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Today we are checking out the latest additions to the Radeon HD 7000 series, as AMD unveils two new HD 7700 models. Both the Radeon HD 7770 and HD 7750 are targeting the sub-$200 price range, making them mainstream gaming graphics cards. Based on the same GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture as the Radeon HD 7900 series, we are expecting good things...
Codenamed Cape Verde these new GPU’s utilize the 28nm design process which has allowed AMD to fit 1500 million transistors into a die that measures just 123mm2. The advantage to this is that the Radeon HD 7770 and HD 7750 should be very efficient graphics cards that consume very little power.
Another advantage to using the 28nm process is that AMD has been able to be very aggressive, and ramp up the core clock speed. The Radeon HD 7770 for example operates at 1GHz, and it is the first AMD graphics card to ever operate at such an extreme frequency right out of the box. Although the Radeon HD 7750 works at a more tame 800MHz, that is still quite high for a budget graphics card. When it comes to the memory both cards are fitted out with 1GB of GDDR5 memory with an effective clock speed of 1250MHz (5.0GHz DDR). While those specs aren’t bad, the 128-bit wide memory bus made us cringe when looking at the spec sheet. This tiny memory bus means that the Radeon HD 7700 series is limited to a bandwidth of just 72GB/s, which is less than the old HD 6750. Although we are not sure how much of an impact this limited bandwidth will have on performance, we know it will be a key weakness for the Radeon HD 7700 series. Something else that is surprising about these new graphics cards is the core configurations, which when compared to the flagship HD 7970 model are quite poor. In fact again if you look back at the older Radeon HD 6770 and HD 6750 graphics cards, they appear to have beefier core configurations. The Radeon HD 7770 calls for 640 SPUs, 40 TAUs and 16 ROPs. In comparison that is actually 20% less SPUs than the HD 6770, while the TAU’s and ROPs remain the same. The Radeon HD 7750 on the other hand features just 512 SPUs, 32 TAUs and 16 ROPs which is 29% less SPUs and 11% less TAUs than the old HD 6750. Of course the new GCN architecture is more efficient that the older VLIW5 architecture used by the Radeon HD 5000 series, so the core configurations might not matter all that much. What does matter is the price and the Radeon HD 7770 has an MSRP of $159 while the HD 7750 is slightly cheaper at $109. In comparison the Radeon HD 6770 currently costs between $120 - $130, while the slightly faster HD 6790 ranges between $130 - $140. The Nvidia competition features the GeForce GTX 560 at around $170 - $190, while the GTX 550 Ti is more affordable at $120 - $130. With that in mind let’s move on to see how they perform... |
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skully |
Posted on: 02/15/2012 08:09 PM
Disappointing performance for those prices for sure. |
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razr |
Posted on: 02/15/2012 08:17 PM
Looking like I am still not going to bother upgrading my 5770 Crossfire setup  |
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Offordef |
Posted on: 02/15/2012 09:03 PM
AMD you are ripping us off, nVidia give us some competition please. Such a small chip can't be expensive to produce an certainly not worth what the consumer is charged for. 4770 -> 5770 -> 6770 -> 7770...... Looking for a GPU for my Mini-ITX HTPC but probably stick with a 6850 (I have the space and PSU). For this price I expect something that can play Full HD (Games ) with more frames then this offers. Too bad because I do like the power envelope of this thing. (Steve, thanks for the review) |
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ProX |
Posted on: 02/15/2012 09:43 PM
I agree massive rip off. How can AMD release a product that is so much slower than the competition and charge pretty much the same price. As the review said the GTX 560 is like 9 months old now and still much faster. Shame on you AMD! |
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lydown |
Posted on: 02/16/2012 08:45 AM
yeah AMD pretty much sucks now. |