Final thoughts and rating
MSI's take on the Radeon HD 7770 1GB GPU centres on placing a two-fan cooler on top of a reference-like PCB. Available in two flavours based on one design, the OC version, priced at £130, reviewed here, clocks in with a core speed just 20MHz higher above the 1,000MHz mandated by AMD.
We know the HD 7770 is bested by price-equivalent GPUs from the previous generation, bringing its value, or lack thereof, into sharper focus. But we wanted to answer a different question this time around, one of how two cards would compete when pushed up against much more illustrious GPU company in our high-end test suite.
Two-card CrossFireX results for the MSI R7770 range from excellent to poor, underscoring the foibles of AMD' multi-GPU technology and limitations imposed by a 1GB framebuffer. When two Radeon HD 7770s work well, invariably at a 1,920x1,080 resolution, scores are alongside an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580's and thus serve to remind us of the potency of AMD's Graphics Core Next architecture. However, when CrossFire doesn't work well, or the framebuffer limitations come into play, results are mediocre at best.
The Radeon HD 7770, and by extension MSI's R7770-2PMD1GD5/OC, has the ability to do well when subject to the right benchmarks and resolution settings. But this hit-and-miss performance shouldn't be the cornerstone of your buying decision.
Bottom line: MSI's Radeon HD 7770 OC represents a slight overclock on the reference card. Fitted with an excellent cooler and able to provide decent numbers under optimum conditions, we still reckon that better value can be found elsewhere.
The Good
Very good cooler
Can provide near-perfect scaling in CrossFire
Solid power-draw characteristics
The Bad
Two-card performance lacking in some games
Better gaming value elsewhere
HEXUS Rating
MSI R7770-2PMD1GD5/OC
HEXUS Where2Buy
The reviewed card can be purchased from Scan.co.uk.
HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
