Sapphire Radeon HD 7790

Sapphire Radeon HD 7790

The battle for mid-range graphics card is never as intense as is its today as compared to just a few years ago. Back then, such hardware was only there to ensure that you can still play the latest games. The only drawback is to have the majority of their visual settings turned down to minimum. The gap between the mid- and high-end was huge. Fast forward to the present and it can be seen that the tables had turned. Now you can get high-end graphics performance with the budget of a mid-range card. This is only possible via the technological advancements that AMD developed. Through its partners, such as Sapphire, it had created the new Radeon HD 7790 card, which is powered with 1GB memory, has over-clocked enabled, and uses Sapphire’s patented Dual-X fan design. PC.com had the good opportunity to try it out this month.

QUIET AND BIG 
When we took the card out of the box, which is deceptively thin by the way, we were surprised at its bulky design. The card itself takes two slots, and due to the nature of the Dual-X cooling system, occupies a fair bit of the electronic board. Even so, it is not a full-length card so you will have no problem installing the card in most computer cases out there. The dual fan set-up on the card is quiet, even when it’s set on high loads. We can barely hear the fans turning even from an open case, and that’s while we’re standing one metre away. Kudos to the team at Sapphire on such a successful design!

EQUIPPED NICELY 
Even though this is a mid-range card, you are not short-changed on connector offerings as the card comes with two DVI ports, one HDMI and a DisplayPort. You can even Crossfire the card, provided you have enough space in your case and your motherboard is able to do that. We are quite happy with what the graphics card gives the user in the box. While it’s not as fully equipped as the high-end cards, you still get the needed dongles and cables to make your new 7790 perform as per expectations.

DECENT PERFORMANCE 
We ran the card through our list of test benchmarks and the card came out rather nicely for a mid-ranger. With 3DMark11, it managed a score of 6013 points. Nice indeed! We also ran two of the latest game in the market: Bioshock Infinite and StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm. Bioshock ran at some nice-for-the-eyes 45fps, while StarCraft 2 ran smoothly at 60fps. If you are looking for an upgrade but don’t really have the budget for it, then get the HD 7790 from Sapphire. Incredible card it is!

SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 7790 
Dimensions (hxWxd) 170.1 x 121.9 x 40.6mm
Graphics Chip AMD 7790 
Memory 1GB GDDR5 
Ports 1 x HDMI, 1 x DIsplayPort, 2 x DVI 
Expansion Crossfire X 
3DMark11 6013
 
VERDICT Midrange Scores!

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