Sapphire RX 570 Pulse ITX SFF GPU Review

1. Introduction2. Sapphire RX 570 Pulse ITX3. Testing Methodology4. 3DMark (1080p and 1440p)5. SteamVR Performance Test6. Unigine Heaven (1080p and 1440p)7. Ashes of the Singularity (1080p and 1440p)8. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (1080p and 1440p)9. Ghost Recon: Wildlands (1080p and 1440p)10. Grand Theft Auto V (1080p and 1440p)11. Rise of the Tomb Raider (1080p and 1440p)12. Noise13. Power Consumption14. Temperatures15. Overclocking16. Closing Thoughts17. View All Pages

The RX 570 Pulse ITX is another effective card from Sapphire. Aimed at the ITX/SFF market, it is likely to have strong appeal to prospective buyers.

Throughout our testing, we saw it perform very similarly to other RX 570 solutions, despite its single-fan cooling solution. It is slower than those other cards due to its lack of factory overclock, but even so, the real-world impact of that is between 1-2 FPS. As such, this card is still very competitive despite its size and lesser clock speed.

I also found the Pulse ITX card to be cool, quiet and even a decent overclocker. I actually managed to snag an extra 15% performance in Fire Strike by adding +131MHz to the GPU core, which is very impressive for a SFF card.

Pricing is also important, as we are still waiting for the AMD graphics card market to settle down again given the artificially-inflated RX 500-series pricing. Given that this card retails for £179.99 – the same as the larger, RX 570 Pulse – we can safely say it offers good value and consumers are not being charged a premium for the SFF nature of the card.

The only thing I would say to those considering this card is this: how small a graphics card do you really need? If you absolutely need a single-fan graphics card measuring less than 200mm long, then the Sapphire Pulse ITX model will serve you very well. However, for many consumers, I would imagine that the aforementioned RX 570 Pulse (non-ITX model) would actually be fine. This is because it is still a diminutive card, at just 230mm long, yet it has the advantage of higher clockspeeds out-of-the-box, plus its cooling solution is also more advanced.

Clearly, I can't recommend one or the other without knowing just how small your case is really, but many Mini-ITX cases would still be able to fit a 230mm-long card comfortably. Take the Fractal Node 202, the Lian Li PC-Q17 and the Define Nano S – three very popular Mini-ITX cases, and all would fit the RX 570 Pulse with room to spare.

Therefore, my final verdict is this: the Sapphire RX 570 Pulse ITX is an excellent, SFF RX 570 solution. If you need the absolute smallest graphics card capable of pushing games at high settings on a 1080p monitor or HDTV, this is a great contender for your money. However, I would expect many consumers with small cases would still be able to fit the full-size RX 570 Pulse card, as it is really not much bigger than its ITX sibling yet offers higher frequencies, a more effective cooling solution and a snazzy backplate.

You can buy the RX 570 Pulse ITX for £179.99 from Overclockers UK HERE.

Pros

• Will fit in essentially every ITX case on the market.
• Performs very similarly to other RX 570 cards, despite the lack of factory overclock.
• Good value.
• Overclocks very well.

Cons

• Lacks a backplate.
• I would imagine SFF/ITX system owners would still be able to fit the full-size RX 570 Pulse card.

KitGuru says: The Sapphire RX 570 Pulse ITX card is a very effective ITX card. However, I do wonder how many people actually need a card this small when the RX 570 Pulse edition is already quite diminutive.

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