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Review: HD 7790 shootout: Sapphire vs. PowerColor vs. Gigabyte

by Tarinder Sandhu on 29 March 2013, 09:00 3.5

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qabuif

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Testing methodology

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 Dual-X OC 1GB 1,075 896 1,075 6,400 128 Catalyst 13.3 £130
Gigabyte Radeon HD 7790 OC 1GB 1,075 896 1,075 6,000 128 Catalyst 13.3 £125
PowerColor Radeon HD 7790 Turbo Duo 1GB 1,075 896 1,075 6,000 128 Catalyst 13.3 £120
AMD Radeon HD 7790 1GB 1,000 896 1,075 6,000 128 Catalyst 13.3 £120
AMD Radeon HD 7770 1GB 1,000 640 1,000 4,500 128 Catalyst 13.3 £90
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 2GB 980 (1,033) 960 980 (1,033) 6,000 192 GeForce 314.21 £165
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 2GB 980 (1,033) 768 980 (1,033) 6,000 192 GeForce 314.21 £145
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 650 Ti 1GB 928 768 928 5,400 128 GeForce 314.21 £115
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
Crysis 3 DX11 at 1,680x1,050 and 1,920x1,080 2xMSAA, Medium
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
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've also downclocked the Gigabyte HD 7790 OC to AMD reference levels and included the extra numbers in the upcoming graphs.

PowerColor and Gigabyte both clock their OC cards in to the same levels - 1,075MHz core and 6,000MHz memory - so while we've included the benchmark numbers for both, they fall within a one per cent standard deviation of one another.