The Card

Sapphire came up with a completely fresh look for this generation's Nitro Series. The front of the cooler is dominated by black with some silver highlights. On the back you'll find a high-quality metal backplate in a matching color theme. Dimensions of the card are 31.0 x 13.5 cm.


Installation requires three slots in your system.


Display connectivity options include two standard DisplayPort 1.4a and two HDMI 2.0b ports.

AMD took the opportunity to update the display controllers handling these outputs by leveraging DSC 1.2a (display stream compression), which unlocks very high resolution and refresh-rate combinations over a single cable. Among the single-cable display modes supported are 8K 60 Hz (which took two DP 1.3 cables until now), 4K 240 Hz, and 1080p as high as 360 Hz. On top of these, the outputs support HDR and 30 bpc color-depth for better color accuracy in creative applications.


The board uses two 8-pin power connectors. This input configuration is specified for up to 375 watts of power draw.


If you are the RGB type, this header will come in handy. It lets you synchronize the graphics card with your motherboard's RGB lighting. Simply connect a cable and select "external RGB" mode in TRIXX.


AMD's Navi generation of GPUs no longer supports CrossFire. DirectX 12 does include its own set of multi-GPU capabilities, but implementation requires game developers to put serious development time into a feature only a tiny fraction of their customers might ever use.

Sapphire made good use of that area by positioning their BIOS switch feature here. The second BIOS runs at reduced fan speed for a quieter experience. Please note that the BIOS switch supports three positions. From left to right, these are "default", "quiet" and "performance". With the default setting active, you are able to change the BIOS selection using Sapphire's TRIXX software. While the switch itself is instant, a reboot is required for the new BIOS to activate as the BIOS/driver only reads the BIOS during startup.

Disassembly

Sapphire is using five heatpipes and a copper base on their cooler. This piece of the cooler also provides cooling for the VRM circuitry.


Once the main heatsink is removed, a second heatsink that takes care of cooling the memory chips and some parts of the VRM circuitry becomes visible.


The RGB-illuminated backplate is made out of metal and protects the card against damage during installation and handling.

On the next page, we dive deep into the PCB layout and VRM configuration.