Introduction

Today AMD releases the first 40 nm GPU in the world. Their new RV740 graphics processor powers the HD 4770 Series which is targeted at the sub-$100 segment. Rather than focusing on a small volume in high-end graphics, AMD has realized that a lot of people want cheap, affordable graphics that still can play most games out today.

RV740 is heavily based on Radeon HD 4850/4870/4890 technology. For example we are seeing GDDR5 memory on the card. Since RV740 comes only with a 128-bit memory bus interface, GDDR5 can show huge improvements because it effectively doubles the memory bandwidth. So RV740 with 128-bit GDDR5 has the same bandwidth as 256-bit RV770 with GDDR3 (HD 4850).

Architecture-wise RV740 is identical to other member of the RV7xx Series, there are no changes. This means that the GPU comes with support for DirectX 10.1 and UVD 2 HD Video Decode Acceleration.

Packaging & Contents

We received the card from AMD in an unspectacular brown box without any accessories.

Retail products will certainly come with a nice colorful box and plenty of goodies like DVI and HDMI adapters, CrossFire Bridge and PCI-E power cables.

The Card

AMD's new card is a little bit shorter than their HD 4850/4870/4890. From left to right: HD 4770, HD 4870, HD 4870 X2.


The cooler uses two slots and does look quite different to the one we have seen on the various leaks. Where the heatsink on the leaks looked very weak, this cooler looks like a very capable solution that can properly cool the whole card. We asked AMD to clarify why there was a discrepancy between our cooler and the one we saw on the leaked images and it seems that AIBs were given a choice which cooler to use. All AIBs went for the cheaper one, so initially there will be no HD 4770s on store shelves that use the same cooler as our review sample.


The card has two DVI ports, the most common output configuration today. If you want to use the card with your big TV screen you can use the included HDMI adapter. In case you need an analog port you can also use the included DVI adapter.
For HDMI Audio, NVIDIA requires you to feed an external audio source, for example from your motherboard's on-board audio, to the card via SPDIF cable. AMD on the other hand has integrated a sound device inside their GPUs which is the easier solution for most users.


The HD 4770 supports CrossFire configurations with two cards. I did confirm with AMD that there is no support for CrossFire triple or quad. It wouldn't make sense on such a product anyway.


Here are the front and the back of the card, high-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods etc, please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.

A Closer Look

AMD's heatsink for the HD 4770 looks a bit like a low cost version of the HD 4870/4890 heatsink. It features two heatpipes but no copper base. As mentioned before, all retail HD 4770 cards will use a different, cheaper, cooler.


After removing the fan module, a black metal plate remains on the card that cools the memory.


A single six pin PCI-Express power connector is required to supply additional power to the graphics card.


The GDDR5 memory chips are made by Qimonda and carry the model number IDGV1G-05A1F1C-40X. With a cycle time of 1.0 ns, they are specified to run at 1000 MHz.


The ST Electronics L6788A is a 3 phase voltage controller specifically designed for GPUs. It does have an I2C interface which means that very possibly its output voltage can be adjusted via software.


The Renesas R2J20602 is a second voltage controller on the card. Since its maximum output current is 40A my educated guess is that it is responsible for the memory voltage.


This is AMD's new RV740 GPU. It is the first GPU in the world that is made on a 40 nm process. Like all ATI graphics processors it is produced at TSMC Taiwan and packs 826 million transistors.