Sapphire Radeon NITRO+ RX460OC 4GB 11257-02-20G Review

Intro

Being a gamer is expensive, I know I have probably paid for a house with all the money I have put into PC’s since I was 13…. a ton of money. Even though I have put so much in and looking back, it hurts to see how much I have but I know it will just be a love affair that will continue. When I started, I didn’t have much money and back in those days,… it didn’t matter because nothing was affordable on an IBM 5150, but it’s a bit different today. Gamers today have a choice of going to an integrated solution on the CPU all the way up to a down payment on a car with the top of the line GPU. Just above the integrated solution we have the Sapphire Radeon NITRO RX460OC 4GB 11257-02-20G, a budget card…. Wait wait, don’t go, you might be surprised.

I will slowly work you into this review, but please be patient. Let me start you off with the Spec’s.

Spec’s and Features

Engine Clock: 1175Mhz
- Boost Engine Clock: 1250 (Seems to always run at this speed though)
4096MB GDDR5 128-bit RAM
- 1750Mhz
  - 7000Mhz Effective Memory Frequency
- Compute Shaders: 2304
- Supports Crossfire
- 3 Output Maximum
  - 1 x DVI-D
  - 1 x HDMI 2.0b
  - 1 x Display Port 1.4
- Resolutions Supported
  - DVD-D
    - 2560 x 1600 (60Hz)
  - HDMI 2.0b
    - 3840 x 2160p (60Hz)
  - Display Port
    - 3840 x 2160 (60Hz)
  - Supported API’s:
    - OpenGL 4.5
    - OpenCL 2.0
    - DirectX 12
    - Shader Model 5.0
    - Vulkan API
  - Supported Features
    - CrossFire
    - FreeSync Technology
    - AMD Eyefinity
    - Dual Bios
    - AMD Liquid VR Technology
    - AMD Virtual Super Resolution (VSR)
    - AMD TrueAudio Next Technology
    - AMD Xconnect Ready
    - DirecX 12 Optimized
    - Radeon VR ready Premium
    - HDR Ready
    - Frame Rate Target Control
    - NITRO Fan Check
      - Dual X-Fans
      - Two Ball Bearing
    - NITRO Quick Connect System
    - Dual-X Cooling
    - NITRO Boost
    - Black Diamond Choke 4
  - Power Consumption: 150Watts
  - System Requirements
    - 400Watt Power Supply
    - 1 x 6 Pin AUX Power Connector (Yes, only 1)
    - Windows 10, 8.1, 8 or 7
  - Form Factor
- Length: 8.70in
- Width: 4.84in
- Depth: 1.49in

Lots of stuff there, I know, but let’s get into an unboxing

You can connect up to 3 monitors to this little guy,… it is a budget GPU.

You can attach an HDMI capable monitor, Display Port capable monitor or even a DVI-D capable monitor. Chances are, no matter what monitor you have you can connect to this video card.

And if you still had VGA, you might need to get an adapter like the one above. Sadly these cards do not bring any adapters, but it might raise the price a bit if they did. Remember, it does not include one.

It has a basic no frills design, but it’s meant to be inside your PC so you may not look at it much. Once I install this into the system, I will show you the NITRO logo and how it glows. Let’s keep exploring this card.

Along the back of the card, we find the single PCI-e connection, and it is only a 6Pin. This video card only requires a 450Watt power supply, keeping in line with the budget theme.

Along the bottom of the card, it’s pretty basic. We can see that Sapphire has an open air design here, allowing the heat to blow onto the board. We can also see that they have employed a dual heatpipe design to keep everything cool.

This is a budget card, so it does not have a backplate, but it does have a nice NITRO logo… it has a bit of a purpose of which I will show you a little later.

And finally, back to the top of the card, a basic looking card, but we know it will keep cool with those 2 fans.

OK, I want to get into some performance testing, so I am going to go ahead and install it. I recorded a video to show you how to do it, check it out on the next chapter.

Iggy Castillo

I have spent many years in the PC boutique name space as Product Development Engineer for Alienware and later Dell through Alienware’s acquisition and finally Velocity Micro. During these years I spent my time developing new configurations, products and technologies with companies such as AMD, Asus, Intel, Microsoft, NVIDIA and more. The Arts, Gaming, New & Old technologies drive my interests and passion. Now as my day job, I am an IT Manager but doing reviews on my time and my dime.

Intro

Contents