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HIS supplies the HD 7770 IceQ X Turbo 1GB graphics card in the company's trademark blue and white box.
Disappointingly, the most important information – the factory overclocked card's core and memory frequencies – are absent. Another irritating point is the fact that HIS states the cooler's fan as “9.2cm”. This is incorrect; the fan is actually 8.6cm, as also pointed out by the product's webpage.
HIS really needs to make its packaging more informative. Customers in a shop aren't going to pay extra for a card which they don't know is factory overclocked and they're going to be annoyed when they notice the fan is smaller than stated.
HIS supplies a simple bundle which consists of a DVI-VGA adapter, a case sticker, a driver CD, HIS iTurbo software and some installation instructions.
The HD 7770 IceQ X Turbo (product code: H777QNT1G2M) utilises HIS' IceQ X cooler which uses a 86mm fan to blow air directly onto the GPU and heatsink.
Lower noise, in comparison to blower-style heatsinks, is a benefit of the centre-mounted fan, but a large amount of the GPU's heat is going to be dumped into one's chassis. This shouldn't be too much of a problem with the efficient Cape Verde GPU, but it could cause some headaches for small form factor users.
HIS continues to use an aqua blue PCB for its graphics cards. While the majority of users prefer black PCBs, the aqua blue colour isn't quite as bad as some of the competitors' options (yes we're looking at you red PCB companies).
A single CrossFire connector allows the HIS HD 7770 IceQ X Turbo graphics card to be paired up with another HD 7700 series model. Users will have to hope that the other card is supplied with a CrossFire bridge, though.
The IceQ X heatsink is a dual slot model. A pair of 6mm heatpipes exits the cooler's shroud, but shouldn't cause interference in anything larger than a moderately-sized case.
HIS' IceQ X Turbo graphics card requires just one 6-pin PCI-E power connector.
According to HIS, the recommended minimum power supply requirement is 500W. When coupled with an efficient system, we would have no worries using this card with a high quality unit that offers around 400W of power output, such as Seasonic's excellent G Series 360W.
A single ventilation slot should allow some of the hot air to escape from the rear of the card, rather than be dumped back into the chassis.
Graphics card outputs:
- 2x Mini DisplayPort
- 1x HDMI
- 1x Dual Link DVI-I
HIS uses a reference HD 7770 PCB with the only difference being the omission of the 4-pin fan header.
Four of Elpida's W2032BBBG-50-F memory chips are used to provide 1GB of VRAM. These GDDR5 chips are capable of a 5000MHz frequency.
A pair of direct contact heatpipes extracts heat from the efficient Cape Verde GPU and allows it to be dissipated by a large, densely-packed fin array.
The 519g HIS 7770 IceQ X Turbo graphics card measures in at 218mm, or 207mm to the PCB's edge, meaning that interference is kept to a minimum.
Out-of-the-box operating frequencies for the 7770 GHz Edition IceQ X Turbo 1GB graphics card are: 1100MHz Core and 1200MHz Memory.
