AMD Radeon RX 470 video adapter review: don't confuse it

When AMD's graphics division was still preparing for the release of the Radeon RX 480 and published its plans for the next six months, it became known that the Polaris family of video cards would be represented by three products - RX 460, RX 470 and RX 480. The first is based on the Polaris 11 graphics processor, in while the latter two include Polaris 10 GPUs with different compute unit configurations.

Our impression of the Radeon RX 480 is that the card is well worth its recommended price ($199 and $229) in both 4 and 8 GB RAM variants, but the clock speeds and power consumption of the Polaris 10 were not as good as could be expect from a GPU manufactured at 14nm FinFET. The reference design of the PCB and cooling system of the RX 480 is not able to support the GPU frequency at the maximum level and is poorly suited for overclocking, so AMD supporters in the battle of this generation should wait for the mass appearance of video cards of the original design (still quite scarce - this is fair as for Radeon RX 480, and, although to a lesser extent, for GeForce GTX 1060).

The Radeon RX 470 comes with a better deal: the low clock speeds and partially disabled compute units in Polaris 10 should help reduce power consumption, and graphics card makers will use quality boards designed for the RX 480 from the start.

With the lowest priced graphics card in NVIDIA's Pascal family (the GTX 1060) currently listed at $249, AMD's product has no peer in the sub-$200 category that can match the power efficiency and feature set both companies are delivering with their new generation of GPUs. One question remains - will the price of the new product justify the difference in performance between the RX 470 and RX 480. Moreover, as is the case with any partially locked GPUs, will it be possible to compensate for the difference by overclocking?

⇡#Radeon RX 470

The Polaris 10 GPU in the Radeon RX 470 was not “cut” that much compared to the GPU configuration in the RX 480. Of the 36 Compute Units, four were disabled, which led to a decrease in the number of stream processors (shader ALUs, in terminology AMD) and texture mapping units by 11%. At the same time, the GPU kept its back-end intact, including 32 ROPs and a 256-bit memory bus.

Of the two clock speeds that AMD specifies for its video cards - Base Clock (the frequency below which the GPU does not drop under typical load) and Boost Clock (the maximum frequency) - the latter has changed slightly in the RX 470 (1206 MHz versus 1266 MHz for the RX 480), but the first one was lowered immediately to 194 MHz. We will have to find out experimentally at which frequency from this range the processor prefers to operate in games.

But in general, such a large “fork” between the lower and upper values ​​only reflects the tighter TDP limits of the video card compared to the Radeon RX 480 (120 and 150 W): in principle, the GPU in the RX 470 should operate at significantly lower frequencies, but If the power reserve allows, jumps to higher values ​​are acceptable. Since manufacturers will use the same PCBs (minus one VRM phase) and cooling systems in the RX 470 and RX 480, this gives hope for good overclocking that can compensate for the slight difference in the number of compute units.

The RX 470 also lowers the effective RAM frequency - from 7/8 GHz, typical for the RX 480, to 6.6 GHz. Note that GDDR5 SDRAM chips with a bandwidth of 6.6 Gbit/s per pin are not produced, and manufacturers will solder chips designed for an effective frequency of 7 GHz, which will not be difficult to restore during overclocking. The standard amount of RAM for the RX 470 is 4 GB, but double the amount is not unusual for video cards presented by AMD partners.

Compared to previous generation Radeon graphics cards, the RX 470 is configured to match the Radeon R9 380X, but the new product has higher GPU and memory frequencies, along with the optimizations that AMD made to the GCN 1.3 architecture (you can read more about them in the Radeon RX 480 review). The 14 nm FinFET process technology and improved GPU circuit design provide a 70 W reduction in TDP compared to that of the R9 380X. In addition, the Polaris family has a number of functional differences from the Radeon 200/300 line - such as an HEVC (H.265) video stream encoder/decoder, new HDMI 2.0b and DisplayPort 1.3/1.4 image output interfaces.

The recommended retail price for the Radeon RX 470 in the US is $179. Thus, the RX 470 is $20 cheaper than the RX 480 with the same amount of RAM. The Russian price for the RX 470 (15,999 rubles) looks rather strange in light of the fact that the Radeon RX 480 with 4 GB of memory is priced at only 311 rubles. expensive. Apparently, AMD simply announced a more realistic price than in the case of the RX 480. The latter, being a new product for which demand exceeds supply, actually sells for more money than the developer recommends.

Specifications

⇡#SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 470: technical specifications, scope of delivery, price

The Radeon RX 470 formally does not have a reference version. Manufacturers will use boards and cooling systems of their own design, although SAPPHIRE, for example, simultaneously released both the original NITRO+ Radeon RX 470 and a video card based on the RX 480 reference design (which is not surprising, since SAPPHIRE has been producing reference cards for ATI for many years /AMD).

For testing, we were provided with a SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 470 version with 4 GB of RAM. The GPU of the video card is pre-overclocked from reference frequencies to 1143/1260 MHz, and the memory is overclocked to 7 GHz. Interestingly, the NITRO+ RX 470 version with double the memory has a lower base GPU frequency (1121 MHz), but the RAM chips operate at an effective frequency of 8 GHz, which results in the cards having the same TDP of 150 W.

The NITRO+ Radeon RX 470 package includes paper documentation and a software disc.

Driver Update

You can update drivers to the latest version through the official website of the software manufacturer AMD. Moreover, downloading the components is completely free. You can download the driver for the Radeon RX 470 video card using the following instructions:

1. You need to go to the official AMD website from a computer or any other device connected to the Internet.
2. At the top of the page, select the “Drivers and Support” tab.
3. In the page that opens, you can select the method of automatically updating video card drivers or manually specify the necessary information so that the site can generate a link to download the file.

To automatically update drivers, you need to download the file indicated on the website, run it and follow the instructions on the screen. The program will perform all the actions itself. Manual downloading of the required driver is only available in English. To do this, follow 5 steps:

1. Step 1: Select “Desktop Graphics” from the drop-down list.
2. Step 2: Select "Radeon RX Series".
3. Step 3: Select "Radeon RX 4xxx Series".
4. Step 4: Select the current version of your operating system (for example, Windows 7).
5. Step 5: Click on the “Display Results” button to display the generation results.

Then you can install the latest drivers that the site offers. The file download will begin after you click on the "Download" button and will take a few minutes.

⇡#SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 470: design

Apart from the changed GPU configuration and differences in the power system (which we will see later), the video card is physically no different from the NITRO+ RX 480 model.

The device components are cooled by an open-design cooler - quite short compared to the “turbine” of the RX 480 reference design, but protruding beyond the width of the board. A protective plate is attached to the reverse side, the slots in which release air that has passed through the cooler radiator.

The cooling system casing is decorated with RGB LEDs, the color of which can be adjusted using the SAPPHIRE TRIXX 3.0 utility. In addition to the constant hue, you can choose one of the dynamic modes (also switchable with a button on the board): simple blue backlight, iridescent “rainbow”, color indication of GPU temperature or fan speed.

The heatsink has two bases - one, with a copper insert, is pressed against the GPU and RAM chips, the other removes heat from the VRM transistors. The air is pumped by two fans with a diameter of 95 mm on double ball bearings, connected to the board through connectors, which allows them to be easily removed for cleaning.

Cooling system

The cooling system is one of the main parameters for a graphics accelerator, which users pay attention to when purchasing. It's true: no one wants to hear a roaring airplane on a PC or see very high temperatures.

The proprietary DirectCU II cooler is built using direct contact technology with the graphics processor (play on words: Direct CU => “direct copper contact”). Two U-shaped eight-millimeter heat pipes radiate from the center. The connections are neatly and almost imperceptibly soldered.

Two heat pipes thread through 55 nickel-plated aluminum fins that form a massive heatsink. It is attached to the plastic casing using regular latches. Compared to the ASUS Radeon R9 380X Strix model, the cooler has undergone certain changes.

The active part is controlled by two 95 mm fans with a wide impeller, which are also used on top-end video cards from NVIDIA. Before us is the T129215SM model produced by Everflow, capable of operating in the range of 0 - 2500 rpm.

Under the cooler you can also see a small aluminum radiator with long fins, which removes heat from the power elements of the power subsystem.

A brown thermal pad is used as a thermal interface. The pressure print is good. Nearby there is a stiffening rib that protects the video card from sagging.

⇡#SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 470: board

The NITRO+ RX 470 board is equipped with a DVI-D connector, which AMD got rid of in reference samples, and the manufacturer changed one of the three DisplayPort outputs to HDMI.

Like other video cards on AMD chips, this one allows you to switch between different BIOS versions stored in two chips. One of the BIOS sets the reference GPU and memory frequencies for the Radeon RX 470, the other enables factory overclocking according to SAPPHIRE specifications.

The eight-pin power connector together with the PCI Express x16 slot provides the board with 225 W of power. The voltage converter operates according to a 4+1 phase scheme (to power the GPU and RAM, respectively), and additionally a PLL phase.

The voltage on the GPU is regulated by the IR 3567B PWM controller, which has been used in AMD video cards since the Radeon R9 290X. The power part of the circuit includes long-life polymer capacitors and chokes with finned “micro-heatsinks” under the brand name Black Diamond 4. According to the manufacturer, they heat up 15% less compared to the coils found in AMD's previous generation SAPPHIRE cards.

⇡#Test stand, testing methodology

The CPU runs at a constant frequency. In the NVIDIA driver settings, CPU is selected as the processor for PhysX calculations. In the AMD driver settings, the Tesselation setting has been moved from AMD Optimized to Use application settings.

Radeon RX 470 8GB versus two versions of GeForce GTX 1060. Review of MSI RX 470 Gaming X 8G

Graphics solutions based on the Polaris architecture have become the main new product from AMD this year. The first debut of the Radeon RX 480 was not very bright due to the rather weak reference cooling. By the time the junior Radeon RX 470 video card was released, partners gained production freedom, and the market was flooded with many models with high-quality PCB design and powerful cooling. In addition to fewer computing units, the Radeon RX 470 also has less video memory. However, some manufacturers have noted versions of the Radeon RX 470 with 8 GB on board. This video adapter was the focus of our attention. Let's see how good the younger Polaris with more memory is. It's no secret that in some modern games even 4 GB is sometimes not enough at a resolution of 1920x1080. Let's compare this version of the Radeon RX 470 with two versions of the GeForce GTX 1060.

MSI Radeon RX 470 Gaming X 8G

Let's consider a video adapter made by MSI from the Gaming line.

The MSI RX 470 Gaming X 8G comes in a medium-sized box in bright red. The set of accessories is minimal, it contains only the most necessary things - a disk with software, instructions.

The video adapter resembles other representatives of the Gaming line from the latest generation of Radeon or GeForce. Made in the standard design for these products. The board is equipped with a powerful Twin Frozr VI cooler with a pair of large fans.

The aggressive external design is complemented by illuminated red teeth on the right side of the case and the logo on the side panel of the case.

When examining the reverse side, you can note the presence of one power connector on the djctvm contacts, which is turned with the latch up. There are no CrossFire connectors, but Polaris doesn’t need them; data exchange occurs via the PCI-E bus. But the GeForce GTX 1060 does not officially support SLI, that is, it only works in single mode.

The total length of the video card is about 28 cm.

MSI is equipped with five connectors for image output: two DisplayPort, two HDMI and one DVI.

The design of the cooling system as a whole is similar to the cooling of older models. But in this case we see only two heat pipes, but of a large diameter. Contact with the surface of the graphics crystal is made through a massive base.

The tubes bend and penetrate the radiator plates on both sides of the base.

The structure is cooled by a pair of 100 mm fans. The special shape of the impeller in accordance with Torx 2.0 technology provides more powerful air flow and better dispersion for complete ventilation of the entire radiator.

A separate finned radiator is provided for the power components of the power supply unit.

The printed circuit board looks very serious. Tight installation of elements. The components themselves meet the Military Class quality standard.

The Polaris processor power supply system has four phases, the memory is powered from two phases.

The GPU crystal is surrounded by a massive protective frame.

Eight gigabytes of memory are equipped with eight Micron 5WA47 D9SSX chips.

The video adapter operates at higher frequencies. By default, the core frequency is 1242 MHz instead of 1206 MHz. GDDR5 memory operates at an effective data rate of 6600 MHz.

Like other representatives of the Gaming series, this graphics accelerator supports three operating profiles, which can be switched through the MSI Gaming App. The initial settings correspond to the Gaming Mode profile. OC Mode offers a frequency combination of 1254/5700 MHz. In Silent Mode, the video adapter switches to frequencies of 1206/6600 MHz with a change in the fan control algorithm with priority on silence.

MSI Gaming pleased us with a stable frequency at the stated level of 1242 MHz. Let us remind you that Radeon Polaris specifies the maximum frequency value in Boost mode. And the reference at 1206 MHz has a minimum base value of 926 MHz. Even the non-reference version from ASUS showed a floating frequency with noticeable drops below the maximum level. And MSI provides the highest possible performance within the stated specifications. At the same time, the GPU temperature was kept within 60–61 °C when operating on an open bench (22 °C indoors). This is illustrated below with screenshots of parameter monitoring in Metro: Last Light and Tom Clancy's The Division.

In these fairly heavy games, the fan speed was close to 800 rpm, with peak values ​​not exceeding 1200 rpm. Naturally, with such indicators the noise is minimal.

MSI is also doing great with overclocking. Gaming showed incredibly high results. It was possible to reach 1390 MHz on the core with a slight increase in voltage by 12 mV. Larger increases in voltage reduced stability. The final result of overclocking the Polaris GPU is the highest among all representatives of this family that have passed through our hands. But it should be noted that the real difference in performance between 1360 MHz and 1390 MHz was negligible. Perhaps some internal power-limiting mechanisms are holding back the potential, or performance scaling is constrained by other factors. The memory did not disappoint either; we managed to reach 7680 MHz, which is a very good result for the Radeon RX 470.

The MSI Gaming X will replace the regular version of the Radeon RX 470 in testing, or rather the regular version with a larger 8 GB memory. Based on experience from other tests, MSI frequencies are lowered to 1175 MHz, which is close to a simple Radeon RX 470 with a floating core frequency, perhaps even a little better.

Characteristics of tested video cards

The MSI Gaming X card was tested at factory frequencies, overclocked and at stock frequencies (indicated on the graph as 1206/6600 MHz). On the NVIDIA side, GeForce GTX 1060 6GB and GeForce GTX 1060 3GB have been added to testing. For them, the frequencies are adjusted to correspond to the level of 1860 MHz, which is close to the frequencies of the reference samples. Only the younger version of the GeForce GTX 1060 was tested for overclocking.

The technical characteristics of all participants are described in the table.

Test bench

The test bench configuration is as follows:

• processor: Intel Core i7-6950X (3, [email protected] ,1 GHz);
• cooler: Noctua NH-D15 (two NF-A15 PWM fans, 140 mm, 1300 rpm);
• motherboard: MSI X99S MPower (Intel X99);
• memory: G.Skill F4-3200C14Q-32GTZ (4x8 GB, DDR4-3200, CL14-14-14-35);
• system disk: Intel SSD 520 Series 240GB (240 GB, SATA 6Gb/s);
• additional drive: Hitachi HDS721010CLA332 (1 TB, SATA 3Gb/s, 7200 rpm);
• power supply: Seasonic SS-750KM (750 W);
• monitor: ASUS PB278Q (2560x1440, 27″);

• operating system: Windows 10 Pro x64;
• Radeon RX 470 driver: AMD Grimson 16.12.1.
• GeForce GTX 1060 driver: NVIDIA GeForce 376.19.

All tests were carried out in the most popular resolution 1920x1080 with maximum graphics quality. The applications are arranged in alphabetical order, with 3DMark tests and overall power consumption measurements at the end of the list.

Testing methodology

Battlefield 4

Testing was carried out in the first mission after the wall was blown up. The run was repeated through a small area of ​​dense vegetation before descending onto a large construction site. Six reps. Frame rate was measured using Fraps.

All graphics settings are on Ultra, MSAA multisampling in 4x mode.

Battlefield 1

Testing was carried out by replaying a small game episode at the beginning of the Cape Helles mission, where the storming of Gallipoli was played out. Soldiers land on the beach under heavy artillery fire, and with heavy explosions, performance sags more than in most other moments of the game. Seven repetitions were performed.

Ultra quality is selected, video memory limitation is disabled. Testing was carried out in DirectX 11 using Fraps.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

Testing was carried out at the beginning of the mission “Black Sky” in a scene where the hero must get out of a vehicle that has collapsed on a building, kill enemies who jumped onto the cabin, and shoot other opponents.

The quality of all available graphic parameters is set to the maximum quality with SMAA T2x anti-aliasing. In the post-processing section, the Filmic effects and grain are reduced to a medium level, which provides a clearer, pleasing picture.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Instead of a built-in benchmark, a manual testing method was used. For this, one of the most difficult episodes with greenhouses was chosen, through which the hero makes his way after the death of the character Talos Rooker. At least seven repetitions were performed.

The Ultra-quality profile with standard “temporal” anti-aliasing was selected.

Fallout 4

Testing was carried out using Fraps immediately after leaving the shelter at the beginning of the game. There was a short walk around the surrounding area with an abundance of vegetation and rich rays of light. Scenes with such environments result in the most noticeable performance degradation. The procedure is shown below.

Six reps. The maximum graphics quality profile is selected, and higher-quality HBAO+ shading is additionally enabled.

Far Cry Primal

Testing was carried out using the built-in gaming benchmark, which was run five times for each video card. The profile for maximum graphics quality with high-resolution textures is selected.

Forza Horizon 3

The first buggy race was chosen for testing, where we catch up with a car suspended from a helicopter. The race takes place on a challenging course with varied terrain and rich vegetation. This is a rather difficult track for video cards, which will allow you to fully evaluate the capabilities of your opponents in this game. Frame rate was measured using Mirillis Action! from the start of the race to the final. The race is long, so only four repetitions were performed.

The maximum Ultra quality is selected, which assumes MSAA 4x anti-aliasing.

Gears of War 4

The built-in gaming benchmark was used, which was run at least seven times.

The maximum graphics quality is Ultra, and additional DirectX 12 functions are activated (Async Compute, etc.).

Grand Theft Auto 5

The built-in benchmark was used for testing. Average fps was calculated as the average value based on the results of all test scenes. The minimum fps for the entire benchmark period was recorded using Fraps. Five reps.

All main graphics parameters are at maximum with heavy anti-aliasing MSAA 4x. Options for additional settings are included, the range of loading detailed objects (Extended Distance Scaling) and the item “length of shadows” (Extended Shadows Distance) +100% to the base level.

Mafia 3

A short segment of the game was replayed during the “Find Baku” mission, where you need to infiltrate the base of the Haitian group. Visually, this episode is not beautiful, but it has good performance degradation, which is why it was chosen for testing. Seven repetitions on each video card.

High graphics quality is selected, all additional effects are active. Anti-aliasing is reduced to a minimum, since in this mode the picture is clearer.

Metro: Last Light

Five runs of the built-in benchmark at maximum graphics settings with heavy SSAA anti-aliasing.

Shadow Warrior 2

Testing was carried out at the beginning of the game in the first location with lush vegetation. A short walk was taken and the frame rate was measured by Fraps. 6–7 repetitions were performed.

The Ultra quality profile is selected at 1920×1080 resolution.

Titanfall 2

Testing was carried out using Fraps at the beginning of the first mission after the prologue. A certain sequence of actions was carried out in a large location with a complex landscape. Six to seven repetitions on each video card. With a small amount of memory and unstable results, two approaches were performed with the same number of runs.

The maximum quality of all graphic parameters is selected, including the “crazy” quality of textures. Additionally, Adaptive Resolution is disabled, which provides a fixed value of 1920x1080 regardless of the load on the GPU. MSAA 4x anti-aliasing selected.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

A walk was carried out along a certain route from the caves from which the hero flees from the Helgen fortress at the beginning of the game. The new lighting system noticeably reduces productivity, so the morning time was selected so that there was a clearly defined effect of volumetric lighting with rays.

The Ultra maximum quality profile is selected with standard TAA anti-aliasing.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Testing was carried out using Fraps. FPS was measured during a trip along the road to the village of White Garden. Five reps.

Maximum graphics quality is selected, HairWorks technology is active. The post-processing section includes all effects and high-quality HBAO+ shading.

Tom Clancy's The Division

The built-in performance test was run seven times.

The maximum graphics quality profile was selected, and the parameters that allowed this were additionally increased to the maximum: reflection quality, detail, and HBAO+ shading was selected. Testing was conducted before the major December update, so only DirectX 11 was used.

Watch Dogs 2

Testing was carried out immediately after the introductory episode, when the hero goes out into the big city. There was a short jog through a residential area.

Standard Ultra quality is selected without additional parameter edits.

3DMark Fire Strike

Fire Strike test from the latest 3DMark benchmark suite in simple Full HD mode.

3DMark Time Spy

The new benchmark for DirectX 12 was launched with default settings.

Energy consumption

The results of measurements in five annexes are presented:

• Far Cry Primal
• Gears of War 4;
• Grand Theft Auto 5;
• Metro: Last Light;
• Tom Clancy's The Division.

The peak values ​​during each run were taken into account, based on which the average peak value was calculated for individual tests, and then the overall average value was calculated. The data was collected using a Cost Control 3000 device.

Test results

Battlefield 4

Let's start with the shooter Battlefield 4, which retains a large audience. NVIDIA solutions clearly dominate here, although the Radeon RX 470 provides high frame rates at maximum graphics. However, even with overclocking, MSI Gaming X cannot catch up to at least the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, the gap remains up to 30%. Since the Radeon RX 470 is close in overclocking to the Radeon RX 480 at nominal value, some analogies can be drawn with the older Polaris.

Battlefield 1

In the new Battlefield 1 the situation is different. The game is demanding on the amount of video memory, in the test scene the load exceeds 3 GB, and the junior GeForce GTX 1060 video adapter is seriously inferior to its older companion. Radeon RX 470 8GB is inferior to GeForce GTX 1060 6GB by about 20%, but high overclocking almost compensates for this gap.

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare

Another game with high VRAM requirements, Infinite Warfare can use the entire 8GB available. In nominal terms, the Radeon RX 470 8GB is on par with the older GeForce GTX 1060, and overclocking allows you to achieve a good advantage. Note that on the younger version of the GeForce GTX 1060 with 3 GB of memory you will see more blurry textures. This is a long-standing problem in Call of Duty, when detailed textures simply do not load when the video buffer is small.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

Mankind Divided also has serious memory requirements. According to monitoring, video memory usage exceeds the 5 GB mark. And here the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB takes the place of an outsider. The Radeon RX 470 8GB is only 5–8% inferior to the older GeForce GTX 1060 6GB; overclocking makes it easy to outperform its competitor. Increasing frequencies to 1390/7680 MHz provides an acceleration of 18% relative to the reference.

Additional testing was carried out at maximum graphics quality in DirectX 12.

A recent comparison showed a performance increase for all video cards, although it was weaker on NVIDIA. But with the updated version, the performance of the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB remains almost at the level of what we saw in DirectX 11. The younger NVIDIA representative with a small amount of memory sharply loses performance, but we have seen this before in this game. But the Radeon RX 470 8GB gains a few additional percentage points from the new API, now even at nominal value it is actually equal to the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB.

Fallout 4

The Radeon RX 470 loses 16–17% to the younger GeForce in Fallout 4. This gap can be compensated for by overclocking to 1390/7680 MHz.

Far Cry Primal

After a special update, the latest part of Far Cry has improved textures. In the test, the memory load reaches 3.5 GB. For the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB this is not fundamental; the competitor is 17–19% faster than the Radeon RX 470 8GB. This gap can be compensated thanks to the high frequency potential of the MSI Gaming X.

Forza Horizon 3

We're in a difficult situation with Forza Horizon 3. After a recent update, the game locks Ultra settings on the GeForce GTX 1060, possibly limiting it due to memory capacity. As a result, we borrowed data for GeForce from old tests, and tested the Radeon RX 470 with the new driver. However, according to some active commentators, this is exactly how Radeon and GeForce should be compared. This game suffers from serious performance degradation with low memory, and the difference between the two versions of the GeForce GTX 1060 is very serious. The improved version of the Radeon RX 470 with more memory is 8–16% weaker than the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB, the main difference being the minimum fps. Overclocking allows you to beat your competitor.

Gears of War 4

The latest part of Gears of War easily eats up more than 5 GB, but here the difference between the younger and older GeForce GTX 1060 is no more than 15%. Radeon RX 470 8GB is slightly inferior to its younger rival, and even MSI is weaker than it at factory frequencies. But overclocking allows you to minimize the difference even with the older GeForce GTX 1060. The overall performance is so high that you can comfortably play on any video adapter from our list of participants.

Grand Theft Auto 5

With MSAA anti-aliasing, Grand Theft Auto 5's memory usage reaches 4GB (the game reserves about 3.6GB). But even here the younger GeForce GTX 1060 shows good results and is slightly behind its older partner. As a result, the Radeon RX 470 again finds itself in last place. And even a serious overclocking to 1390/7680 MHz does not allow our hero to catch up with his younger rival, the gap between them is so great.

Mafia 3

After recent updates, the frame rate in Mafia 3 has increased significantly; all video cards show good acceleration compared to the first tests. Radeon RX 470 with reference frequencies is inferior to the younger GeForce GTX 1060 by 8–11%. Scalability performance is weaker compared to other games, and maximum overclocking provides the Radeon RX 470 with no more than 14% acceleration. However, this allows us to minimize the lag behind the older GeForce GTX 1060 in nominal terms.

Metro: Last Light

Modern representatives of the middle class cope well with Metro even with heavy SSAA anti-aliasing. The Radeon RX 470 is inferior to the younger GeForce GTX 1060 by almost 22%, which is not compensated for by overclocking. Overclocking to 1390/7680 MHz itself provides a 16% advantage over the reference Radeon.

Shadow Warrior 2

Once again the Radeon RX 470 is an outsider. But all participants have very high results in Shadow Warrior 2. The Radeon RX 470 manages to overtake its younger rival NVIDIA only by increasing its frequencies. In this case, the memory load exceeds 3 GB, but in this case this is not important for the GeForce GTX 1060.

Titanfall 2

We decided to test Titanfall 2 with heavy MSAA anti-aliasing instead of the standard TSAA. But the participants coped very well with this regime. Radeon RX 470 is slightly inferior to the younger GeForce GTX 1060, MSI Gaming X is at the same level as its competitor. When overclocked, the Radeon RX 470 8GB is better than the accelerated GeForce GTX 1060 3GB in terms of average frame rates and faster than the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB in nominal terms. The video memory load exceeds 4 GB.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition

Another serious blow to AMD's position. The Skyrim re-release clearly prefers the new GeForce Pascal. The Radeon RX 470 is seriously inferior to the younger GeForce GTX 1060, and it is not possible to catch up with its opponent even after overclocking. We also note that after a recent update in the game, the frame rate is limited by the refresh rate of the monitor, ignoring manual edits to the ini file. So at the end of December, all competitors will show 60 fps, just some will have performance drawdowns, and some will not.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

The latest Witcher shows excellent detail and does not require more than 2 GB of video memory. Radeon RX 470 is inferior to the younger GeForce GTX 1060 by several percent. MSI Gaming X is 5% faster than the reference, overclocking provides another 12-13% faster. MSI with increased frequencies is slightly ahead of the older GeForce GTX 1060 in nominal terms, but slightly inferior to its forced partner NVIDIA.

Tom Clancy's The Division

The Division game has gone through several updates over the past couple of months, periodically losing and gaining support for Fraps, which is why in some articles we limited ourselves to data without a minimum fps. Now Fraps is working again, so we present the minimum parameter as observed by this utility. And the average frequency is an indicator of the built-in frame counter. At the same time, it’s nice to note that AMD has again paired its video cards with HBAO+.

Radeon RX 470 is slightly inferior to the younger GeForce GTX 1060 and catches up with its older competitor due to its overclocking.

Watch Dogs 2

The second part of Watch Dogs easily loads 6 GB or more at maximum graphics quality, but the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB still wins over the Radeon RX 470 8GB. The hero of the review needs to be overclocked to 1390/7680 MHz to catch up with its younger competitor. More data on the performance of these and other video cards in Watch Dogs 2 in a separate article.

3DMark Fire Strike

At normal frequencies, the Radon RX 470 is inferior to its younger rival by about 6%. Overclocking provides an acceleration of 16%, allowing you to overtake your older competitor at par.

3DMark Time Spy

The situation remains unchanged in the new test for DirectX 12. The Radeon RX 470 8GB is slightly inferior to the GeForce GTX 1060 3GB at standard frequencies, overclocking allows it to reach the performance level of the GeForce GTX 1060 6GB.

Energy consumption

The same TDP level is declared for all participants. Power consumption is different; both versions of the GeForce GTX 1060 are slightly more economical than the Radeon RX 470.

conclusions

The Radeon RX 470 with the video memory increased to 8 GB when overclocked can easily replace the Radeon RX 480. Based on the testing results, it is clear that this version of the Radeon RX 470 at increased frequencies successfully competes with the older GeForce GTX 1060 at 6 GB. Double the memory is useful even at 1920x1080 resolution. For example, in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Forza Horizon 3 we see serious differences between the two versions of the GeForce GTX 1060 and at the same time very good performance from the reviewed Radeon RX 470 video card. However, the general situation in the confrontation between the Radeon RX 470 8GB and GeForce GTX 1060 3GB is different, often the advantage is on the side of competitor NVIDIA. But where the stripped-down version of the GeForce GTX 1060 will experience performance difficulties due to the amount of memory, you can play normally on the Radeon RX 470 8GB. And with increasing resolution, the position of the younger modification GeForce GTX 1060 will deteriorate. At a reasonable price, this Radeon RX 470 8GB can be the best buy in the AMD Polaris line of graphics solutions.

The reviewed MSI Radeon RX 470 Gaming X 8G video card pleased us with its excellent cooling, which maintains low operating temperatures with minimal noise, and a stable core frequency. Thanks to the latter, the real difference with simple versions of the Radeon RX 470 will be greater than the difference in the declared frequencies. MSI Gaming can gain up to 5% performance at stock settings, and switching to the OC Mode profile will provide an even greater advantage. Additional overclocking allows you to get a 16–18% advantage over regular cards in the series. The frequency potential of this model is very high. 1390 MHz core speed is the best result among all members of the Polaris family that we have tested. Perhaps not all MSI Gaming X will be able to demonstrate the same agility, but with them you can expect consistently high overclocking results for the RX 470 series. Given such a high potential, after acceleration you will get a graphics solution on par with the Radeon RX 480 and GeForce GTX 1060 6GB. This is one of the best modifications of the Radeon RX 470 and simply an excellent video card.

⇡#Test participants

The following video cards took part in performance testing:

• AMD Radeon RX 480 (1266/8000 MHz, 8 GB);
• AMD Radeon RX 470 (1206/7000 MHz, 4 GB);
• AMD Radeon R9 390X (1050/6000 MHz, 8 GB);
• AMD Radeon R9 380X (970/5700 MHz, 4 GB);
• AMD Radeon R9 370X (1000/5600 MHz, 2 GB);
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (1506/8000 MHz, 6 GB);
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 (1050/7010 MHz, 4 GB);
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (1126/7010 MHz, 2 GB).

Game test results

The main purpose of a video card is to smoothly render graphics on a computer monitor, this is especially important when watching movies and for fully enjoying the gameplay.

Modern games are quite demanding on video memory. This is due to the use of advanced technologies that make it possible to add more realism to the virtual world. The higher the game requirements and the higher the screen resolution, the fewer frames per second the video card can handle. Frames in seconds are called FPS (Frames per Second).

Let's look at the FPS in AMD Radeon RX 470 games in the table below.

The indicators are conditional, because the initial values ​​depend on the configuration of the PC, and not just on the video card. At the same time, FPS is affected by both the set screen resolution and other visual settings of the game itself (be it anti-aliasing, texture display quality, enabling shadows, highlights, etc.).

⇡#Performance: 3DMark

In 3DMark, the difference between the RX 470 and RX 480, as well as the GTX 1060, is very small - on average 7 and 10%, respectively. The new product is ahead of the R9 370X and R9 380X by 47 and 27%.

⇡#Performance: games (1920 × 1080, 2560 × 1440)

In real games, the Radeon RX 480 is still only 8% superior to the RX 470, but there is no talk of competition between the younger model and the GeForce GTX 1060 - the latter is about 25% more productive. The RX 470's advantage over the Radeon R9 370X increases to 69-92% thanks to twice the RAM. The difference between the RX 470 and R9 380X was 25–27%.

⇡#Performance: video decoding

The ability to not only decode, but also encode HEVC (H.265) video on a dedicated unit and increased performance when working with H.264 is one of the distinctive features of Polaris.

The Polaris 10 hardware codec is much faster in the H.264 test compared to the two previous versions in AMD GPUs, but does not differ significantly in H.265 decoding from the codec of the Fiji chip (Radeon R9 Fury / Fury X), where AMD introduced this function for the first time. The Pitcairn (Trinidad) processor in the R9 370X and other representatives of the first generation GCN architecture not only spend incomparably more time decoding H.264, but are simply not compatible with 4K resolutions and the HEVC format.

From the NVIDIA team, second-generation Maxwell chips have performance comparable to Polaris 10 in such tasks, with the exception of the GM206 (GTX 950/960), which received a more efficient hardware codec. Pascal family chips remain unrivaled in H.264/H.265 decoding speed.

Note: since decoders within the same GPU series usually do not differ, the charts show the results of only one device from each family (or more if this rule is violated).

Synthetic tests

Valley Benchmark, Heaven Benchmark and 3DMark 2013 tests were used to evaluate performance in synthetics.

⇡#Performance: Computing

The specifics of various computing tasks favor one or another GPU architecture. The RX 470 performed strongly in the Ray Tracing rendering benchmark, one of the physics simulation tasks in CompuBench CL, and video rendering in Sony Vegas. Of particular note is Polaris' ability to perform double precision calculations at 1/32 the speed of FP32. In other tests, the GeForce GTX 1060 takes the lead among new products.

⇡#Clock speeds, power consumption, temperature, overclocking

If you activate the BIOS with reference specifications on the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 470, the video card can easily support the maximum GPU frequency (1206 MHz) in games with a supply voltage of up to 1.0938 V. For comparison: in the reference version of the RX 480 we observed a maximum GPU voltage of 1.087 V , and the frequency varies between 1218–1240 MHz.

Not surprisingly, the NITRO+ RX 470 and the reference RX 480 are virtually identical in terms of power consumption in Crysis 3, but the two cards are not comparable in FurMark, which indicates the large power reserve of the SAPPHIRE product. The latter also cools the GPU by 10–11 °C better, with an average speed of rotation of the impellers in games of about 1035 rpm and a maximum speed of 1630 rpm.

In time for testing the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX 470, the manufacturer managed to release the SAPPHIRE TRIXX 3.0 utility, which allows you to adjust the frequencies and supply voltage of the GPU within a wide range. To make overclocking easier, we increased the TDP limit by 50%, raised the GPU voltage by 200 mV, and ran the fans at full speed (3024 rpm).

The overclocking results pleasantly surprised us. The Boost Clock of the GPU reached 1460 MHz, and in dynamics the frequency fluctuated between 1417–1425 MHz. However, the supply voltage has reached alarming levels: in most games, values ​​​​were observed in the range of 1.1812–1.2688 V, and the maximum was 1.3 V. Such voltages are typical for AMD GPUs of the 28 nm era, and it is difficult to say whether they are safe for continuous operation of a crystal manufactured at 14 nm.

NITRO+ RX 470 memory chips operate stably at an effective frequency of 7.7 GHz.

System power consumption during overclocking increased by 75 and 93 W in Crysis 3 and FurMark, respectively. Fans at high speed reduced the GPU temperature by 10–12 °C.

Game tests

Let's move on to gaming applications and focus on the testing methodology. FPS measurements were carried out using the FRAPS and MSI AfterBurner utilities; the resolution in all games was set to 1920x1080 pixels. The following options are manually disabled:

• VSync (Vertical Sync)

All other settings in the games were set to the maximum possible.

⇡#Performance: overclocking

In 3DMark, overclocking easily allowed the Radeon RX 470 to reach the level of the RX 480 and even the GeForce GTX 1060.

In games, again, video cards based on the Polaris 10 chip are not as successful as in synthetic tests. The fully overclocked Radeon RX 470 left behind the RX 480 running at reference clocks, but the GTX 1060 retained an 11-13% lead.

⇡#Conclusions

The Radeon RX 470 looks rather strange among other video cards based on younger versions of certain GPUs with partially blocked computing units. What's unusual about the RX 470 is that it lost only 11% of shader ALUs and texture units compared to the RX 480 and was only 7% slower in gaming tests. Let's take a look at the previous line of discrete accelerators from AMD, where there are a couple of models occupying the same price positions as video cards based on Polaris 10 - Radeon R9 370X and R9 380. The latter has a GPU that is no less than 40% “heavier” in number shader ALUs and texture units than the first.

Note that in the tests we compared the Radeon RX 470 of the original design from SAPPHIRE (at reference frequencies for the RX 470) and the reference version of the RX 480: in the first, the GPU almost always operates at the maximum frequency, while in the second it does not. The market will soon be filled with original versions of the RX 480 that are able to support higher frequencies, but this does not change much in our reasoning, since the Radeon RX 470 and RX 480 will still not be sufficiently differentiated.

As for video memory, since the Radeon RX 470 received exactly the same chips as the RX 480 - with a standard effective frequency of 7 or 8 GHz, manufacturers will certainly follow the example of SAPPHIRE and will not reduce it to the 6.6 GHz established by AMD. Otherwise, overclocking from the reference frequency to the standard frequency in the RX 470 is almost guaranteed. A capacity of 4 GB, in turn, is quite acceptable for the vast majority of modern games at the settings that Polaris 10 is capable of handling. And, unlike cards with a more powerful GPU, in this case it is not so expected that the exact amount of RAM will be used RX 470/480 bottleneck in the near future.

Overall, the Radeon RX 470 feels like just another graphics card in the range of different versions of the RX 480. If a buyer wants to save another $20 from the recommended price of the Radeon RX 480 with 4 GB RAM (from $199 to $179), then the RX 470 gives that opportunity. And since the RX 470 already exists in versions with 8 GB of RAM, individual implementations of the RX 470 and RX 480 from different AMD partners may even overlap in cost.

As for the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX 470, the video card differs from the reference version of the Radeon RX 480 with an effective, quiet cooling system and a large power reserve. The NITRO+ RX 470 has a fairly modest factory overclock, but the SAPPHIRE TRIXX 3.0 utility makes it possible to push the GPU voltage well beyond the limits set by the reference BIOS and the WattMan interface functions in the AMD driver. Thanks to this, we achieved GPU frequencies above 1400 MHz, which SAPPHIRE previously promised to demonstrate. The NITRO+ RX 470 video card fully deserved the “Overclocker's Choice” medal.

Temperature and overclocking

Even without manual overclocking, you can significantly increase the performance of your video card by setting the Power Limit slider to +50%. This expands the power consumption indicator upward and allows you not to reset the core frequency in less loaded scenes. This factor alone allows you to increase performance by 10%.

However, we will try to overclock the graphics accelerator on our own, despite the high factory overclocking. As a result, it was possible to achieve stable operation at a core frequency of 1330 MHz and 1900 MHz for memory, which is a percentage of 5% and 15%.

Compared to the ASUS model, we managed to achieve another 15% increase in performance.

The DirectCU II cooling system turned out to be a fairly balanced solution that meets the basic purchasing requirements - comfortable temperatures and low noise levels. Under load and overclocking, the fans barely spin above 1750 rpm.