Sapphire HD7770 GHZ FleX Edition Review

The Sapphire HD7770 GHZ FleX Edition is targeting not only the enthusiast gamer on a budget, but a workstation user who needs to power three or more screens without spending a fortune on a high powered discrete solution. In this regard, the FleX Edition is a success and worthy of the asking price. If you need to power three non DisplayPort screens and yearn for the legendary AMD image quality then this is surely very tempting indeed.

It has been a while since I have looked at a modified HD7770 solution and while I still remain unimpressed with AMD's reference design, the Sapphire FleX Solution is certainly more tempting.

There is no doubt that the demanding gaming audience will be looking for a solution with more processing grunt. That said, as we have seen today, the Sapphire HD7770 is capable of powering many games at 1080p, running a little short of shader horsepower when tasked with more demanding Direct X 11 titles, such as Alien V Predator and Shogun 2.

Sapphire have not clocked this card any higher than AMD's reference design which is slightly disappointing, especially as we found over 100mhz headroom on the core, and 125mhz from the Elpida GDDR5 memory. It is true that every sample will have different limitations, but a 50mhz boost on the core wouldn't cause a problem and would help push the frame rates a little higher.

Sapphire do offer an overclocked version of the HD7770, with a custom cooler and core clock set at 1,150mhz – this is available from Overclockers UK for £101.99 inc vat. Sapphire have also overclocked the memory on this card to 1,250mhz (5GBps effective).

While the Sapphire FleX Edition is not supplied overclocked, you do pay extra for the additional multiple screen circuitry. Overclockers UK are selling the card for £107.99 inc vat.

If you are working within the confines of a strict budget and want to experience the joys of using three monitors, then you can pick up three good quality 1080p 24 inch screens from Overclockers UK for £131.99 inc vat each. These three screens and the price of the Sapphire HD7770 GHZ Flex Edition combined is still much cheaper than a 30 inch screen, without a graphics card in the mix.

The added benefit is that, you can easily add another HD7770 at a later date for Crossfire when funds permit.

Pros:

• Supports three DVI monitors out of the box.
• almost silent.
• plenty of overclocking headroom.
• impressive bundle.
• Can be Crossfired for more power.
• Low power consumption.
• runs cool.

Cons:

• A lot of competition around the £100-£110 price point.
• lacks horsepower with demanding Direct X 11 games.

Kitguru says: A worthy choice for a low cost multi screen system. Work on three screens now, game on one later.

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