ASUS Radeon HD 7790 DirectCU II OC Review @ [H]

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Brent_Justice

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ASUS Radeon HD 7790 DirectCU II OC Review - AMD is launching the Radeon HD 7790 today. This new video card should give the sub-$200 video card segment a kick in the pants. Will it provide enough performance for today's latest games at $149? We will find out, testing the new ASUS Radeon HD 7790 DirectCU II OC with no less than six of today's hottest games.
 
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Not sure if it's the lack of caffeine in my system or not, but that last page of the review seemed like it was all over the place comparing the 7790 to other cards. It sounded like you guys concluded that the 7790 was basically equivalent to a 650 Ti, but you never really concluded or recommended one over the other -- or is the performance/price/etc on the two so close that either is a great choice? Or am I reading way too much between the lines, or not enough? :confused:
 
And neglected a better comparison - the fact that right now you can frequently and easily find 7850 1gb cards for $150 after rebate, and they come with Tomb Raider and Bioshock included for that price! I just can't see a reason to get a 7790 right now.
 
dboy said:
easily find 7850 1gb cards for $150 after rebate, and they come with Tomb Raider and Bioshock included for that price! I just can't see a reason to get a 7790 right now.
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Another review noted that the 7850 1GB was being discontinued because the memory it uses is no longer manufactured. I cannot imagine AMD issuing another 7800 series 1GB card to replace it. This will be their top 1GB option when 7850 stock runs out. Frankly I would be buying the discounted 7770 if I was not gaming at 1080p or a 2GB card if I was 1080p or planning on upgrading displays in the future. $150 1GB cards really dont make much sense to me these days.
 
Prav said:
Another review noted that the 7850 1GB was being discontinued because the memory it uses is no longer manufactured. I cannot imagine AMD issuing another 7800 series 1GB card to replace it. This will be their top 1GB option when 7850 stock runs out.
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Ok, I'll grant that. So for the next little while, get the 7850, and after that, well, you're stuck paying the same for less with the 7790. Glad I'm well stocked with 7850 and 7870s in my rigs!
 
looks like a great card............... provided i can buy a 2GB version for $150.

has real potential as a HTPC card.
 
dboy said:
the fact that right now you can frequently and easily find 7850 1gb cards for $150 after rebate
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Newegg has a 7850 2 GB card for $160 after MIR, which sounds like a pretty sweet route to go.
 
I can't find this on sale anywhere Brent. Any idea when it will be available for retail purchase?
 
It may interest some of you to know this card does amazingly well in compute. (Sony Vegas Pro 12 etc..) I think it's an all around great card. Great review guys.
 
I thought [H] didn't make low end video card reviews. As you never made a 650Ti test until now.

Good to see the change of hart.

Looking at low end cards that can run recent games at 1080p +FXAA is quite impressive. Sure you have to tweak some settings, but still.
 
It wouldn't take much from NVIDIA to tip the scale back to its favor. In fact, that tipping could happen sooner than you think.
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Yes, and then AMD could follow up with something that beats that. And on and on, etc. The point you made was worthwhile: that right now nVidia offers nothing comparable to the 7790 @ the ~$150 mark. Speculation about future, unannounced, non-existent products detracts from the products reviewed and tested, and adds no information of worth to the review.

7790 is a nice card for the money, as sometimes people don't realize how well this level of card runs in a decent system--when you aren't running benchmarks and looking at fraps, that is. In some games, for instance, 30 frames per second is just as fluid as 60 fps, in experience. The benchmarks won't tell you that--and that is exactly the kind of info that [H] should be imparting. I know, because for the last couple of years I've deliberately limited myself to a 5770 in order to see how owning such a low-end card impacts my game playing and enjoyment. I've been pleasantly surprised by how well this card runs whatever I throw at it (single display, of course)! That's why I still have the card and have not replaced it already. These cards will also do Crossfire, too, which would have been fun to look at here. Before the 5770, my twin 4850's ran very well, indeed. Your review has me thinking about a 7790 whereas I'd already decided that a 7770 wasn't going to fit the bill this time.

I would like to see you use 1920x1200 in your card reviews as that is the default res for my monitor and is what I use with the 5770. I imagine I am not alone with that particular native resolution.

Otherwise--good review! Yes, don't sell these "low-end" cards short as they are not nearly the poor performers that they were ~five years ago and earlier.
 
WaltC said:
I would like to see you use 1920x1200 in your card reviews as that is the default res for my monitor and is what I use with the 5770. I imagine I am not alone with that particular native resolution.
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1920x1200 is pretty much extinct. Besides the performance would be pretty much the same.

Not worth the hassle.
 
Stoly said:
1920x1200 is pretty much extinct. Besides the performance would be pretty much the same.

Not worth the hassle.
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1200 is 11.1% more pixels -- you'll feel it somewhat. But yah everything is 1080 down at the store ...
 
WaltC said:
I know, because for the last couple of years I've deliberately limited myself to a 5770 in order to see how owning such a low-end card impacts my game playing and enjoyment. I've been pleasantly surprised by how well this card runs whatever I throw at it (single display, of course)! That's why I still have the card and have not replaced it already. These cards will also do Crossfire, too, which would have been fun to look at here. Before the 5770, my twin 4850's ran very well, indeed. Your review has me thinking about a 7790 whereas I'd already decided that a 7770 wasn't going to fit the bill this time.
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Yeah still quite a lot of us rocking 5770's in some form or another. Which is good or bad depending which way you look at it. Haven't changed my cards since 2009. That's the longest I've ever gone.

Might be HardOCP but a lot of us here (probably most of us) don't have $400 to spend on GPUs every 8 months.Well not anymore anyway.;)
 
I read the [H] review with a lot of interest as I have a 7770 in my gaming rig. For once, I'm disagreeing with the [H] suggestion that the 7790 is a viable upgrade path from a 7770. I say that only in light with my impressive results in overclocking MY 7770 (with voltage tweaks)(see signature).

I dunno. I paid $109 for my 7770 via newegg almost 1 year ago. My upgrade path is probably to a 256 bit unit.

Excellent review as always. Thank you. I believe the 7790 is an excellent card. If you already have a 7770...I'm not sold on the 7790.

edit* - I may need to read the review again though. Perhaps I missed something. It's Friday and I'm drinking beer.
 
WaltC said:
Yes, and then AMD could follow up with something that beats that. And on and on, etc. The point you made was worthwhile: that right now nVidia offers nothing comparable to the 7790 @ the ~$150 mark. Speculation about future, unannounced, non-existent products detracts from the products reviewed and tested, and adds no information of worth to the review.
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Knowing what's coming, and how soon its coming, its hard not to think about it, especially considering I'm literally evaluating it at the exact same time. If it was months out, I wouldn't have said a thing, but its soon, real soon.

7790 is a nice card for the money, as sometimes people don't realize how well this level of card runs in a decent system--when you aren't running benchmarks and looking at fraps, that is. In some games, for instance, 30 frames per second is just as fluid as 60 fps, in experience. The benchmarks won't tell you that--and that is exactly the kind of info that [H] should be imparting. I know, because for the last couple of years I've deliberately limited myself to a 5770 in order to see how owning such a low-end card impacts my game playing and enjoyment. I've been pleasantly surprised by how well this card runs whatever I throw at it (single display, of course)! That's why I still have the card and have not replaced it already. These cards will also do Crossfire, too, which would have been fun to look at here. Before the 5770, my twin 4850's ran very well, indeed. Your review has me thinking about a 7790 whereas I'd already decided that a 7770 wasn't going to fit the bill this time.
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We certainly try to impart the fact that fps isn't everything, been saying that for years. This is certainly a better buy than a 7770.

I would like to see you use 1920x1200 in your card reviews as that is the default res for my monitor and is what I use with the 5770. I imagine I am not alone with that particular native resolution.
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We used to. We changed to 1080p for several reasons, the most common display resolution is 1080p now, its also the default size for HD video, and really is more common than 1920x1200 use to be. It's the "standard" to which displays live by these days. It is the nature of the times. I'm sure in years it'll change to something else, right now, it is kind of a standard and gives everyone something to which they can compare to, its an understood resolution on media devices today.
 
Prav said:
Another review noted that the 7850 1GB was being discontinued because the memory it uses is no longer manufactured. I cannot imagine AMD issuing another 7800 series 1GB card to replace it. This will be their top 1GB option when 7850 stock runs out. Frankly I would be buying the discounted 7770 if I was not gaming at 1080p or a 2GB card if I was 1080p or planning on upgrading displays in the future. $150 1GB cards really don't make much sense to me these days.
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I agree with a lot of what you are saying here. If there will not be a 1GB 7850 it will be because AMD does not want it. Why would RAM not be available? I was waiting for the 7850 2GB to hit $150 to pick one up as it has been flirting closer and closer. But the 1GB 7790 at $150 has confused matters some. Couple this with the 7870LE 2GB and things just don't make sense to me ATM. :confused:
 
Too bad it doesn't come with Tomb Raider instead of Bioshock. I probably would've picked it up. Hopefully the 7850 2gb's can hit $180 without rebate soon.
 
It amazes me how little the sub $200 market has moved beyond the 1GB/256-bit GTX 460 in terms of performance, which is a two and a half year old card at this point.
 
Cmdrmonkey said:
It amazes me how little the sub $200 market has moved beyond the 1GB/256-bit GTX 460 in terms of performance, which is a two and a half year old card at this point.
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It just isn't 1999 anymore when every extra fps counted. I kind of miss those days. Far more exciting.:)

Would be interesting to know how worldwide demand for graphics cards costing more than say $75 has changed over the past 10 years.
 
You can get a 7850 2GB for $179.99 currently. More stream processors, 256 bit, double the VRAM of the 7790. And considering how well the 7850's overclock, I don't see the 7790 as being that great a value.
 
Love the small PCB size and how clean it is. Looks like this PCB design has alot of room for growth and I hope this PCB size is used on future high performance AMD cards.
 
ir0nw0lf said:
Not sure if it's the lack of caffeine in my system or not, but that last page of the review seemed like it was all over the place comparing the 7790 to other cards. It sounded like you guys concluded that the 7790 was basically equivalent to a 650 Ti, but you never really concluded or recommended one over the other -- or is the performance/price/etc on the two so close that either is a great choice? Or am I reading way too much between the lines, or not enough? :confused:
Click to expand...

It depends on where you are coming from. If you already have a 650 Ti, keep it. If you have a 7770, 7750, or lower, then the 7790 is an upgrade in performance. If you are today, looking for a card at $150, the 7790 is the way I'd go, it always had higher performance than the 650 Ti, even if it didn't' have a higher playable settings. But then there were a few games, were it did. So overall, the 7790 is the card I'd take home today, over the 650 Ti. Hope that clears it up.
 
dboy said:
And neglected a better comparison - the fact that right now you can frequently and easily find 7850 1gb cards for $150 after rebate, and they come with Tomb Raider and Bioshock included for that price! I just can't see a reason to get a 7790 right now.
Click to expand...

There's a reason for that - the HD7850 (in 1 GB trim) is going away (the HD7790 is, in fact, its replacement). Also, look at the price for 2 GB HD7850's - the spread is marginal, they take up no more room than a 1 GB GPU in the case (or in terms of draw on the PSU, either) - the 2 GB models ALSO include Tomb Raider and BI (Never Settle - Reloaded). A fair comparison would be HD7790 vs. HD7850 2 GB.
 
anthrex said:
Too bad it doesn't come with Tomb Raider instead of Bioshock. I probably would've picked it up. Hopefully the 7850 2gb's can hit $180 without rebate soon.
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They have - keep your eyes peeled at the usual suspects (Newegg, TigerDirect, even MicroCenter). MicroCenter alone has offered HD7850s in 2 GB trim three different times - from three different AIB partners (MSI, Diamond, and HIS) for that price.

Took a peek at Newegg - eleven HD7850 2 GB cards at or below $200USD (before rebates). (PowerColor is cheapest, and ASUS is the highest priced of the eleven.)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...42 600007782 4017&IsNodeId=1&name=$100 - $200

(NOTE - I did not count the Sapphire at the bottom - it is listed as Out of Stock.)
 
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This is now available in the UK for just £80 which seems like a bargain.

Clearing out the old 7790 cards to make room for the r7 260x successors no doubt.

Anyone know if the UK versions arrive with Biochock in the box as a voucher, as i don't think the AMD game promotion is valid with amazon marketplace sales?
 
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