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

We used Sapphire's Trixx software to increase the 7850 Dual-X 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.

Sapphire's 7850 Dual-X 1GB graphics card operates at the reference 7850 frequency of 860MHz core and 1200MHz memory.

Core overclocking was very successful – we managed to storm past the 1GHz barrier. A maximum core frequency of 1110MHz left us very impressed by the Sapphire 7850 Dual-X 1GB graphics card's overclocking capabilities.

An increased memory speed was achievable, but the 12.5% boost to 1350MHz isn't as good as the 1475MHz and 1430MHz frequencies that the HIS 7770 IceQ X Turbo and HIS 7850 IceQ cards achieved, respectively. Perhaps the 1GB set of Elpida's W1032BBBG-50-F memory chips feature reduced overclocking headroom, in comparison to chips from the 2GB set which are found on both HIS cards.

A very noticeable performance increase is achieved by way of overclocking. The 27% jump in minimum frame rates can be the difference between a game being continuously playable and getting choppy at certain points.

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