Sapphire GPro 4200 - What is it?

Hardware GPU
1

Content of this thread:
1) Unboxing
2) Driver installation
3) Benchmarks (but not really)
4) Conclusion
5) TL;DR
6) Update: Sepcs

Hope I got the tags right.

1) Unboxing

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-PCI-bracket full and low form factor
-miniDP to DVI-D connector
-Driver Disk
-The card itself

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2) Driver installation

Took the disk and gave it a shot.

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The disk is well packed, 3.55GB. As you see, you get Drivers for the GPro 4200 and 6200 but not the 8200. I find the option to install Linux drivers from Disk reassuring as I want to use this card for my upcomming Linux based machine.

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From there, you get the standard AMD-Driver install:

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And a little crash:
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3) Benchmarks

Started up Overwatch just to take a look. 42FPS on low settings 720p, render scale was down to 53%. Those settings looked like the ones Overwatch picked on a friends rig, a rig with an R7 250x in it.
After a quick look, I knew what why:

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4) Conclusion

The Sapphire GPro 4200 is clearly meant for quad display office applications, not gaming, not at all. 4GB GDDR5 are a nice touch, however it is hard to see for me how that weak of a GPU will be able to use it effectively. My guess is it is the cheapest option with the least power draw. Overall card consumption is said to be 50W.
If I had known earlier what this card is, I would have saved 65€ and went with the XFX RX 460, more specific, this one:

As this card will only be used to display the things Linux will need to display and get me to my VM, it is more or less all I need.

Edit: Just noticed a very strange behaviour. I shut down my machine and pulled the card out. After booting up again, MSI-Afterburner can not controll fan speed or read the temperature from my Fury anymore. Funny enough, Overwatch has no issue with temperature readout. So this is the most expensive fix for a software problem ever.

5) TL;DR

Most expensive R7 250 you can get, but with 4 miniDP outputs.

6) Specs

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Source: http://hexus.net/tech/items/graphics/94675-sapphire-introduces-new-gpro-commercial-graphics-series/

3 Likes
2

The answer: Sapphire decided they wanted to sell FirePros, so now they do.

The GPro 8200 is the most interesting one, undercuts the Radeon Pro cards in price for a bit more performance in the single-slot form factor.

3

Do you have any idea what GPU the 8200 is based on?

4

Polaris 10.

5

Are you sure about that?
I could not find anything on these cards. Most sites sell them, but not one of them lists more than the obvious specs (which might even be wrong).
Looks more like a 200-series overhaul.

6

Fouquin knows all.

GPRO 8200 is essentially the recently announced WX7100, consisting of a Polaris 10

I just realized I quoted fouquin.

1 Like
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http://cdn.www.sapphirepgs.com/uploads/Sapphire_20162174022.pdf

14nm FinFET, 4th GCN Architecture

@Goalkeeper

:)

1 Like
8

Mark me sceptical.
The WX7100 runs 650 dollars, the GPro 8200 only costs 350. Don´t know about you guys, but essientialy the same product for 300 bucks more seems rather strange.



Or German Amazon:
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9

I can not speak specifically for that. But I do know that sometimes Newegg pricing is F*cked up. There are some stuff selling for way higher then at other places.

Or maybe I do not know pricing and the point of making money.

10

Go ahead and read the spec sheet on the GPRo 8200 then. I linked their PDF.

What's important to understand is that Ellesmere (P10) can be configured in a lot of different ways. The WX 7100 is basically the full-feature configuration and sits in the CAD/DCC/CAM consumer market. The GPro 8200 is an OEM Digital Signage card that features the next step down for Ellesmere, both downcored and downclocked. Because of the market it sits in and the features it has in-box it demands a lower price.

Pricing low also helps move stock of a product that is meant to be purchased in bulk. Digital signage adapters are generally purchased on contract and so each card carries a lower price. The ones you see being sold as single units are probably cards that are leftover from an order. (I.E. Company needed 88 cards, contracted 100, sold the excess privately.)

Also important to point out that the exuberant margin on AMD's Pro cards is their support structure, the same as nVidia's Quadro line. Very specialized and specific software support and extended hardware warranties are included in that bottom line, something that standard consumer cards don't necessarily have.

11

So, you are saying you are confident enough to throw 350 bucks potentially out the window?

12

To me it seems like the two are targeted for entirely different markets and use cases. Reading through the GPRO .pdf it says nothing about workstations or other heavy loads. It's entirely focused on signage, multimedia, and other commercial tasks. The Radeon Pro looks to be focused on the workstation, compute, and heavy work load usage.

Two different cards at two different prices for two different uses. If you need basic graphical display go with the GPRO. If you need to do some heavy work go with the Radeon Pro.

13

I apologise for digging this thread, but what do you guys think of a GPRO 8200 card when compared to a RX 470? I was thinking about buying one for two reasons: GPU shortage (mining craze) and Single-slot design. I would use it for gaming and a bit of mining, but I'm afraid the drivers won't work or something... :confused: