AMD Radeon RX 480 from MSI and Sapphire

In late June, AMD released its latest Polaris graphics architecture, led by the Radeon RX 480 card. This time, the company did not aim to compete with Nvidia in the upper performance tier, but instead chose to tackle the lucrative middle class – a segment where performance per krona dominates strongly.

The Radeon RX 480 was initially launched only in AMD’s reference version, which was pulled with some shortcomings. Among these was an inefficient and relatively loud cooling solution, as well as not least the debacle surrounding an excessive power output from the motherboard’s PCI Express port. In Sweden, we were also hit by a fairly high pricing, which gave the model a much cooler reception here than in the rest of the world.

As usual, many of the enthusiasts waited for the partner manufacturers’ contribution to the saga, where models with increased clock frequencies, tailored circuit boards and lavish cooling solutions were expected to be available towards the end of the summer.

Today, it’s finally time to take a look at two of these from MSI and Sapphire, with the hope that players can give the Radeon RX 480 the treatment the model deserves.