are direct competitors of the RX 580, then the Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GD5 does not look so impressive in terms of cooling.

 

The GPU temperature in dual-fan GTX 1060 is usually below 70, and fan speeds are about 1000 – 1300 rpm.

 

 

 

When there is no load, the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GD5 fans stop completely. This is a standard solution for many modern video cards.

 

Judging by observations, the fans are turned off according to the readings of a special sensor (or sensors) located on the board, and not according to the GPU temperature value.

 

 

Performance and power consumption

 

To compare the performance of the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GD5, we chose one of the video cards based on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 with 6 GB of video memory from our comparison test.

 

Please note that we are not comparing the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GD5 with the reference GTX 1060, but with a model from the vendor, which has a slight factory overclock. Firstly, the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GD5 itself is slightly overclocked at the factory, and secondly, most GTX 1060 video cards on sale have non-standard (increased) frequencies, and reference options are quite rare.

 

For testing in games, Full HD resolution (1920×1080 pixels) was used. In our opinion, this is the resolution that is most optimally suited for a video card of this class today.

 

Test platform configuration:

• Processor: Intel Core i7-3770K, overclocked to 4.2 MHz
• Motherboard: Biostar Hi-Fi Z77X
• RAM capacity: 4×2 GB DDR3 1600
• Storage: SSD Adata S511 120 GB (system), HDD 1 TB
• Operating system: Windows 10 64 bit
• Drivers for video cards based on AMD Radeon RX 580: Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.6.2
• Drivers for video cards based on NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1060: GeForce 375.70

 

Test results:

 

 

 

In general, the RX 580 and GTX 1060 video cards are quite worthy of each other in terms of performance.

 

But according to our measurements, the advantage in most tests was still with the model based on the GTX 1060. In those tests where the RX 580 graphics adapter is faster, it was ahead of its opponent by a few percent. At the same time, there were situations, for example in the game GTA V, when the RX 580 was quite noticeably inferior to the GTX 1060 model.

 

I would also like to draw your attention to some observations. Reviewing several tests comparing the RX 580 and GTX 1060 online, I noticed that the RX 580, in terms of performance, often looked slightly better than ours.

 

Probably, our current set of tests was not the best suited for a video card based on the AMD Radeon RX 580. I assume that in the latest demanding games, including DirectX 12, and when using higher resolutions, the Radeon RX 580 will look even more competitive.

 

 

 

ЕIf we talk about power consumption and heat dissipation, in recent years NVIDIA video cards have traditionally turned out to be more economical than their classmates from AMD.

 

This is clearly visible in the example of the AMD Radeon RX 580. For its level of performance, the RX 580 represented by the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GD5 consumes quite a lot.

 

A system (computer without a monitor) with a Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GD5, according to measurements, consumes about the same amount of electricity as a system with a much more powerful video card based on GTX 1080. And when using a GTX 1060 video card, the value was less by about a third!

 

It’s a pity that the increase in frequencies in the RX 580 video cards could not be achieved without increasing, by the way, the already considerable power consumption.

 

Conclusions

 

With the transition from AMD Radeon RX 480 to RX 580, the speed has increased slightly and the competition in the mid-class video card segment has become even more interesting. Models based on the RX 580, in terms of performance, are good competitors to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 solutions, while being much inferior to them in terms of power consumption.

 

If we don’t particularly find fault with the Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GD5, we have no complaints. The video card did not cause any problems in operation; the proprietary cooling system adequately copes with the removal of a considerable amount of heat from this model.

 

The Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GD5 is a good solution based on the RX 580. A second BIOS would be useful for experimenting with overclocking, but this feature can be found in the more advanced Sapphire NITRO+ series.

 

As for the price, it is now greatly inflated compared to the recommended level set by the manufacturer, and it is determined not by FPS values in games, but by the cost of cryptocurrencies and mining hashrate.

 

CharacteristicsSapphire Pulse Radeon RX 580 8GD5

Model	AMD Radeon RX 580
Interface	PCI Express 3.0 x16
GPU	Polaris 20 XTX
Technical process	14 nm
Video memory	8 GB, GDDR5
Memory bus	256 bit
GPU frequency	1366 (boost) MHz
Resulting memory frequency	8000 MHz
Supports DirectX instructions	12
Outputs	2xHDMI, DVI, 2xDisplayPort
Additional power connector	8 Pin
Supplier	Sapphire representation
Price	about $400

Rating:

+ good level of performance

+ high functionality

+ compact dimensions, taking into account the level of heat dissipation

– high power consumption (a disadvantage not of a specific model, but of all solutions based on the RX 580)

– very few innovations compared to the previous generation of video cards (RX 480)

 

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