XFX Radeon RX 470 Video Card Review

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Another review of the XFX Radeon RX 470 video card has popped up on the internet today. This time around it is the folks at Hardware Secrets doing the reviewing.

The only problem with the Radeon RX 470 is that it is also competing with the Radeon RX 480. Actually, both cards have similar specs, and also similar prices. There are even Radeon RX 480 models that are cheaper than some Radeon RX 470 cards. Unfortunately, we were unable to compare both cards directly, but it is logical to conclude that the RX 480 is a little faster.
 
That's the same card I have in my HTPC. It's more than enough for lower-res gaming (in my case, 720P).
 
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I just got this card and installed it. It arrived with several plastic caps over displayport/HDMI ports. I took the HDMI cap off as I'm using that, but I'm wondering, is it OK that I left the other caps in place over the displayport ports? Or should I remove them?

Currently installing drivers, will try some games soon!
 
euskalzabe said:
I just got this card and installed it. It arrived with several plastic caps over displayport/HDMI ports. I took the HDMI cap off as I'm using that, but I'm wondering, is it OK that I left the other caps in place over the displayport ports? Or should I remove them?

Currently installing drivers, will try some games soon!
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The caps are there to keep them clean, prevent corrosion, and its a nice gesture.
 
euskalzabe said:
I just got this card and installed it.
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I know you have not had a chance to do much gaming with it yet ... how does the heat sink look? Are the fans loud?

About to pull the trigger on one before the rebate deal run out.
 
The heat-pipes look boss from the side if you have a window or mesh on your case.

I always play with headphones, so I'm not sure about the sound.
 
Very very tempting. Looking to get a card for my dad for Christmas, he only plays World of Warcraft @ 1680x1050. I'm tempted to wait for a Cyber Monday deal and maybe score a 1060 3GB for around this price.
 
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Krenum said:
Very very tempting. Looking to get a card for my dad for Christmas, he only plays World of Warcraft @ 1680x1050. I'm tempted to wait for a Cyber Monday deal and maybe score a 1060 3GB for around this price.
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Agreement. That is the one thing holding me back from buying the 470 right now.

NewEgg does has the PNY 1060 3gb for $179.99 after rebate.
 
Susquehannock said:
I know you have not had a chance to do much gaming with it yet ... how does the heat sink look? Are the fans loud? About to pull the trigger on one before the rebate deal run out.
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I've been playing Eldrich Horror all day, so I didn't get much time to test games until now. Batman plays on max, ROTR does too (lowered textures to very high) and MEC I left on auto because Hyper wasn't a fluid 60fps. Seems like a decent, solid card for 1080p so far, but I have to go through a few gaming sessions still. That said, I ran several benchmarks (UE4 Elemental and Kite demos, 3DMark Time Spy, Fire Strike, Unigine Heaven/Valley) and they were very smooth. Only the combined tests went down in fps like whoa, mainly due to my aging FX6300 which I hope to upgrade with either Zen or KBL in a the spring. One "strange" thing I've noticed is that the image quality overall, looks much better and smoother than with my GTX770. I don't know how to explain this: on desktop, clearly I was always getting 60fps and I was using 4:4:4 with full RGB color, not limited. Yet, somehow, what my screen is displaying with this RX470 looks better. The image, colors, look more consistent, the mouse seems to move more fluidly. It makes no sense as desktop use shouldn't really see any improvement (the GTX770 obviously was lightyears ahead of what Windows 10 desktop requires), so I cannot explain it, but things look overall better. Even when playing a regular 1080p Youtube video, a level that the GTX770 is easily rated to handle, on fullscreen it would always have visible tearing, no matter what I did (even reinstalling Windows 10). That's now gone with the RX470, every video plays perfectly smoothly.

As for noise, my GTX770 playing Batman/ROTR was breathing like there was no tomorrow, pretty much a nuclear reactor in the room. SO loud. The RX470, on the desktop the fans are actually OFF, then they pick up when 3d rendering, and only when I was doing benchmark stress test did it kick to high gear. Even then, it's audible, but not bothersome - I could game without headphones no problem, which cannot be said for the GTX770 noise. Here's a GPUZ screenshot right after exiting Doom, played on Vulkan at 1080p Ultra with max AA, at a stupid 130fps; 1 minute of desktop use and notice fan shut off:

SzYNRLv.jpg


And, as for style, as cyberreality said, the heatpipes do look badass. Although I don't really care about that at all. One wrinkle I'd mention: when I took the GPU out of the box, the metal part you screw to the back of the case was a bit bent, so I had to straighten it with some pliers to be able to screw it in. Even then, it didn't really align to my case, so it was a 2 person job (my husband pushing the GPU outwards, me pushing the case end inwards) while I tried to screw it in. I only managed 1 screw, which is enough, but the other one was too misaligned. Not the best out-of-box experience, mind you, but it's a small inconvenience considering I won't move the GPU in 1 or 2 years.

I can't give you a definitive opinion as it's only been a few hours with it. Still, so far it looks like a good choice for 1080p. I'm trying to figure out the Crimson and AMD control panels, specially to try custom resolution. I'm still figuring it out, it's very different to Nvidia's and some elements have different names, so it'll take me a bit to understand it all. Overall though, I'm satisfied.

UPDATE 11/27: I've spent the morning with the RX470 hooked up to my husband's new Dell SE2717HX, which is a basic, non-gaming monitor that supports Freesync over HDMI between 48-75hz. Not the greatest range, but it was enough to do some tests. The best experience I had was on Doom over Vulkan, although Batman and other games that ran at 55-60fps also saw improvement. I can only describe the experience as "smoother than smooth". There's 60fps VSYNC smooth, then there's Freesync smooth. It really was remarkable, made the image look much more real, solid, lifelike. Now, I probably wouldn't buy a monitor just for Freesync, unless the range were much improve, like 30-75fps where you'll definitely see the benefit more than this Dell's limited range. The Samsung KU6290 I have coming tomorrow won't support Freesync, but it's definitely a plus point that I can just connect the Dell at any point, specially when the husband is away for work trips.
 
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I did some benchmark tests a few years ago, and I had to switch between Nvidia and AMD frequently to test different games. I want to say it was with a GTX 470 and an HD 5770. I found that the AMD card actually had better image quality, especially in Half-Life 2 and a few other games. Even though on paper the Nvidia card was much better (and it was faster) the picture looked better on AMD (and I A/B tested a few times and was sure about the result). Not sure if that was a fluke or there is a general difference in quality. But it's not crazy to think that completely different hardware architecture could result in different quality given the same game.
 
Test after test has been done on the supposed difference in image quality between AMD and Nvidia and supposedly have shown that it does not exist.

Ive always disagreed and felt that AMD does deliver better image quality which is one of the primary reasons I stick with their cards over the faster Nvidias. So I do think there is something to your observations.
 
Chihlidog said:
Test after test has been done on the supposed difference in image quality between AMD and Nvidia and supposedly have shown that it does not exist. Ive always disagreed and felt that AMD does deliver better image quality which is one of the primary reasons I stick with their cards over the faster Nvidias. So I do think there is something to your observations.
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OK it's good to know that I'm not just imagining this. Also, I have literally zero reason to be biased as this is my 1st AMD card, ever. While the RX470 is certainly not the fastest card ever, and I'm sure I'll have to upgrade it by Spring 2018, so far I'm really pleased with the image quality I'm getting. Like you, this is more important to me than absolute FPS. If this is what I can expect from AMD, it has now become much more likely that I'll buy another AMD card after this one, than I ever considered before.
 
Worth noting that one of the biggest stories on visual differences came back to a user who does amateur benching (not saying this in a dismissive way just it is not his day job) and came back to setting and environment (including CCC and also NCP) when applying changes and switching between the AMD and Nvidia card.
This was the topic that kicked off that not just there but also with a lot of other sites/reddit/etc: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18679713
Anyway the problem was nothing to do with the GPUs themselves and not even the Nvidia driver.
Just highlighting it is unfortunately not an easy thing to identify as a GPU manufacturer image quality 'tweak' as there are many variables that can screw this up and make it seem that one or the other manufacturer is deliberately doing something strange.

Cheers
 
CSI_PC said:
Worth noting that one of the biggest stories on visual differences came back to a user who does amateur benching (not saying this in a dismissive way just it is not his day job) and came back to setting and environment (including CCC and also NCP) when applying changes and switching between the AMD and Nvidia card.
This was the topic that kicked off that not just there but also with a lot of other sites/reddit/etc: https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18679713
Anyway the problem was nothing to do with the GPUs themselves and not even the Nvidia driver.
Just highlighting it is unfortunately not an easy thing to identify as a GPU manufacturer image quality 'tweak' as there are many variables that can screw this up and make it seem that one or the other manufacturer is deliberately doing something strange.

Cheers
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That was one case but I have seen this outcome purported by many users. Some attributed it to 8bit-10bit color. Others think it could be just baseline driver setting that setting everything equal gives no difference. There hasn't been any factual in-depth look at this in the last year or two, maybe more. I remember one guy was mocked and called numerous names even when he was innocently asking if he had done something wrong. Sometimes I don't get the bias and bigotry when it comes to looking at differences in quality. I am not a huge fan of driver updates for games because they tend to limit certain factors of the games they increase performance in ie: AMD limits tess factors in games (which I agree 64X is too excessive) but it doesn't really give an even playing field when looking at settings used.
 
JustReason said:
That was one case but I have seen this outcome purported by many users. Some attributed it to 8bit-10bit color. Others think it could be just baseline driver setting that setting everything equal gives no difference. There hasn't been any factual in-depth look at this in the last year or two, maybe more. I remember one guy was mocked and called numerous names even when he was innocently asking if he had done something wrong. Sometimes I don't get the bias and bigotry when it comes to looking at differences in quality. I am not a huge fan of driver updates for games because they tend to limit certain factors of the games they increase performance in ie: AMD limits tess factors in games (which I agree 64X is too excessive) but it doesn't really give an even playing field when looking at settings used.
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As I say, the problem is this can only really be done with someone who is very technical and has much time on their hands along with the right tools, nearly every case where a general user points the visual difference it is nothing to do with the GPU.
When it was driver such as the amusing AoTS demo from AMD and visual quality was different between AMD/Nvidia the performance was not affected by the driver bug (this was down to AMD using NDA pre-release drivers), Oxide kept re-iterating performance would not be impacted by the bug and eventually that was shown to be true.
To date, there is still no validated and acceptable demonstration of this apart from the texture loading with Doom (2016); which ironically version 5 of the engine used to be reversed and AMD had issues historically with the texture loading in some games using it.
I am assuming the issue is still there, we will need to wait and see what happens with BF1 as that is a bit of a mess and looks like some wierd bugs when loading map 1st time.

Cheers
 
Just received my XFX Radeon RX470 RS last night. I played a few hours of Shadows of Mordor but haven't really tried much else. So far it's amazingly quiet and I'll give overclocking/undervolting a try tonight when I figure out how to work Wattman.

TmTe48b.jpg
 
Sadly I had to return my RX 470. It was perfectly fine, and it was bought within AMD Rewards free Hitman 2016 full season promotion. However, Amazon did NOT participate, and after trying to get them to see that I could return it, and buy the same card TODAY on Newegg, CHEAPER and with Hitman for free, they couldn't help. So, I'm taking it to UPS this afternoon.

I can just buy the RX 470 again from Newegg. However, I bought this a month ago. I can't buy it now as I'm traveling for Xmas, so the earliest I can get it is January. Now we're talking 2017, so I'm not sure it makes sense to buy the RX 470 anymore, even with the giveaway... %50 discounts on Hitman should hit the street soon, Vega is coming out... my money may better be well spent a bit later. Decisions, decisions...

That said, the RX 470 was a great card and is outstanding 1080p value. I'm only returning it because I'm losing out on $60 Hitman value, and I find it crazy unfair how Amazon is operating (or that AMD doesn't just do the giveaway to ALL RX 470 purchases in the specified time period).

I got burned when I bought the GTX 770 and missed a promotion for like 5 days, yet I kept it because my GTX 470 was super outdaded. I was still mad as heck. I'm not doing the same thing again. Back the RX 470 goes, in the GTX 770 again until I decide what to update it with in 2017. Despite its age, it still runs new games at 900p or 720p (ouch on that last one...) but the RX470 for $170, $150 after $20 rebate and hitman game... kinda makes the card cost $100. We'll see what we find about Vega in the next 3 weeks...
 
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euskalzabe said:
Sadly I had to return my RX 470. It was perfectly fine, and it was bought within AMD Rewards free Hitman 2016 full season promotion. However, Amazon did NOT participate, and after trying to get them to see that I could return it, and buy the same card TODAY on Newegg, CHEAPER and with Hitman for free, they couldn't help. So, I'm taking it to UPS this afternoon.

I can just buy the RX 470 again from Newegg. However, I bought this a month ago. I can't buy it now as I'm traveling for Xmas, so the earliest I can get it is January. Now we're talking 2017, so I'm not sure it makes sense to buy the RX 470 anymore, even with the giveaway... %50 discounts on Hitman should hit the street soon, Vega is coming out... my money may better be well spent a bit later. Decisions, decisions...

That said, the RX 470 was a great card and is outstanding 1080p value. I'm only returning it because I'm losing out on $60 Hitman value, and I find it crazy unfair how Amazon is operating (or that AMD doesn't just do the giveaway to ALL RX 470 purchases in the specified time period).

I got burned when I bought the GTX 770 and missed a promotion for like 5 days, yet I kept it because my GTX 470 was super outdaded. I was still mad as heck. I'm not doing the same thing again. Back the RX 470 goes, in the GTX 770 again until I decide what to update it with in 2017. Despite its age, it still runs new games at 900p or 720p (ouch on that last one...) but the RX470 for $170, $150 after $20 rebate and hitman game... kinda makes the card cost $100. We'll see what we find about Vega in the next 3 weeks...
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I didn't get Hitman either but I haven't cared for the series in a long time so it didn't bother me too much. I see that Best Buy dropped the price of it since I bought it on Black Friday so I might try to get Discover to price match the new price (not sure if they will since the BF deal included a $50 gift card). Card is pretty beast for the price at 1080p; The Division at Ultra settings was 50-70 fps outdoors and higher indoors, GTAV is buttery smooth with everything on, etc.

I'm amazed at how well the 600 series has aged. I moved the 670 back into the old i7-870 system and it ran The Division amazingly well at 1080p and mostly High-Very High settings.
 
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