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Review: Sapphire AMD Radeon HD 7790

by Tarinder Sandhu on 22 March 2013, 04:00 3.5

Tags: Sapphire, AMD (NYSE:AMD)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qabt6b

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Testing methodology

Sapphire Radeon HD 7790 Dual-X spec

GPU Comparisons

Graphics Card GPU Clock
(MHz)
Stream
Processors
Shader Clock
(MHz)
Memory Clock
(MHz)
Memory Bus
(bits)
Graphics Driver Approx Price
AMD Radeon HD 7850 1GB 860 1,024 860 4,800 256 Catalyst 13.3 £125+
Sapphire Radeon HD 7790 1GB 1,075 896 1,075 6,400 128 Catalyst 13.3 £120
AMD Radeon HD 7770 1GB 1,000 640 1,000 4,500 128 Catalyst 13.3 £90
AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB 900 1,120 900 4,200 256 Catalyst 13.3 £115
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 2GB 980 (1,033) 960 980 (1,033) 6,000 192 GeForce 314.21 £170
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB 928 768 928 5,400 128 GeForce 314.21 £120
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 1GB 900 336 1,800 4,000 256 GeForce 314.21 £140

HEXUS Graphics Test Bench

Processor Intel Core i7-3770K (3.50GHz, 8MB cache, quad-core)
CPU Cooler Intel reference E97378-001
Motherboard Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UP4 TH
Memory 8GB G.Skill RipJaws (2x4GB) DDR3 @ 1,600MHz
Power Supply Corsair AX750W
Storage Device Samsung 830 Series 256GB SSD
Optical Drive Generic 24x DVD-RW
Chassis Corsair Graphite Series 600T
Monitor BenQ 24in EW2430 (1,920x1,080)
Operating system Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit, SP1)

HEXUS Mid-Range Benchmarking Suite

3D Benchmarks Mode and Resolutions Quality Settings
3DMark DX11 Fire Strike and Cloud Gate
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 DX9 at 1,680x1,050 and 1,920x1,080 4xMSAA, High
DiRT Showdown DX11 at 1,680x1,050 and 1,920x1,080 4xMSAA, High
Far Cry 3 DX11 at 1,680x1,050 and 1,920x1,080 2xMSAA, High
Just Cause 2 DX10 at 1,680x1,050 and 1,920x1,080 4xMSAA, High
Crysis 3 DX11 at 1,680x1,050 and 1,920x1,080 2xMSAA, Medium
General Benchmarks Description
Power Consumption To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record mains power draw both when idle and while playing Far Cry 3
Temperature To emulate real-world usage scenarios, we record GPU core temperature both when idle and while playing Far Cry 3
Noise A PCE-318 meter is used to record noise levels when idle and while playing Far Cry 3

Testing notes

We introduced a few different games and resolutions on our super-high-end testing before Christmas 2012. Using the same titles means grounds-up testing for mid-range cards. Thus the tested resolutions have been reduced to 1,680x1,050 and 1,920x1,080, while in-game settings are also knocked-down when compared to, say, the GeForce TITAN.

It makes sense to take a look at the HD 7790's performance against the two AMD GPUs that surround it: the HD 7770 and HD 7850. Turning our attention to the green team, HD 7790 has been designed to out-compete the price-comparable GeForce GTX 650 Ti, which is included here. The faster, more expensive GTX 660 is worthy of inclusion and, given that the GTX 500-series was popular, we've seen fit to throw in a last-generation GTX 560 card, as well.

The obvious wrinkle here is that we're comparing an overclocked HD 7790 to a standard GTX 650 Ti, because AMD wouldn't supply a stock-clocked card.