Powercolor rx 470 red devil review (analysis in Spanish)

The AMD Radeon RX 470 is already among us and what better to celebrate than to analyze some of the best personalized versions of this card, specifically we have to analyze the PowerColor RX 470 RED DEVIL with all the benefits of AMD's Polaris 10 architecture and in a high-end version.

Will it pass the tests in our laboratory? Do not miss the most complete review in Spanish.

We thank the AMD Spain team for the loan of this graphics card for analysis:

PowerColor RX 470 RED DEVIL technical characteristics

The benefits of AMD's GCN 4.0 architecture continue to support FreeSync technology that eliminates thearing and stuttering of our games to provide a far superior gaming experience with great fluidity of movement. AMD boasts that FreeSync is a free and open technology that can be adopted by any monitor manufacturer to enhance the gaming experience. FreeSync is also characterized by not penalizing game performance at all.

We continue with 100% hardware compatibility with Async Compute to achieve the best possible performance in DirectX 12 as has been demonstrated in previous generations of GCN. With Async Compute, more efficient use of GPU resources is achieved, which results in better FPS rates in games and a better user experience.

Unboxing and design

The PowerColor RX 470 RED DEVIL is based on the AMD Polaris (GCN 4.0) architecture manufactured in the new and advanced 14nm Fin-FET process from Global Foundries. This new manufacturing process has already been released with the Radeon RX 480 and allows you to create a very powerful GPU with a very small size of only 232 mm2. The following image shows the degree of miniaturization that the company's GPUs have experienced over the past 10 years.

This new card will be the second most powerful in the Polaris family, at least for now, thanks to its Ellesmere GPU made up of a total of 33 Compute Units (CU) that add no less than 2, 048 stream processors, 128 TMUs and 32 ROPs to one maximum frequency on the card of 1, 270 MHz. With these characteristics, the Ellesmere core is capable of offering a maximum power of + 5 TFLOPs, thus meeting the minimum requirement for virtual reality that is set at 5 TFLOPs, it would be necessary to see how it performs.

We find ourselves with sturdy, top-notch packaging. As we see on the cover, we have several "demonic" signs that augur a long career with our PC.

At the rear we have all the most important technical characteristics detailed.

Once we open the box we find:

• PowerColor RX 470 Red Devil 4GB. CD with installation drivers. Quick guide.

The PowerColor RX 470 RED DEVIL uses 4 GB of GDDR5 memory at a frequency of 7, 000 MHz and with a 256-bit interface to achieve a bandwidth of 224 GB / s. A slightly lower figure than that of the Radeon RX 480 but not much so it will be more than enough to guarantee excellent performance along with AMD's Delta Color Compression technology that compresses colors to reduce bandwidth consumption.

AMD's great effort to improve its GCN 4.0 architecture will allow the Radeon RX 470 to offer significantly higher performance than the Tahiti core once did with the same number of Compute Units. The vast improvement in energy efficiency of Global Foundries' new 14nm FinFET manufacturing process enables the Radeon RX 470 to operate with a single 8-pin connector.

Two 90mm fans are in charge of generating the air flow necessary to cool the heatsink and thereby keep the temperature of all the critical components on the board controlled.

Detail of the back of the graphics card. As we can see from the series, it does not have a backplate.

Such energy efficiency has allowed the card to be manufactured with a standard-sized PCB measuring 240 x 125 x 39 mm, which helps to achieve a very competitive product at a price level.

Finally indicate that it has the video outputs of the reference PCB we appreciate four connectors in the form of 3 x DisplayPort 1.3 / 1.4HDR and 1x HDMI 2.0.

PCB and internal components

A metal piece is responsible for cooling the VRM and the memory chips helping to dissipate the heat generated in its operation. The PowerColor RX 470 RED DEVIL mounts an advanced custom heatsink that is made up of a dense aluminum fin radiator and a total of 3 nickel-plated copper heatpipes that are responsible for absorbing all the heat generated by the graphic core during operation and distributing it by the radiator for its dissipation.

In the following images of the PCB we can see that the GPU and the memories are powered by a 6-phase VRM that will offer us a great experience in the overclocking section and free from the so annoying Coil Whine as long as the components used are of good quality. We also wished that the electronic components fixer (black paste) had been removed once the plate components were fixed and that it did not have so much thermal paste .

Test bench and performance tests

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	i7-6700k @ 4200 Mhz..
Base plate:	Asus Maximus VIII Formula.
Memory:	32GB Kingston Fury DDR4 @ 3000 Mhz
Heatsink	Cryorig H7 heatsink
HDD	Samsung 850 EVO SSD.
Graphic card	Powercolor RX 470 Red Devil 4 GB.
Power supply	EVGA SuperNOVA 750 G2.

For benchmarks we will use the following titles:

• 3DMark Fire Strike normal.3DMark Fire Strike version 4K.3DMark Time Spy in DirectX 12.Heaven 4.0.Doom 4.Overwatch.Tomb Raider.Battlefield 4.

All tests have been passed with the filters to the maximum unless we indicate otherwise. To have adequate performance, we have carried out three types of tests: the first is the most common at Full HD 1920 x 1080, the second resolution is making the leap to 2K or 1440 gamers (2560 x 1440) and the most enthusiastic with 4K (3840 x 2160). The operating system we have used has been Windows 10 Pro 64 bit and the latest drivers available from the AMD website.

What are we looking for in the tests?

First, the best possible image quality. The most important value for us is the average FPS (Frames per second), the higher the number of FPS the more fluid the game will go. To differentiate the quality a bit, we leave you a table to assess the quality in FPS, but we will also have the minimum Fps in the tests that were thus possible:

FRAMES BY SECONDS
Frames for Seconds. (FPS)	Gameplay
Less than 30 FPS	Limited
30 - 40 FPS	Playable
40 - 60 FPS	Good
Greater than 60 FPS	Fairly Good or Excellent

Synthetic benchmarks

As we have been doing in our analysis of graphics cards we have reduced to three synthetic tests, since what really matters is the performance in games. The chosen tests are 3DMARK FireStrike Normal (1080p), 3DMARK FireStrike in 4K quality and Heaven 4.0. As we can see it has a performance similar to the AMD Radeon R9 380X approximately or to the GTX 960 with overclock.

Game Testing

We have decided to make the leap to checking various games manually. The reason? Very simple, we want to give a much more realistic vision and cover tests with current games. Since we make an effort, it is consistent with the level of the website and that of our readers.

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Testing in Full HD games

Testing in 2K games

Testing in 4K games

Overclocking and looking for the sweet spot

Note: Remember that overclocking or manipulation carries a risk, we and any manufacturer are not responsible for improper use, use the head and always do so at your own risk.

We have increased the overclocking capacity to 1345 MHz in the core, being the sweet spot and that surely all its consumers will get. We have also tried to upload the memories without success and we do not know if it is because of the specific unit or because it is not possible to upload it any more. The performance is excellent as we can see in the following image with 3DMARK Fire Strike in Normal mode (FULL HD).

In other words, we achieved an increase of 11499 points in graphics to the 12474 points that we have achieved with overclocking. In games to which it corresponds? According to our tests, about 3 to 5 FPS in the best case, for example, with Doom 4 in 4K resolution we have obtained 32 FPS compared to 28 FPS in stock values . It is not a big climb but it allows us to squeeze the card a little bit.

Temperature and consumption

The temperatures of the PowerColor RX 470 RED DEVIL are excellent as it is a customized model, which is why we are talking about a 100% Premium product. At rest we have obtained 51º C (fan stopped, that is, 0dB) and a maximum of 62º C playing. With overclock the temperatures hardly rose in full performance: 66ºC.

Regarding consumption, we got 81 W at rest and 223 W playing with an Intel i7-6700K processor . When we overclock it goes up to 88 W at rest and 245 W playing at the top.

Final words and conclusion about the PowerColor RX 470 RED DEVIL

The PowerColor RX 470 RED DEVIL is one of the best RX 470 to be released on the market, as it allows us to raise it to the level of an AMD Radeon RX 480 in stock without any problems. It incorporates the recent Polaris core , 4GB of GDDR5 memory and a TDP of just 120W.

Its Devil RED heatsink incorporates two new fans with bearings that are 20% more efficient than the previous generation and four times longer. It also allows us to enjoy ultra-quiet equipment with its fans stopped, which only activate at 60ºC . In addition, the PCB comes with GOLD PowerKit components that shield us from a really good experience.

We recommend reading the best graphics cards on the market.

In our tests we have been able to verify that the PowerColor RX 470 RED DEVIL offers excellent results in Full HD resolution plus AA games (Ideal configuration) and defends itself in resolutions as demanding as 2K (2560 x 1440p). Regarding and consumption are extraordinary and we believe that AMD has done a great job.

Before launching the review we have not seen any graphics card listed but it will officially launch at $ 179, hopefully the euro / dollar conversion in Spain is not very great and we can get this fantastic series of graphics card at a spectacular price. And we ask you… What did you think of you?

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ VORAZ DESIGN.	- NONE AT THE MOMENT.
+ VERY GOOD PERFORMANCE.
+ SILENT AND WITH LOW CONSUMPTION.
+ ALLOWS A GOOD OVERCLOCK MARGIN.
+ PERFECT FOR FULL HD CONFIGURATIONS WITH MORE THAN 65 FPS.

And after carefully evaluating both the evidence and the product, Professional Review awards him the gold medal:

POWERCOLOR RX 470 RED DEVIL

COMPONENT QUALITY

DISSIPATION

GAMING EXPERIENCE

SONORITY

PRICE

8.3 / 10

VERY GOOD GRAPHIC CARD TO PLAY IN FHD