Mid-Range AMD Graphics Card Round-Up (HIS 7770 GHz / HIS 7850 / Sapphire 7850)

We used HIS' own iTurbo software to increase the 7850 IceQ graphics card's core and memory frequencies after raising the board's power control setting to +20%. Voltages were kept at their default levels.

FurMark's GPU Burn-in mode was used to verify stability, along with Crysis 2.

HIS' 7850 IceQ graphics card operates at the reference 7850 frequency of 860MHz core and 1200MHz memory.

The highest stable overclock that we managed to achieve was a core frequency of 980MHz and a memory speed of 1430MHz. We were disappointed by the fact that we couldn't push the core frequency past the 1GHz barrier, despite HIS' power delivery enhancements. It would seem that, being one of HIS' reference clocked models, the 7850 IceQ receives the GPUs which aren't binned for higher speeds – they'll go straight into the factory overclocked IceQ X and IceQ Turbo cards.

The same Elpida W2032BBBG-50-F memory chips that are used on the 7770 IceQ X Turbo topped out at 1430MHz on the 7850 IceQ. This is 180MHz past their rated frequency, so we can't be overly disappointed with this result.

Crysis 2's average frame rates received a noticeable boost when the HIS 7850 IceQ was overclocked.

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