(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/radeonhd7790-lead.jpg) (http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/22/amd-radeon-hd-7790/)
We were half expecting AMD's next graphics card to be some sort of supercomputing colossus, given all the buzz around NVIDIA's GTX Titan (http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/19/nvidia-gtx-titan-announce/). As it turns out, though, we're looking at something more subtle and just slightly more affordable: the new Radeon HD 7790. It slots into a cosy niche between the 7770 (http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/15/amd-releases-radeon-hd-7750-and-7770-gpus/) and the 7850 (http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/05/amd-radeon-hd-7870-and-7850-review-roundup/), targeting gamers who want a good helping of 28nm silicon and potential for CrossFire expansion but who don't want to stretch beyond $149. Efficiency tweaks allow the 7790 to offer almost 50 percent more processing power than the 7770 while only demanding a smidgen of extra wattage (85 W instead of 80 W), which bodes well for cooling and decibels. Relative to the 7850, which can now be had for under $200, you'd be getting a card with half the power consumption, half the memory (1GB GDDR5), half the memory bandwidth (128-bit) and around 30 percent less processing power.
Compare it to the closest rival from NVIDIA, the GTX 650 Ti, which currently fetches upwards of $140, and AMD claims the Radeon HD 7790 offers an average 20 percent advantage in frame rates at 1080p -- enough that you shouldn't need to worry about games like Tomb Raider (http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/01/amd-tressfx-tomb-raider/) or Hitman: Absolution at that resolution. Check out the slide deck for further details and official frame-rate charts, and expect to see the card reach retailers starting April 2nd.Gallery: AMD Radeon HD 7790 slide deck (http://www.engadget.com/photos/amd-radeon-hd-7790-slide-deck/)(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/7790-1_thumbnail.jpg) (http://www.engadget.com/photos/amd-radeon-hd-7790-slide-deck/5754786)(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/7790-2_thumbnail.jpg) (http://www.engadget.com/photos/amd-radeon-hd-7790-slide-deck/5754787)(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/7790-3_thumbnail.jpg) (http://www.engadget.com/photos/amd-radeon-hd-7790-slide-deck/5754788)(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/7790-4_thumbnail.jpg) (http://www.engadget.com/photos/amd-radeon-hd-7790-slide-deck/5754789)(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.engadget.com/media/2013/03/7790-5_thumbnail.jpg) (http://www.engadget.com/photos/amd-radeon-hd-7790-slide-deck/5754790)
Filed under: Desktops (http://www.engadget.com/category/desktops/), Gaming (http://www.engadget.com/category/gaming/), AMD (http://www.engadget.com/category/amd/)
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Via: Engadget