Sapphire Radeon HD 7790 Dual-X Review

Normally when I round off a review I talk solely about the card in hand, but this time round I really do want to talk about the importance that the 7790 has on the market and how it may shake things up a little in the near future. First and foremost and cutting to the point, AMD set out to put a new card to market that not only filled the gap between the 7770 and the 7850 but also took on NVIDIA’s 650Ti that filled that gap, not only on performance, but on price as well.

Well simply put, AMD have done it and even though the card that has been tested here is an overclocked variant, the little boost only rubs extra salt into NVIDIA’s wounds as it beats the 650Ti all round. Top make things even worse, the 7790 punches well above its head in in some cases takes on cards and surpasses them that in a whole new class. The matter of fact is that for ~£120 you can get a card that is small and compact so will fit in what ever size chassis you have, spews performance for its class and doesn’t break the bank at all.

Further more to this I managed to squeeze roughly 10% extra performance out of it and considering this is free performance, why not? Looking a little more at this particular card though, in typical Sapphire fashion, I love its looks, its brash or over the top. Simple and stylish is the name of the game and yes Sapphire have used an over sized PCB which may seem a waste, but this means that they can fit a slightly larger Dual-X cooler which in turn provides better cooling and quieter operation; and we know Sapphire love their quiet cards.

Simply put, if you’re not a frame pushing gamer and you want a card that gives more than you would expect whilst only spending a little amount in relation to other, more costly offerings on the market, then I’m happy to say that this little powerhouse may just be the one for you.