AMD Radeon HD 7770 And 7750 Review: Familiar Speed, Less Power

[OSU Cowboy]

I'm interested in a side to side comparison of the entire 6000 series and the corresponding card in the 7000 series in terms of power consumption. Seems to me, given this article, that's where the big difference is going to be.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]OSU Cowboy[/nom]I'm interested in a side to side comparison of the entire 6000 series and the corresponding card in the 7000 series in terms of power consumption. Seems to me, given this article, that's where the big difference is going to be.[/citation]

Die shrink and new architecture? Yes there will be a difference in performance. The problem now is that there is also a difference in price that decreases the value of these cards below that of the cards they replace, even though they are faster and use less power.

The 7000 cards have higher end prices than their performance and that is a problem for buyers. 7770 performs worse than the 6850, yet it costs more than the 6850? That's wrong. I don't think that the 7770 being the first card to have a reference clock of 1GHz nor any other differences between it and any other card is enough to justify it costing more for it's performance than similar performing cards, especially considering the difference in price between it and similarly performing cards.

 

[Guest]

7770 is a fail to chop out and no 265bit buss and high price. I agree with buzznut this is a fail for the x770 series. But the price will drop and this card will sell sh for 80$

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]Selo[/nom]7770 is a fail to chop out and no 265bit buss and high price. I agree with buzznut this is a fail for the x770 series. But the price will drop and this card will sell sh for 80$[/citation]

None of the previous x770 cards have a 256 bit bus, except maybe the oldest ones. The 4770, 5770, and 6770 all have a 128 bit bus. The card is not a fail, it is just overpriced. It would have been better if it didn't need the PCIe power connector, but that doesn't make the card a fail. However, like it's older siblings, it having a 128 bit bus should not be a surprise, let alone such a problem. If it were cheaper, it would be a very good replacement for the 6770. The 7770 is better in every reasonable way, except for price. It is faster in every way, uses less power, and is undoubtedly better for overclocking too.

Unlike the 6770, it probably isn't capable of triple and quad crossfire, but most people probably don't do that with the 6770 anyway.

 

[dalelaroy]

It's your money, you do what you want with it. It is certain that you can underclock the 7770. You can underclock pretty much all graphics cards and the Radeon 7000 series is no exception. It's done the same way as overclocking with the utilities like Afterburner. Remember, TDP is not directly power draw and that underclocking reduces power draw. The question is whether or not the clock rate will need to be changed when you drop the voltage. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. If you can drop the voltage without losing stability then you won't need to sacrifice a few % of performance to lose the PCIe connector. If you need to drop the clock rate too, well then you lose a little performance, but it's still doable and the underclocked 7770 would then be the fastest card that doesn't need a PCIe power connector.

How is this a smart move that way? AMD wants to sell the 7770 too, you would just buy a 7750 instead because it's the fastest card that is intended for use without a PCIe power connector. I could understand it being a smart move if it requires people to use a PSU with the PCIe connectors because if they didn't have one then buyers would need to purchase one, but AMD is still the graphics cards maker with the fastest graphics cards that don't use a PCIe power connector and that wasn't the point you tried to get across.

Yes, it would be convenient if the 7770 automatically adapted to using or not using the power connector, but AMD decided to leave that to us because for whatever reason they wanted to increase the power usage so slightly over the PCIe slot maximum just so they could market the cards as GHz edition. If the card automatically underclocked itself to below 1GHz, then it would be incorrect to call it the GHz edition. AMD undoubtedly didn't even consider automatic underclocking, but if they had then it probably wouldn't have been done anyway because it wouldn't fit with their current marketing scheme.

AI won't criticize you for wanting to pay more than a 50% premium just so it doesn't need a 6 pin connector, but that puts it in the price range of much faster video cards that would offer far greater performance for that same amount of money. Even the 6870 is considerably faster than the 7770 and it can be found for $150-$170, occasionally cheaper when it's on sale. $179 is around the price of a cheap GTX 560 Ti and that's even faster than the Radeon 6870... If you want to pay a huge premium for not using a PCIe power connector, that's your choice, but that's a pretty big premium that you're willing to pay. I know I wouldn't pay that huge of a premium because that would cost more than getting a 6850 and a high quality 500-600 watt PSU to handle the increased power draw.

If you want to use a current generation graphics card, then the Radeon 6670 is probably the best you could get without a PCIe power connector, not worth it because it's just too slow for modern gaming. I don't know what you do and I don't really know what you are looking for. Excluding an undervolted/clocked 7770, the 7750 should be the fastest card that doesn't use a PCIe power connector, possibly also excluding a non-reference 7770. If you want the most performance without an addition power connector and without a hassle of changing settings, then the 7750 is the best option for you. You can even overclock the 7750 (if that's your thing) significantly without worrying about power draw because of it's very low 55w TDP.

I never said I want to pay $179. It is just that for several years I have been waiting for a card with the performance level I anticipate needing to be available without the requirement of a six pin power connector, and I have always been willing to pay up to $179 for this card. BTW, years ago I said that AMD should initially charge $1299 for the 1GHz Athlon vs $995 for the 1GHz Pentium III. I'm not sure whether they even read my suggestion, but $1299 was their introductory price. I never bought an Athlon at that price, but it was profitable for AMD. If I can get it for $49, all the better. Preferably a card that does not require a six pin connector would cost less than one that does, But I am willing to pay more for it. I do not think the 7750 is up to the job of playing games at the full resolution of a 1080P HDTV, but the 7770 seems to be more than up to the task. With the 7770 priced at $159, a $144 7760 with the specifications I suggested would be quite reasonable.

 

[lakshitharxx]

Hope 7770 price will come down..

 

[blazorthon]

@dalearoy

The 7770 doesn't even come close to being able to play the newest/most intensive games at 1080p. It might do well with 1600x900 or 1440x900, but not 1080p. It will do 720p great. If a 7760 such as what you suggest is made then it may not do as well as the 7770. Some games now need more than even a 6870/560 to be played in 1080p with the quality settings maxed out. The Radeon 6950 or GTX 560 TI are more often recommended for maxed out 1080p nowadays with the 6870/560 recommended for usage at reduced settings.

Of course, most games will run fine on weaker cards, but not the most intensive.

 

[Guest]

the only thing wrong about 7770 is its price. i'll hold off until Nvidia releases its competing cards

 

[blazorthon]

Hey, a new spammer.

 

[jdamon113]

The test is BS. I have a 460gtx with a intel extrime 9770, Crysis two with DX11 gets about 9-12 FPS

 

[blazorthon]

The test is BS. I have a 460gtx with a intel extrime 9770, Crysis two with DX11 gets about 9-12 FPS

Different resolutions, settings? If they're the same as what was used here, you might have a problem.

 

[chinazz]

I've got a Cougar RS 350 PSU, Can I put the HD 7770?
my config
Athlon II X2 260
Biostar TA880GB+
4GB DDR3 single channel
HD 5450 (850/1000)


I can't run Battlefield 3, but Modern Warfare 3 runs nicely in 1920x1080 with everything on, excluding AA.

 

[youssef 2010]

AMD seems to be fine-tuning performance to optimize its GPU hierarchy and obtain the maximum benefit from Nvidia's galactic mistake. That mistake was phasing out the GTX 460 768 MB to introduce the GTX 550 Ti. That left a sizable gap to be filled. AMD is trying to do so with the 7770. IMHO, they will either phase-out the 6850 or reduce the price of the 7770.Currently, though, board partners are offering 6850 for as little as $140 so, people will only buy the 7770 for its lower power consumption and VCE (when it's finally operational)

 

[captainspock]

These look great but where do you buy them? XFX has a hd7750 but I can't find anyone selling them.

 

[robwi]

Did you test these new AMD cards in a PCIe Gen 3 Motherboard? If not, would that have made a difference? I just bought the AMD7750 because it was Gen 3 ready.

 

[hannibal]

I'd expect prices to go down once supply goes up and demand goes down.

TMSC is expected to get its 28 nm production running in the third quarter of this year... so it will be cristmast until the prices starts to come down a little bit...
Allso the 8000 series should come out near cristmast so maybe these "old" 7000 series are really coming down by then.

 

[Guest]

buying the 6850 two weeks ago was the right choice then

 

[triny]

I assume that the 7770 will be the card they pair with Trinity A10 ,if this is the case then
the 7660 igp coupled to one or 2 of the 7770 will be
hard core kickass. for only 300$ or less for 2 7770

 

[Wisecracker]

I assume that the 7770 will be the card they pair with Trinity A10 ,if this is the case then
the 7660 igp coupled to one or 2 of the 7770 will be
hard core kickass. for only 300$ or less for 2 7770

AMD claims a significant improvement in the "dual graphics" department as Trinity parts should benefit greatly when paired up with Turks Pro GPU, aka Radeon HD 6570.

Adjust clocks/memory to equal speeds. Prosper in Dual-Graphics. Boogie On.

TrinityII (or, Kavari) in 2013 looks to be when Graphics Core Next (GCN) brings unified memory to the APU.

That leads me to believe that the discreet HD7750 at 800MHz would be the card of choice for dual-graphics with TrinityII.

And probably really good at compute.

 

[novaguy]

Any frame rate adjustments due to recent driver updates for the GCN cards? I heard reports that driver updates boosted the 7900 series, but did that also happen for the 7700's?

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]novaguy[/nom]Any frame rate adjustments due to recent driver updates for the GCN cards? I heard reports that driver updates boosted the 7900 series, but did that also happen for the 7700's?[/citation]

Almost definitely. I can't imagine a new driver helping one series and not another one which is essentially just a cut-down version of it.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]robwi[/nom]Did you test these new AMD cards in a PCIe Gen 3 Motherboard? If not, would that have made a difference? I just bought the AMD7750 because it was Gen 3 ready.[/citation]

The 7750 is not fast enough for there to be a difference between PCIe 2.x and PCIe 3.0 in most situations. If you use it in an x1 slot that is extended to x16, then there will be a difference, but that's not very realistic. If you do CF, then there might be a difference, but it probably wouldn't be substantial unless you have a ridiculously high end display setup that would be too much for two 7750s to handle anyway.

 

[K K0]

No power consumption under load? =\

 

[warpuck]

2 black 7770s should come close to 7850 & 560ti possible to get between those and 570, 7870 for 1080p. Was going to go that way. If you cant lay out $300 for a 7870. One 7770 at a time will work. I bought a Gigabyte 7870OC to replace overclocked 6770 crossfire. Further OVERCLOCK NOT NEEDED for Gigabyte 7870 OC cards to max a 1080p monitor. I could remove the VisioTek 1000 watt power supply and go back to the Antec NEO 550. Adding a 2nd 7870 would be harder on the wallet than the current power supply. I pulled 2 fans out of the case. It runs that much cooler. Net result is the ole lady is much happier because now she can watch-listen-phone to lifetime. I turned down the amp, because I don't need to drown the fan noise.

 

[blazorthon]

[citation][nom]warpuck[/nom]2 black 7770s should come close to 7850 & 560ti possible to get between those and 570, 7870 for 1080p. Was going to go that way. If you cant lay out $300 for a 7870. One 7770 at a time will work. I bought a Gigabyte 7870OC to replace overclocked 6770 crossfire. Further OVERCLOCK NOT NEEDED for Gigabyte 7870 OC cards to max a 1080p monitor. I could remove the VisioTek 1000 watt power supply and go back to the Antec NEO 550. Adding a 2nd 7870 would be harder on the wallet than the current power supply. I pulled 2 fans out of the case. It runs that much cooler. Net result is the ole lady is much happier because now she can watch-listen-phone to lifetime. I turned down the amp, because I don't need to drown the fan noise.[/citation]

Two reference 7770s can pass up the reference 7870, but you'd want 2GB models for that. Two 7750s are much closer to the 7850 than two 7770s are.