Sapphire Radeon RX 480 Nitro+ 4GB GDDR5 Graphics Card

Introducing AMD LiquidVR

LiquidVR™ is an AMD initiative dedicated to making VR as comfortable and realistic as possible by creating and maintaining what’s known as “presence” — a state of immersive awareness where situations, objects, or characters within the virtual world seem “real.” Guided by close collaboration with key technology partners in the ecosystem, LiquidVR™ uses AMD’s GPU software and hardware sub-systems to tackle the common issues and pitfalls of achieving presence, such as reducing motion-to-photon latency to less than 10 milliseconds. This is a crucial step in addressing the common discomforts, such as motion sickness, that may occur when you turn your head in a virtual world and it takes even a few milliseconds too long for a new perspective to be shown.

AMD XConnect™ Technology

Plug in and game on with AMD XConnect technology.

Now it’s easier than ever to connect and use an external Radeon™ graphics card. With AMD XConnect™ technology, external GPU enclosures configured with Radeon™ Graphics can easily connect and disconnect to a compatible ultrathin notebook or 2-in 1 over Thunderbolt™ 3 at any time, just like a USB flash drive—a first for external GPUs!

Virtual Super Resolution

Virtual Super Resolution (VSR) is an AMD feature that is game and engine agnostic to simulate Super-Sampling Anti-Aliasing (SSAA) in games that do not have native SSAA support. VSR can also be used in conjunction with other native in-game anti-aliasing for even more game graphics-setting control. VSR allows games to render at higher resolutions (up to 4K; see the ‘Virtual Super Resolution Support’ table, below) and then rescales them down to a lower native display resolution. Using this, you can get quality that rivals up to 4K, even on a 1080p display while playing your favorite games.

HDR Ready

High Dynamic Range (HDR) is a state-of-the-art technology for gamers and cinephiles that care deeply about the display quality of their TV or monitor. Modeled after the acuity of human vision, HDR vastly expands the range of colors and contrast ratios that can be shown by compatible displays. HDR-ready games and movies played on an HDR display appear strikingly sharp, colorful, and vivid, with enhanced contrast and sophisticated nuance compared to even the most stunning SDR content.

VR Friendly

The SAPPHIRE NITRO Gaming Series cards come with Dual HDMI ports, specifically designed to work with VR. By having two HDMI ports, you can have both an HD monitor and cutting-edge VR headset running at the same time.

The ports are HDMI 2.0b, the latest update, with an 18Gbps bandwidth, up to 32 audio channels, and is able to support 4K 50/60 resolutions like 2160P, whilst remaining entirely backwards compatible with older HDMI specifications.

Dual-X Cooling

SAPPHIRE's acclaimed Dual-X Cooling is powered by two massive yet silent fans and state-of-the-art radiator design. The new form of our 95mm blades mean greater airflow and superior heatsink coverage at lower noise compared to standard cooling designs.

These feature dual ball bearing fans, which have an 85% longer lifespan than sleeve bearings in our tests.

NITRO Free Flow

We looked at the traditional axial fan design system, and found that the way it circulates the hot air back to the fan inlet resulted in a higher temperature over time. With NITRO Free Flow (NFF) we redesigned the airflow of the entire cooler and board, so that the hot air is expelled through the system fan instead, rapidly dissipating heat.

AMD Freesync technology

No stuttering. No tearing. Just gaming.

AMD FreeSync™ technology allows a compatible graphics card and monitor to dynamically change frame rates for the optimum display quality without tearing or stuay.

Industry-Standard Displayport

Freesync uses industry-standard displayport Adaptive-Sync Eliminates screen tearing without all the usual lag and latency

• Synchronizes the refresh rate of a compatible monitor to the frame rate of your content, however much it varies
• Monitor partners are validating with drivers from AMD now

NITRO Quick Connect

If there’s a fan problem, you don’t have to return the entire card – SAPPHIRE or our channel partners will send out a replacement fan directly to you! All the SAPPHIRE NITRO + Radeon RX480 and RX470 fans use our Quick Connect system. That means they’re easy to remove, clean and replace, with just one screw holding them securely in place.

Two-ball bearing

Dual ball bearings on the fan spindles ensure smooth running and long life and are designed to keep out dust. A quiet cooling solution, Two ball-bearing fan features a high-efficiency blade design.

Frame Rate Target Control

Frame Rate Target Control (FRTC) enables users to set a target maximum frame rate when playing an application in full screen mode; the benefit being that FRTC can reduce GPU power consumption (great for games running at frame rates much higher than the display refresh rate) and therefore reduce heat generation and fan speeds/noise on the graphics card.

Frame Rate Target Control caps performance not only in 3D rendered in-game scenes, but also in splash screens, loading screens and menus, where frame rates can often run needlessly into the hundreds of FPS. Users might wish to set a very high cap just to limit wasteful FPS like that seen in menus and such, while still taking advantage of the responsiveness given by FPS well beyond 60.