AMD Radeon HD 6790 Review: More Mid-Range Might

[Guest]

The Crossfire bench was the most interesting part of this article for me. Comparing to your review of the 6970/6950, two of these cards in Crossfire performs better in the Just Cause 2 benchmark than the 6970 for less than the price. Of course, the rest of the components could've been the limiting factor (no Sandy Bridge at that time). Nevertheless, it would be really nice to see a follow-up article comparing this things Xfire performance/value with single cards around the same price.

 

[Gulli]

Ah, that TDP is a nasty surprise, other than that it comes down to pricing but it having the same TDP as a HD 5850 is a big disappointment.

 

[professorprofessorson]

While the HD 6750 seems to really offer a lot of performance for the price, it is commendable that the HD 5770 itself still performs so well. Drivers for that card have really matured quite well since its initial release. The GTX 460 is still holding up quite well too. The GTX 550 TI and GTS 450 however are highly unimpressive considering their cost versus their performance.

 

[youssef 2010]

Why didn't you test the older AMD cards with catalyst 11.3?

 

[youssef 2010]

I think the green team might apply some pressure by lowering the 460 1GB's price. This is also the first time that AMD seems hasty about GPU introduction. Price/Performance is great but consuming more power than the 6850 wasn't cool.Come on AMD, you could've designed the GPU and PCB in parallel instead of dropping the new GPU into the older card's PCB.

Regardless of the PCB issue. AMD proves once again that they are the kings of sweet spot strategy. Well done, AMD and I hope nobody mimics the reference design in retail products.

Also, Thank you toms for the great review

 

[Olle P]

[citation][nom]ProDigit10[/nom]nothing for me, ... slot,it's slower than the 6850it consumes almost twice the power on standby, and more on active than the 6850[/citation]My thought too. This seems a bit like a re-run of the 5830.

Actual performance and price is okay, but it's a power hog!

 

[geok1ng]

As with all Radeon 6000-series cards, the DVI port beside the exhaust grille is a single-link output, while the other is dual-link-capable.

I wonder when AMD will come back to 2 DL-DVI ports per card, meanwhile all of my upgrade options are on NVIDIA´s side of the field.

And the 4 DL_DVI ports of the ASUS 4870X2 are still without peer.

Or give me at least one DL-DVI to Displayport active adapter

 

[pacioli]

"If the GeForce GTX 460 768 MB does disappear without a suitable replacement, the Radeon HD 6790 will only have the GeForce GTX 550 Ti with which to content. "
content?
and look at the final graph the average is lower than the minimum performance on the 5770

 

[pacioli]

look at the final graph the average is lower than the minimum performance on the 6850 too...

 

[JackNaylorPE]

[citation][nom]compton[/nom]The best part of 6790 appears to be the bitchin' CF scaling, if nothing else. Depending on where prices end up, it still would be hard to recommend when a few dollars more can get you the 6850.[/citation]

I'm stupid .... all the way to the bank. Saved $105 in rebates and codes on my most recent build .... 1st rebate already rec'd. I purchased the case / PSU two weeks before the rest of the components while they were on sale w/ rebate while I waited for B3 version of WS Revolution to arrive. Have next to last component arriving today; final component (Vertex 3) will arrive 2 days after it comes in stock.

Best I have done on rebates was our AutoCAD Drawing Plotter .... $11,995 MSRP - $2,000 sale - $2,000 trade in - $2,000 rebate ... paid $5,995.

As for the article itself, with the 460 1Gb card readily available at $140, I have to question why it was left out of the review. Given the numbers and relative costs I see on newegg, I think I'd take the $155 6850 over a $150 6790 anyway.

 

[James296]

oh, I smell a graphics upgrade for me coming down the pipe
anyway....
the crossfire scaling was a bit surprising for me

 

[17seconds]

GTX 560 non-Ti.

 

[megamanx00]

I've got a sense of dejavu, like I've seen this before. Oh wait, THAT WAS CALLED THE 5830!!!!!!

I'm just sayin

 

[kelfen]

Crossfire results would be nice to see in the bigger scheme of things

 

[greenrider02]

I'm a bit skeptic about the Crossfire results. AMD -says- the pair will be limited by the specs of the lower card, but that was almost perfect scaling for the Crossfire tested games. Is there a chance that the 6950 was pulling a bit more leg than the 6790?

 

[WR2]

Interesting choice of titles and sub-titles:
More Mid-Range Might & Built From Winning Genes
Looks like someone was well supplied with those 'feel good' endorphins while writing the article.

I guess this means we can expect to HD 6790 holding down a prominent position in the next THG edition of Best Graphics Cards For the Money.

 

[dannoddd]

In the article it clearly states that you crossfired a 6950 with the 6790. The AMD chart says you can only crossfire cards with the first 2 numbers matching (68xx/68xx, 69xx/69xx) does this mean that we can crossfire ANY 6 series? Have you guys tried any other configurations?

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]WR2[/nom]I guess this means we can expect to HD 6790 holding down a prominent position in the next THG edition of Best Graphics Cards For the Money.[/citation]

As long as it keeps a reasonable price spread between itself and the 6850/GTX 460 1GB. If it's too close, it won't get any recommendations.

We'll have to see where pricing settles.

 

[mosu]

Who buys a 200$ video card and plays on 1280 x 1024 monitor? In some games higher GPU and memory frequencies might help over processing power.Lower dissipation is easily obtainable lowering the same GPU and memory frequencies.I'm waiting to see what cooling solutions will meet my noise conditions.

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]greenrider02[/nom]I'm a bit skeptic about the Crossfire results. AMD -says- the pair will be limited by the specs of the lower card, but that was almost perfect scaling for the Crossfire tested games. Is there a chance that the 6950 was pulling a bit more leg than the 6790?[/citation]

According to AMD, CrossFire only works when both cards have the same spec (or one is crippled to match the other).

I have tested this with various cards and can confirm it is the case.

 

[fshaharyar]

[citation][nom]tacoslave[/nom]I think the 550ti is the most useless release this year and yes even though the 6790 card draws more power than i would like its still miles ahead of the 550 ti. As for the gtx460 768 i think it would be stupid to take it off the market its nvidia's new 8800gt and only competition for amd 6790.[/citation]

If it had been around $130-135 mark then it would have really killed Nvidia 460 768mb as well as 550ti.

the correct price should be there because $150 price will eat HD6790 itself as 6850 is about $10-15 more that is you can invest 10% more and get 18-20% performance increase.

the killer value from my point of view is $135

 

[spentshells]

more electricity but less power then a 6850, butna

 

[iam2thecrowe]

bios flash to 6850 or 6870?

 

[killerclick]

Higher power draw than a 6850 but less performance? I hope that's not the case in actual production models.

 

[Guest]

higher power draw but lower temperature.. not sure if it's because the fan is working harder or the card is more efficient. i like the fact that it's much cooler and less noisy than a 5770. i used to not caring about heat and noise level a bit, until i got a 4870x2 and its noise and heat level freaked me out.