SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX Vega 56 Video Review: Big, Bold, and Unapologetic

It has been a long time coming, and still not the easiest of graphics cards to get your hands on, but we've had a bit of time to work with the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX Vega 56 Limited Edition.  In a previous video we took a detailed look at the card and what makes it different over something like the reference model, you can find it here.

 

But today we're digging into the full performance review with this new video.  We cover both stock out-of-the-box performance as well as optimized performance.  We didn't have time to go for full out overclocking results as well, but the tweaked performance seemed to be what most people were asking for. Don't worry, power draw figures are included, and rather surprising.

SAPPHIRE NITRO+ RX Vega Specifications

Model	SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX Vega 64 Limited Edition	SAPPHIRE NITRO+ Radeon RX Vega 56 Limited Edition
Memory	8 GB HBM2	8 GB HBM2
Stream Processors	4096	3584
Compute Units	64	56
Boost Clock	1611MHz	1572MHz
Base Clock	1423MHz	1305MHz
Memory	945MHz (1890MHz Effective)	800MHz (1600MHz Effective)
Cooling system	2x 92 mm dual-ball bearing fans running counter-clockwise (left & right) 1x 80 mm dual-ball bearing fan running clockwise (middle) Nominal speed: 0~1500 RPM Maximum: 3200 RPM Main module: Heat pipes (3x 8 mm + 3x 6 mm) Vapor Chamber VRM module: Heat pipes (2x 6 mm) CU base	2x 92 mm dual-ball bearing fans running counter-clockwise (left & right) 1x 80 mm dual-ball bearing fan running clockwise (middle) Nominal speed: 0~1500 RPM Maximum: 3200 RPM Main module: Heat pipes (3x 8 mm + 3x 6 mm) Vapor Chamber VRM module: Heat pipes (2x 6 mm) CU base

ETH and XMR Performance

Coin	-30% Core, 900MHz Memory, -15% Power Limit	Power Load From Wall
ETH	39.8 MH/s	281w
XMR	1300 H/s	280w

I know in our first video we showed the NITRO+ V56 mining ETH at more impressive numbers, but we found it to be unstable over time at those settings.

You can find additional information about our hardware review process and ethics policy here.

8.25

WCCFTECH RATING

Big, Bold, and Unapologetic are the best ways to describe this RX Vega 56 card that has no problem fighting with higher tier cards.

Pros

• Massive Heatsink
• Silent operation while running very cool
• External fan control
• Excellent VRM cooling solution
• Easy to control RGB
• Tweaked performance was excellent
• Comes with graphics card support bracket

Cons

• Expensive, comparable to GTX 1080 pricing
• Requires 3x 8pin power connectors
• Out-of-the-box performance was lower than expected
• As of the time of publishing very hard to find

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