Review: Asus Radeon RX 470 Strix Gaming OC 4GB

by Tarinder Sandhu on 4 August 2016, 14:01

Tags: ASUSTeK (TPE:2357), AMD (NYSE:AMD)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qac5bl

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Test Methodology

Asus Radeon RX 470 Strix OC 4GB Specification


GPU Comparisons

 
GPU
Memory
Miscellaneous
Cores
Base
(MHz)
Boost
(MHz)
Size
(MB)
Clock
(MHz)
Bus
(bits)
Power Config
Driver
Sapphire Radeon RX 480 Nitro OC 8GB
2,304
1,208
1,342
8,192
8,000
256
8
16.7.3
Sapphire Radeon RX 480 Nitro 4GB
2,304
1,208
1,306
4,096
7,000
256
8
16.7.3
Asus Radeon RX 470 Strix OC
2.048
-
1,250
4,096
6,600
256
6
16.7.3
Sapphire Radeon R9 Fury X
4,096
-
1,050
4,096
1,000
4,096
8+8
16.7.3
Sapphire Radeon R9 390 Nitro
2,560
-
1,010
8,192
6,000
512
8+8
16.7.3
MSI Radeon R9 270X Gaming 2G ITX
1,280
-
1,080
2,048
5,600
256
8
16.7.3
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition
2,560
1,607
1,734
8,192
10,008
256
8
368.39
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition
1,920
1,506
1,683
8,192
8,008
256
8
368.39
MSI GeForce GTX 1060 Gaming X
1,280
1,569
1,785
6,144
8,008
192
8
368.64
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 Mini ITX OC
1,664
1,076
1,216
4,096
7,012
256
8
368.81
Asus GeForce GTX 960 Direct CU II
1,024
1,253
1,317
2,048
7,200
128
6
368.39
Asus GeForce GTX 950
768
1,076
1,253
2,048
6,610
128
-
368.64

HEXUS Graphics Test Bench

Hardware Components Product Page
Processor Intel Core i7-6700K (overclocked to 4.4GHz) intel.com
CPU Cooler Noctua NH-D15S noctua.at
Motherboard Asus Z170 Pro asus.com
Memory Crucial Ballistix Sport LT 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4-2400 crucial.com
Power Supply be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 850W bequiet.com
Primary Storage 256GB Samsung 950 Pro samsung.com
Secondary Storage 512GB SK hynix Canvas SC300 skhynix.com
Chassis Fractal Design Define R5 Windowed fractal-design.com
Monitor Philips Brilliance 4K Ultra HD LED (288P6LJEB/00) philips.co.uk
Operating system Windows 10 (64-bit) microsoft.com

Benchmark Suite

Synthetic Benchmarks
3DMark Fire Strike, Fire Strike Extreme, Fire Strike Ultra, Time Spy and Time Spy Stability Tests
Gaming Benchmarks and Settings
Dirt Rally DX11, 4xMSAA, Ultra Quality
Doom OpenGL and Vulkan, TSSAA (8TX), Ultra Quality
Fallout 4 DX11, TAA, Ultra Quality
Hitman DX12, SMAA, Maximum Quality
Rise of the Tomb Raider DX12, FXAA, Very High Quality
Tom Clancy's The Division DX11, FXAA, Ultra Quality
Total War: Warhammer DX12, MLAA, Ultra Quality
General Benchmarks
Power Consumption To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record system-wide mains power draw both when idle and while playing Dirt Rally.
Temperature To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record GPU core temperature both when idle and while playing Dirt Rally.
Noise A PCE-318 meter is used to record noise levels when idle and while playing Dirt Rally.
Overclocking Maintaining out-the-box voltage, we increase the card's power target and aim for an optimal balance of core and memory overclock. With the heightened frequencies in place, the 3DMark, Dirt Rally and Rise of the Tomb Raider tests are re-run at QHD settings.

Notes

To minimise the impact of any CPU bottlenecks, our test platform is configured with a quad-core Intel Core i7-6700K processor overclocked to 4.4GHz across all cores and 32GB of Crucial Ballistix Sport LT DDR4 memory set to run at 2,400MHz using the built-in XMP profile.

For our high-end benchmark suite, we have an array of games tested at FHD (1,920x1,080), QHD (2,560x1,440) and 4K UHD (3,840x2,160) resolutions. Where applicable, any vendor-specific enhancements such as PhysX and TressFX are disabled to help even the playing field. In-game benchmark results are recorded as minimum and average frames per second.

All of the AMD cards are tested on the 16.7.3 driver that brings wholesome performance benefits in Tomb Raider and, to a lesser extent, in Doom. We have added in a Radeon R9 270X as a means of comparison to a similar-priced GPU ($199) released almost three years ago. For the green team, a GTX 950 is added, too.

AMD's focus is on excellent frame rates at 1080p. Let's now see how RX 470, in an Asus guise, lives up to that claim. Take particular note of how this card performs against the Sapphire RX 480 Nitro 4GB card priced at £200.