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

Applications used during measurements:

• GPU-Z 0.5.9
• MSI Afterburner 2.2 beta 12
• 3DMark Vantage 1.0.2
• 3DMark11 1.0
• Unigine Heaven Benchmark 3.0
• MediaEspresso 6.5
• Battlefield 3 + FRAPS 3.4.7 build 13809
• Crysis 2 1.9 + Adrenaline Crysis 2 benchmark tool 1.0.1.13
• Far Cry 2 + Far Cry 2 benchmark tool 1.0.0.1
• F1 2011 (built-in measurement)
• Hawx 2 demo benchmark
• Alien vs Predator benchmark
• Batman Arkham City (built-in measurement)

Test configuration: 

 * For Radeon HD 6790 and HD 6850, measured with the final 12.3 drive

Using graphics drivers:

Before describing the results of the tests, we need to clarify how we performed them. For the synthetic measurements (3DMark11, 3DMark Vantage / PhysX off /, Unigine Heaven Benchmark) we did not tweak the settings of the GeForce driver or Catalyst, everything ran according to the factory configuration. However, after the synthetic measurements, we manually turned on the 16 × anisotropic filtering for the games, because in many applications this is not possible from the program, but we felt its presence was necessary for the measurements.

Consumption and heating measurement:

Opponents were also subjected to consumption and warm-up measurements. The appetite of the cards was tested with a wattmeter by recording the value of no-load consumption at rest under Windows, this time by testing the systems with Blu-ray and Furmark running. During all measurements, we tried to form an approximate average from the data seen, but as these are not measurements performed under laboratory conditions, they are for information only. MSI Afterburner 2.2 beta 12 was used to monitor temperature values, load levels, and fan speeds, monitoring was performed after a short period of rest during the FurMark load phase, and then the cards were allowed to cool.

As you can see, if consumption is an important consideration for us (and in this world it is more and more for more and more people), then the Radeon HD 7770 is a good choice for us. Despite its high clock speeds, it is 10-11 watts less than the Barts models, even when unloaded, the difference was 5-6 watts for Blu-ray playback. Under FurMark, on the other hand, the difference has grown significantly again, with 25-30 watts between generations, although the HD 6790 and HD 6850 are not considered appetite cards either. Radeon HD 7770? Outstanding consumption!

Examination of Cape Verde cards working in configurations for clock, temperature, load and fan speed:

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

From the graph, it is clear that the MSI's dual-fan cooling didn't have to strain even harder when the HD 7770 was braked. The card warmed from an unloaded temperature of 34-35 degrees to 52 degrees while the fans spun between 30-43% of maximum speed, which meant between 1412 and 2152 rpm when reversed to RPM. We can't have any particular complaints about the noise level, we won't be deaf from the MSI HD 7770.

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

GIGABYTE’s savior worked a degree more efficiently than even cooling MSI. When unloaded, the GPU was only 31 degrees, and under load it warmed up to 51 degrees, here it could beat just one degree against the competitor, but it was hit with a piece of fan that spun between 40-47%. Unfortunately, the MSI Afterburner RPM could not be read on this card, but it certainly did rotate significantly less with this huge venti, which also resulted in sound and slightly less noise. Overall, we were satisfied with the production of both cooling. 

Test results:

* Games were run at 1680 × 1050 and 1920 × 1080 resolutions with maximum edge smoothing available (4 × or 8 ×), 16 × anisotropic filtering, maximum detail available, with all visual enhancements turned on

The results show that the performance of the stronger Cape Verde is quite undulating compared to the two weaker Barts models. At baseline, the HD 6790 beats in synthetic measurements and can be slightly faster in most games. The HD 6850 already has a larger wall, here it bleeds in synthetic measurements, except for Heaven, which suggests good tessellation skills. During Crysis 2, the HD 7770 and the HD 6850 went the same for FPS, but after that the novelty in each article fell short. Although the GIGABYTE model was given a small boost by tuning, which looks good compared to the results achieved with the factory clocks, overall it proved to be less against the Radeon HD 6850 as well.

Opinion

It’s a bit complicated to articulate a general opinion about the stronger Cape Verde, the Radeon HD 7770. On the one hand, it has given a card that represents state-of-the-art manufacturing technology, and from this, and in terms of related services, it offers the capabilities of cards that are much more expensive than it is, with a much cheaper, more satisfying range of output. The card hardly heats up and hardly consumes, which means that it is not difficult to cool down, it can be solved quietly even in a passive way. Clean, simple PCB, not too complicated cooling, cheap production - we would think. Given the 1GB GDDR5, the 1 GHz (or above) clock, however, the expected performance still fell short or we might have expected too much from it. What is clear, however, is that the Radeon HD 7770 is currently a slightly faster card than the HD 6790 and a slightly weaker card than the HD 6850, with better power consumption. Of course, performance can still increase with new drives and newer games, but we feel it won’t get as much as it should for its current price.

Unfortunately, the Radeon HD 7770 is not cheap at the moment. The The gross purchase price of MSI Radeon HD 7770 (R7770-2PMD1GD5 / OC) around HUF 47 is clearly exaggerated, especially in light of the fact that the real tuning and thus higher performance GIGABYTE HD 7700 OC (GV-R777OC-1GD) is already available in the height of 41 HUF. While there’s nothing wrong with the MSI model either, in light of current prices, we can clearly offer this GIGABYTE product for purchase from this pair at this time.

The Radeon HD 7770 is currently still disproportionately expensive compared to previous generations, which, while consuming more, offer higher performance at a lower cost and don’t force a big cut in terms of features. Of course, based on the model number, we would have to compare it to the HD 6770, which it will certainly easily put behind it, well, but please, how does this pricing relate to this, when a faster HD 6850 from 37 HUF and a can an even faster GeForce GTX 000 be taken home for 460 HUF, or can an HD 41 be grabbed for 000? Of course the question is poetic.

Power of novelty, smaller inventory, expensive foreign exchange, you can catch a lot of things, but in addition to the current purchase price, we can only recommend the HD 7770 to those who want the latest of everything, if they base their decision on a previous model or waiting is the right move. Nonetheless, the HD 7770 won our favor without regard to prices.

MSI R7770-2PMD1GD5 / OC

GIGABYTE GV-R777OC 1GD

The MSI Radeon HD 7770 (R7770-2PMD1GD5 / OC) VGA is Domestic representation of MSI, The GIGABYTE HD 7700 OC (GV-R777OC-1GD) graphics controller is Domestic representation of GIGABYTE submitted for testing, thank you!

The article was written by: Zoltán Mihics (med1on) and Gábor Pintér (gabi123)

Thanks to the following sponsors for our permanent test components in this article:

• Intel Core i5-2500K - Intel
• GIGABYTE Z68X-UD7-B3 + GIGABYTE Representation in Hungary
• MSI GTX 560 Ti Twin Frozr II OC - MSI Representation in Hungary
• Kingston HyperX T1 DDR3 2133 MHz 4 x 2 GB Kit - Kingston Representation in Hungary
• Kingston SSD Now V Series 64 GB SATA2 (SNV425-S2 / 64) - Kingston Representation in Hungary
• Xigmatek NRP-HC1501 - PC Gear
• ASUS 24T1E TV Monitor - ASUS Representation in Hungary