Tried it: AMD Radeon HD 7770 - Cape Verde on the stage

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This time, copies came from MSI and GIGABYTE to the editorial office, both drawn from the stronger Cape Verde, let’s see what they know!

MSI Radeon HD 7770 (R7770-2PMD1GD5 / OC)

Although there is also a reference solution for Cape Verde cards, almost all manufacturers launch products with a custom PCB and custom cooling, MSI is no exception. There is also an OC token in its name, which unfortunately we have to deal with with reservations. As we already know, the HD 7700 GHz Edition, as its name suggests, has a 1 GHz baseband and 1GB of GDDR5 memory ticking at 4500 MHz. MSI left the RAM frequency untouched and managed to pull 20 MHz onto the GPU. This is indeed tuning, but in our own reading we cannot consider this to be a real overshoot that also affects performance, so we measured the card at the 1000 MHz base clock signal.

In addition, there is no other point of question on the card, it is based on a small (235 x 111 x 38 mm - with cooling), easy-to-install black printed circuit board, we should have no problem with its placement in a normal ATX-type housing. The GPU has a not-too-high but elongated, relatively sparsely lamellar aluminum rib, in which a thick 8mm copper heat pipe helps distribute heat more evenly and thus make it easier to leave the surface.

Of course, fans also play a major role in this. The plural is not a typo, because this cooling solution is a "dual fan", i.e. a piece with two fans, so the heat can leave the long rib evenly and quickly. Of course, you can't miss the pretty plastic cover with the MSI logo either, it lends the card a nicer, more sophisticated look than if the ribs and vents were naked. Since the HD 7770 is not a large-scale VGA, it makes do with a single 6-pin PCI Express power connector, which is ready at the very end of the card's printed circuit board.

Of course, we don't have to give up using CrossFireX for cheaper cards either, we can find the necessary connector in the usual place. The back of the PCB was also cleaned up, not many components had to be used to bring the stronger Cape Verde to life and keep it alive. Together with cooling, this model takes up two card slots, the upper part of the front panel, which acts as a ventilation grille, is already traditionally cut out in the middle at MSI to form an MSI shape.

To be sure, we can't complain about the output range, as the HD 7770 also offers higher-end equipment in this segment: a piece of Dual-link DVI, a native HDMI and two mini Displayports. We immediately realize from the card box that it is an MSI product, the blue-white pairing is typical of the manufacturer in these times.

The box is not too big and not crowded, in addition to VGA you will find an installation disc, a user manual, a mini DisplayPort converter, a molex-> 6-pin PCI Express power converter, and a DVI-Dsub converter, which is really all our basic requirements. fulfills.

GIGABYTE HD 7700 OC (GV-R777OC-1GD)

The child of GIGABYTE is a piece similar in size but following a different idea in implementation. Being the Radeon HD 7770, they also used the GHz Edition GPU as the starting point for the blue, 41,5mm high, 212mm long, 136,5mm wide printed circuit board, which has now become a GIGABYTE trademark. That product has also received the OC signal, the GPU clock has been increased from 1000 to 1100 MHz, and the GDDR5 memory has been increased from 4500 to 5000 MHz, which can already be considered a fair degree of overdrive that can be felt in everyday use. Since we did a base clock measurement with the MSI copy, we will have a benchmark for how much the GIGABYTE HD 7770 has accelerated thanks to the factory OC.

The PCB is even more than 2 cm shorter than the MSI solution, so we can conveniently place the controller in a smaller housing. Although we didn’t disassemble it into pieces, seeing on both sides of the PCB that we didn’t have to integrate half the world into them. At the end of the top side of the PCB, where the 6-pin PCI Express power connector was also located, in the band that appears next to the cooling cover from the PCB, for example, nothing went. This is just a good thing, because the fewer the components in something, and the simpler the implementation, the safer it is to operate, the less chance it will fail.

In addition, GIGABYTE also uses Ultra Durable VGA 2 technology in the production of Cape Verde models, which means that high-quality MOSFETs, iron-high coils and solid electrolytic capacitors are used in production, which is also the key to longevity and good tuning potential. This time, GIGABYTE used a circular aluminum rib for its own cooling, dotted inside with solid and curved lamellas on the outside.

Not a recent implementation, we’ve seen this many times, typically on previous cards that haven’t produced much heat yet, so re-applying the old proven system confirms that the Cape Verde GPU is a low-power, low-heat piece. What was less fashionable in the past, however, is the huge fan, as GIGABYTE engineers dreamed of a 10cm diameter air agitator on the card.

This is a good thing, because a large diameter is always a blessing when it comes to a fan, as it can move the same amount of air at a lower speed with a lower noise level than a small diameter fan that also rotates the brain. Also included is a nicely fitting plastic cover plate, from which the CrossFireX buckle peeks out.

The outputs are now very uniform on cards, regardless of manufacturer. The GIGABYTE HD 7770 OC also takes up two card slots, so the upper part of the cover plate could be used as a ventilation grille, the bottom bar is lined with a bunch of outputs: one piece of Dual-link DVI, one native HDMI and two mini Displayports. GIGABYTE, however, always tries to get out of line a bit, even now adding a drop of spice by providing HDMI with a neat gold plated for better streaming.

Already here, the box itself reveals who your son's calf is, the HD 7770 OC is also housed in a medium-sized box in the company of the user manual, the installation disc and the usual converters.