Sapphire HD7790 2GB OC Review

This review focuses on how the HD7790 compares against the higher clocked 1GB Sapphire model and a handful of other cards which are relevant in the budget to mid range sector.

Test System

Processor: Core i7 3960 X Extreme Edition @ 4.4ghz
Graphics Card: Sapphire HD7790 2GB OC (Catalyst 13.5 Beta)
Cooler: Antec 920 H20
Memory: 16GB G.Skill 2,400mhz @ 10-11-10-30
Motherboard: Asus Rampage IV Extreme
Power Supply: Seasonic 1KW Platinum
Optical Drive: Asus BluRay Drive
Chassis: Lian Li PC-A77FR Aluminium Red Full Tower Case
Boot Drive: Patriot WildFire 120GB
Secondary Drive: 1TB Samsung
Monitors: Dell U3011 and Dell U2410 x 3.

Comparison cards:
XFX HD7770 Core Edition (Catalyst 13.5 beta driver)
Sapphire HD7790 OC Edition (Catalyst 13.5 beta driver)
XFX HD7850 Core Edition (Catalyst 13.5 beta driver)
XFX HD7870 Core Edition (Catalyst 13.5 beta driver)
Sapphire HD7950 Vapor X Edition (Catalyst 13.5 beta driver)
Zotac GTX650 (Forceware 314.22 driver)
Gainward GTX660 (Forceware 314.22 driver)
Gainward GTX660 ti (Forceware 314.22 driver)
Zotac GTX670 (Forceware 314.22 driver)

Software:
Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit
Unigine Heaven Benchmark
Unigine Valley Benchmark
3DMark Vantage
3DMark 11
3DMark
Fraps Professional
Steam Client
FurMark

Games:
Alien V Predator
Sleeping Dogs
Total War: Shogun 2
Dirt Showdown
Max Payne 3

All the latest BIOS updates and drivers are used during testing. We perform generally under real world conditions, meaning KitGuru tests games across five closely matched runs and then average out the results to get an accurate median figure. If we use scripted benchmarks, they are mentioned on the relevant page.

Some game descriptions are edited from Wikipedia.

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