The RX 480 has recently launched touting to bring high-end performance to the sub-$250 market. We have been looking at AMD’s reference design for quite some time now. Now it’s time for the AIBs to shine some light on the RX 480. Among the first AIBs to introduce their RX 480 is Sapphire who exclusively manufactures AMD graphics cards. They have been working with AMD to manufacture some excellent GPUs.
Overclocker’s UK is among the first to list the Sapphire Nitro RX 480. The card features some excellent features and design while retaining a simple black and white theme throughout the backplate of the card.
Here are some images
Here’s what Sapphire quotes about their GPU
“The Sapphire RX 480 Nitro is the worlds first custom RX 480 to be listed and Overclockers UK is the first reseller in the world to list this amazing card for pre-order. Featuring Sapphire’s Nitro black dress approach with great looks that remain subtle meaniing this card will look great in any case. Featuring Sapphire RGB Logo so you can pick any colour and set LED modes, including switching off. The card is designed to run cooler, quieter and have improved overclocking ability due to improved power phase and 1x 8-pin connector. Also featuring Diamond Chokes to help reduce and eliminate coil whine. The Sapphire Nitro is not only the first custom RX 480 on the market and Overclockers UK is the first to list this amazing product world wide with 2000 units due to arrive middle to end July. We at OcUK believe the Nitro RX 480 will be our best selling RX 480 simply because it improves every aspect of the RX 480 by being faster, quieter, cooler, better looking, more features and even better the price premium for all these extras is very minimal, making the Sapphire RX 480 Nitro absolute incredible value for money.” Source
The design and features that Sapphire included with their RX 480 just make it a confirmed buy over the reference RX 480 until other AIBs show up with their custom RX 480s. As the images detailed, the card comes with
- Sapphire’s Custom Nitro Fans which are surprisingly removable
- Overclocked Out of The Box (Clock Speeds TBD)
- 1 x 8-pin connector (175W, 400W or higher PSU recommended)
- RGB Lighting on Sapphire Logo
- Sapphire Nitro Black and White Backplate with cutouts to improve heat dissipation.
- Diamond Chokes to reduce Coil Whine
- Dual BIOS
- 2 x HDMI, 2 x DisplayPort, 1 x DVI
According to what Sapphire is providing I feel it’s a strong card with awesome features. The card has that aggressive black theme all around with a well-thought backplate. However, even though Sapphire has mentioned “Overclocked Out Of the Box”, the card’s clock speed is yet to remain as a mystery for some time.
The card is listed for £249 for the 8GB VRAM model, the 4GB model hasn’t been listed yet if that will even ever exist. Sapphire will provide Overclockers UK with 2000 units when the launch goes live.
Also Read: Nvidia GTX 1060 Officially Unveiled For $249, RX480 Killer?
Till then the competition and hype will be high around the PCMR community, only time will uncover all the mysteries.
