Sapphire Radeon HD 7790 Dual-X Pictured, Tested

[btarunr]

Here are the first pictures of Sapphire Radeon HD 7790 Dual-X, the company's premium offering based on AMD's new GPU. The card features Sapphire's in-house PCB and cooler designs, including an aluminium fin-stack heatsink ventilated by a pair of 80 mm fans, and a 21.5 cm long PCB. The card draws power from a single 6-pin PCIe power connector, its display outputs are similar to the HD 7850, with a pair of DVI connectors, HDMI, and DisplayPort. It can pair with another of its kind, only.



SweClockers, who have one of these, wasted no time in putting it through 3DMark Fire Strike and 3DMark 11. In Fire Strike, the card scored 4026 points (graphics) compared to the 4395 points of Radeon HD 7850, which is just 8.3 percent slower. It's a similar story with 3DMark 11, where the HD 7790 scored 1583 points (graphics) compared to the 1734 points of HD 7850, just 8.7 percent slower. The reviewer is using a beta Catalyst driver bearing version number 12.101.2.0.



A GPU-Z screenshot taken for the card reveals clock speeds of 1075 MHz core, and 1600 MHz memory, which results in a memory bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s. A point to note here is GPU-Z 0.6.8 doesn't officially support HD 7790 "Bonaire," and so some of the values which are not reported by the driver, such as stream processor count, TMU/ROP counts, and even memory bus width could be unreliably reported. Values such as clock speeds and memory size are driver-reported, and could be accurate.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Jorge]

It's odd that Sapphire has never been able to provide quality customer support even when supplying ATI/AMD reference GPU cards and mobos. This is unfortunate IMO as they could significantly increase their sales if they did.

 

[GamerGuy]

It's odd that Sapphire has never been able to provide quality customer support even when supplying ATI/AMD reference GPU cards and mobos. This is unfortunate IMO as they could significantly increase their sales if they did.

Really depends on why you are actually, Sapphire distributer customer support in my neck of the woods is pretty good actually.

 

[Amrael]

I agree, they make some of the best AMD based video cards and yet they still carry just a 2 year warranty and the first time you send in your card to be replaced you have to pay $50. I can say the same about Powercolor and HIS. These three companies should revise their warranty policies because lets say one buys a Powercolor Radeon HD 7990 which until recently cost around $1000 wouldn't it be logical to back this product with at least a Three year warranty, in the case of Sapphire They have the 6GB 7970 version which costs around $600. Now ask yourself, Why would I buy that product if their parent company doesn't back it up as they should. I very much prefer XFX (lifetime warranty), Visiontek (Lifetime Warranty) or Diamond (5 year warranty) in that order and then if I get a really good deal then I would go MSi, ASUS or Gigabyte which give me at the least a three year warranty (and I have to say and I know many people agree Twin Frozr III, Direct Cu II and Windforce III cards are rather good in aesthetics and performance).

 

[GLD]

Great performance for a 128 bit card!

 

[The Declaimer]

2x DVI, HDMI and fullsized DisplayPort? Are these hints to the HD 8xxx reference I/O?

 

[The Quim Reaper]

Great performance for a 128 bit card!

Until you turn on AA, then watch performance fall off a cliff.

 

[dj-electric]

2x DVI, HDMI and fullsized DisplayPort? Are these hints to the HD 8xxx reference I/O?

No. Many HD7000 cards have this setup.

 

[tacosRcool]

Why would they make the 7790 128 bit while the 6790 had 256 bit?

 

[AlienIsGOD]

A point to note here is GPU-Z 0.6.8 doesn't officially support HD 7790 "Bonaire," and so some of the values which are not reported by the driver, such as stream processor count, TMU/ROP counts, and even memory bus width could be unreliably reported.

its going to be 768 shaders regardless of this statement, which was pointed out in another thread to mixed opinions.

 

[HD64G]

Until you turn on AA, then watch performance fall off a cliff.

For such a price, I will accept it...

 

[dj-electric]

I can kinda see how the high memory clock speeds cover for the 128BIT bandwidth, as if it were a 1060Mhz 192BIT

A little bird from the folks at MSI whispered to me they also got a similar version , Advanced cooled and *military* styled.

 

[Deleted member 74752]

Maybe another "cruncher" in the works...

 

[Darksword]

delete

 

[blibba]

Why would they make the 7790 128 bit while the 6790 had 256 bit?

I'd say it's the 6790 that was the badly named card - it should have been called the 6830. Anyway, the naming system is so far gone that it's hardly worth worrying about (6970 vs. 5970, for example).

 

[Aquinus]

(6970 vs. 5970, for example).

You mean 5870 vs 6970 don't you?

 

[blibba]

You mean 5870 vs 6970 don't you?

No, but the fact that you think that really makes my point.

*970 was dual-GPU high-end one generation and single-GPU high-end the next. The 5970 was actually faster than the 6970.

 

[Aquinus]

No, but the fact that you think that really makes my point.

*970 was dual-GPU high-end one generation and single-GPU high-end the next. The 5970 was actually faster than the 6970.

They pushed more single GPU cards into the higher ranks when they released the 6000 series cards. For example, the 6870 can in some cases run faster than the 5870 but raw power wise I believe the 5870 is faster.

The real point I'm trying to make is that I feel that AMD looked at it and thought to themselves that the 5800-series alone isn't enough to encompass top of their GPU lineup and there were too many gaps. It's all about hitting as many price points in the market so no matter what your need is, they will have something to fit your budget.

I agree that it is confusing but I completely understand why AMD did it.

 

[blibba]

I agree that it is confusing but I completely understand why AMD did it.

Ditto. And there are lots of similar inconsistencies on both sides (6790 should be 6830, 650Ti has more in common with the 660 than the 650, etc.), but generally you can see what it is they're up to. But it still rustles my jimmies.

 

[dj-electric]

The biggest advantage that AMD has is they can use the HDXX30 and HDXX90 while NVIDIA doesn't have something similar. All they have is Ti, non Ti and SE

 

[blibba]

The biggest advantage that AMD has is they can use the HDXX30 and HDXX90 while NVIDIA doesn't have something similar. All they have is Ti, non Ti and SE

If that's really their biggest advantage, that's quite sad. But I'm sure Nvidia could get imaginative if they could be bothered (GTX660LE, GTX650Ultra, etc.).

 

[Aquinus]

If that's really their biggest advantage, that's quite sad. But I'm sure Nvidia could get imaginative if they could be bothered (GTX660LE, GTX650Ultra, etc.).

AMD really does a good job at fitting video cards at just about every price point up to performance level cards. I don't think many people will deny that.

 

[blibba]

AMD really does a good job at fitting video cards at just about every price point up to performance level cards. I don't think many people will deny that.

That's true, but not what Dj-ElectriC said.

 

[Pehla]

Why would they make the 7790 128 bit while the 6790 had 256 bit?

its hd 6970 and its top single gpu on 6000 series!!not 6790!!

 

[blibba]

its hd 6970 and its top single gpu on 6000 series!!not 6790!!

http://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/283/AMD_Radeon_HD_6790.html