SAPPHIRE NITRO Radeon R7 370 4GB GDDR5 Graphics Card Review

I normally do not state memory size for cards but I had to for this one as the SAPPHIRE NITRO Radeon R7 370 as it comes with 2GB and 4GB flavors and you should check out my 2GB vs 4GB video if you haven’t. Now back to the card……..

SAPPHIRE NITRO Radeon R7 370 4GB GDDR5 Graphics Card Review

It is a beautiful card, short and sweet seems to describe it well. The cooling system shroud is box-like and the power connector is at the front.

SAPPHIRE NITRO Radeon R7 370 4GB GDDR5 Graphics Card Review

The Sapphire R7 370 Nitro does not come with a backplate.

SAPPHIRE NITRO Radeon R7 370 4GB GDDR5 Graphics Card Review

Here’s the view from the rear and bottom.

SAPPHIRE NITRO Radeon R7 370 4GB GDDR5 Graphics Card Review

Here’s the GPU-Z of the card.

SAPPHIRE NITRO Radeon R7 370 4GB GDDR5 Graphics Card Review

More details at the official product page.

Test Setup

Processor Intel Core i7-5960X
RAM Apacer Blade Fire 2x 8GB DDR4 2400Mhz @ 3000Mhz
Motherboard ASRock X99 OC Formula
Power Supply Cooler Master V850
Operating System Windows 10 64bit

The card doesn’t work well with overclocking, I did manage to up the Core and Memory speed but the result was negative, resulting in the card performing less than what it does on stock.

Benchmarks

Unigine Heaven 4.0

Heaven 4.0
*NOTE : Details are set to maximum.

Card 1080p (avg)
Sapphire R7 370 Nitro 24
ASUS R7 360 16.9

Metro Last Light

Heaven 4.0

Card 1080p (avg)
Sapphire R7 370 Nitro 35
ASUS R7 360 27

Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock Infinite
Settings are at
2 – UltraDX11_DDOF | 2 – Custom | 1 – 16:9 | 4 – FullHD / 4K

Card 1080p (avg)
Sapphire R7 370 Nitro 55
ASUS R7 360 41

*I seem to be getting faster numbers than my previous benchmarks, I don’t know whether the boost is from the latest driver.

Shadow of Mordor

Heaven 4.0
Settings : Set to ULTRA, V-sync OFF.

Card 1080p (avg)
Sapphire R7 370 Nitro 46
ASUS R7 360 31

*Strange but it seems like the R7 360 is faster, perhaps due to the newer drivers.

Grand Theft Auto V

Grand Theft Auto V
Settings : Every option to the MAX setting available.

Card 1080p (avg)
Sapphire R7 370 Nitro 16
ASUS R7 360 13

The Division

The Division
Settings : Set to ULTRA, V-sync OFF.

Card 1080p (avg)
Sapphire R7 370 Nitro 32
ASUS R7 360 23

Temperature

Furmark Burn-in Test was used to stress the card. Fan settings are at Auto. Room set to ~25c.

Card Idle(°C) Load (°C)
Sapphire R7 370 Nitro 30 71
Sapphire R7 370 Nitro (Full RPM) 28 57

The fan hovers at around 41% on AUTO settings where the noise level is silent.

Power Consumption

The stress was done with Furmark Burn-in Test. Power consumption reading was taken from the watt-meter, actual power draw by the entire system from the wall point. I’m using an Cooler Master V850 with around 90% efficiency and the estimated system power draw (CPU, not including GPU) during Furmark test is 80w.

Card Sapphire R7 370 Nitro
Furmark Burn-in 181
Estimated Actual System Draw 163
Estimated Card Power Draw 98

The Verdict

The SAPPHIRE NITRO Radeon R7 370 4GB GDDR5 retails at around RM 750, the card performs much better than any R7 360 cards and offers much better value. With the Sapphire NITRO model, you get not only good graphics performance but also a good cooling system.

goldfries recommended