Testing methodology
HIS Radeon HD 7750 iCooler Specification |
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GPU comparisons |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graphics card | Approx. pricing |
GPU clock (MHz) |
Stream processors |
Shader clock (MHz) |
Memory clock (MHz) |
Memory bus (bits) |
Graphics driver | |
| Sapphire Radeon HD 7770 OC (1,024MB) | £130 | 1,150 | 640 | 1,150 | 5,000 | 128 | Catalyst 12.1 | |
| PowerColor Radeon HD 7770 (1,024MB) | £120 | 1,000 | 640 | 1,000 | 4,500 | 128 | Catalyst 12.1 | |
| HIS Radeon HD 7750 iCooler (1,024MB) | £100 | 800 | 512 | 800 | 4,500 | 128 | Catalyst 12.1 | |
| Sapphire Radeon HD 6870 (1,024MB) | £130 | 900 | 1,120 | 900 | 4,200 | 256 | Catalyst 11.12 | |
| Sapphire Radeon HD 6850 (1,024MB) | £110 | 775 | 960 | 775 | 4,000 | 256 | Catalyst 11.12 | |
| Sapphire Radeon HD 6790 (1,024MB) | £100 | 840 | 800 | 840 | 4,200 | 128 | Catalyst 11.12 | |
| HIS Radeon HD 6770 (1,024MB) | £80 | 850 | 800 | 850 | 4,800 | 128 | Catalyst 11.12 | |
| Sapphire Radeon HD 6670 ULTIMATE(1,024MB) | £75 | 800 | 480 | 800 | 4,000 | 128 | Catalyst 11.12 | |
| ASUS GeForce GTX 560 DirectCU (1,024MB) | £130 | 810 | 336 | 1,420 | 4,004 | 256 | ForceWare 295.51 | |
| Gigabyte GeForce GTX 550 Ti OC (1,024MB) | £100 | 970 | 192 | 1,940 | 4,200 | 192 | ForceWare 295.51 | |
Mainstream Test bench |
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| CPU | Intel Core i5 2500K (3.3GHz, 6MB L3 cache, quad-core, LGA1155) | |||||||||||
| Motherboard | Intel DP67BG | |||||||||||
| Memory | 8GB Corsair Vengeance (9-9-9-24-2T @ 1,600MHz) | |||||||||||
| Power Supply | Corsair AX750 | |||||||||||
| Monitor | Dell 30in 3007WFP | |||||||||||
| Disk drive(s) | Crucial RealSSD C300 (256GB) | |||||||||||
| Chassis | Corsair Graphite Series 600T | |||||||||||
| Operating system | Windows 7 SP1, 64-bit | |||||||||||
Benchmarks |
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| 3DMark 11 | Performance and Extreme presets | |||||||||||
| Aliens vs. Predator | DX11, 1,280x720 and 1,920x1,080 resolutions, 2xAA, 8xAF, medium quality | |||||||||||
| Batman: Arkham City | DX11, 1,280x720 and 1,920x1,080 resolutions, 4xAA, high quality | |||||||||||
| Battlefield 3 | DX11, 1,280x720 and 1,920x1,080 resolutions, 0xMSAA, 16xAF, high quality | |||||||||||
| Crysis 2 | DX11, 1,280x720 and 1,920x1,080 and resolutions, 0xAA, 16xAF, high quality | |||||||||||
| Just Cause 2 | DX10, 1,280x720 and 1,920x1,080 resolutions, 4xAA, 16xAF, medium quality | |||||||||||
| Total War: Shogun 2 | DX11, 1,280x720 and 1,920x1,080 resolutions, 4xAA, 8xAF, high quality | |||||||||||
| Power consumption | To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record mains power draw both when idle and whilst playing Total War: Shogun 2 | |||||||||||
| Temperature | To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record GPU core temperature both when idle and whilst playing Total War: Shogun 2 | |||||||||||
| Noise | A PCE-318 noise level meter is placed at front of a Corsair 600T chassis with side panel on | |||||||||||
| Overclocking | Pushing the graphics card as far as it will go, we increase speeds and re-run the Aliens vs. Predator benchmark | |||||||||||
| HEXUS bang4buck | A custom metric used to evaluate comparative performance with price factored in | |||||||||||
Notes
Eagle-eyed readers may notice another GPU added to the mix. Because we're looking at a bus-powered HIS HD 7750 iCooler card that's equally geared for HTPC use as much as gaming it makes sense to add a comparison card from the last generation that fulfills the same criteria. We've used the fan-less Sapphire Radeon HD 6670 ULTIMATE, as reviewed here, and it provides silent graphics for around £75.
We understand that the HIS' higher pricing means it's not an absolute apples-to-apples comparison, though looking at the benchmark scores of the duo should give greater context to the HD 7750 - a card that starts at £85 or so.
