Sapphire Radeon HD 7790 1GB Dual-X Review

Performance Analysis

In our 1,920 x 1,080 Battlefield 3 test, the HD 7790 1GB has just a 1fps lead over the GTX 650 Ti 1GB. In better news, however, its minimum frame rate of 31fps is almost 30 percent quicker than that of the HD 7770 1GB, which is about right given the £30 price gap. However, the HD 7850 2GB is itself 20 percent quicker with a minimum frame rate of 37fps, although Sapphire's overclocking gives the new card a nice 2fps boost. At 2,560 x 1,600, the HD 7790 1GB may be twice as quick as the HD 7770 1GB, but it falls slightly behind the GTX 650 Ti.

Crysis 3 is a beast to run, and even at 1,920 x 1,080 with no anti-aliasing, it cripples the majority of the sub-£200 cards. At this resolution, Nvidia's GTX 650 Ti 1GB has a 1fps lead on the new AMD GPU, which Sapphire's overclock is unable to pull back. The card is still quite favourably positioned between the HD 7770 1GB and HD 7850 2GB, however. At 2,560 x 1,600 the playing field with the GTX 650 Ti is levelled, but the minimum frame rate for both is just 9fps, or 10fps with Sapphire's overclocks.


Unfortunately, the HD 7790 1GB fares rather badly in Skyrim. At 1080p, its minimum frame rate at stock speeds is 34fps, which is topped by 12 percent by the cheaper GTX 650 Ti 1GB. Sapphire's overclock brings the card up to 37fps here, which still isn't quite enough to catch the green team's card. It is a whole lot quicker than the HD 7770 1GB, but again the HD 7850 2GB has a sizeable lead with its minimum frame rate of 50fps. Moving to 2,560 x 1,600 sees the new AMD GPU crash and burn, as the GTX 650 1GB again comfortably outpaces it, while the HD 7850 2GB enjoys more than three times the HD 7790 1GB's performance.

The Witcher 2 spins a much different story, however, as the HD 7790 1GB achieves a 34fps minimum frame rate, a good 17 percent more than the GTX 650 Ti 1GB. Sapphire's overclock adds another 2fps to this, which puts the card just 3fps behind the HD 7850 2GB. The new AMD card is able to maintain its position in the higher resolution test as well, staying ahead of the GTX 650 Ti 1GB and not too far behind the HD 7850 2GB.

The card's performance in Unigine is also good in that at stock speeds it achieves a 13 percent lead over the GTX 650 Ti 1GB, and a 25 percent lead over the HD 7770 1GB. That said, the HD 7850 2GB once again shows its dominance with a 30 percent lead over the new GPU in the same test. Sapphire's overclocking efforts result in a noticeable but ultimately insignificant gain in the card's score.


Our graph comparing Unigine performance to price is only a single metric for measuring value for money, but it does suggest that the HD 7790 1GB is a little off the mark when it comes to pricing as it actually comes last here. Prices for graphics cards are in constant flux, however, and there is little difference between the best and worst cards in this graph, so any small changes in price in the coming weeks could easily affect the standings.

The Sapphire Radeon HD 7790 1GB emerges very well when it comes to power consumption, as even in its overclocked state, the card draws just 11W more power than a HD 7770 1GB in the same system, despite the large performance gap between them. Better yet, it draws less power than a GTX 650 Ti 1GB, even though it often outperforms said card. The Dual-X cooling system is not only quiet, it also does an excellent job of keeping the card cool, as our temperature graphs attest to.

Overclocking the card to 1.2GHz sees improvement in Battlefield 3 at 1,920 x 1,080, but the card is still unable to catch the HD 7850 2GB, which retains a 2fps lead here. Crysis 3 only sees the card's average frame rate increase, as the minimum stays stuck at 18fps, indicating the the clock speed is not the limiting factor here. The Unigine score jumps to a 12 percent increase over stock speeds and a 6 percent boost over Sapphire's overclocks, but the HD 7850 2GB is still 16 percent quicker.

Conclusion

When compared to other AMD cards, the HD 7790 1GB performs respectably, as it's left roughly in the middle of the cheaper HD 7770 1GB and the costlier HD 7850 2GB. Compared with the GTX 650 Ti 1GB, AMD's HD 7790 1GB doesn't always perform as well as it should, but overall it does emerge as the more powerful card. The main dent in the armour of the HD 7790 1GB, however, is the fact that 1GB SKUs of the HD 7850 are still available for under £130. Sadly, we no longer have our sample and haven't been able to retest it, but at 1,920 x 1,080, this SKU performs almost identically to the 2GB one and it also has excellent overclocking potential too, so it's a real bargain.

Sapphire has done little wrong with its iteration of the HD 7790 1GB, as its card has an excellent cooler, good connectivity and a meaningful overclock that can be pushed significantly further if needs be. Pricing is everything at this end of the market, however, and despite Sapphire's efforts the card is currently little competition in this regard compared to an HD 7850 1GB, which remains our card of choice for 1080p gaming. However, we've been advised by AMD that due to low-density GDDR5 modules being discontinued, HD 7850 1GB models are on their way out with them essentially available on a 'while stocks last' basis, so if you're considering the upgrade now would be the time to act.