XFX HD 7790 Black Edition OC Review

Having looked at more cards from a certain level than I have for any other class of graphics card, the 7790 has seen me look at more cards than ever. Now this is great as it really gives a clearer picture on how the Bonaire core performs, but at the same time, in having so many cards perform within a fairly tight performance bracket, it does become hard to pick out individual cards over others on the grounds of frame rates and overall performance. Consequently you will have noticed if you have been reading through all my 7790 reviews, that I have been looking at the cards in way to see what else, apart from the benchmarked performance, they have to offer, either in the form of acoustics, price, thermals, package, design and so forth.

So taking this alternative approach to setting each card apart, what does the XFX Black Edition have to bring to the table. Compared to the other cards that I’ve seen [so far] this is the only one to be of a hand selected calibre. Whilst all the other cards have got top end components, those found on a Black Edition PCB, have to go the extra mile to show that they are top of their game, which in turn rewards the end user with a product that has guaranteed rock solid performance out of the box on top of the over clock that XFX add on to the card as well.

Keeping on the topic of the over clock and the hand selected components; to serve as a triumph to this selection process, XFX’s card rewarded me with the best over clock that I have managed to achieve from the Bonaire core to date. At the same time, the relational performance that was given from the over clock was outstanding and given the cards price point of around ~£125 (at time of writing) I am lost for words as I would have expected it to be set at a slightly higher price point given the top end performance and components that are on offer.

So as you can gather by this point, I am giving XFX’s card a huge thumbs up and it as one of the top 7790’s on offer at the moment from the options that I’ve seen so far. Its simple yet refined looks are very welcomed by the supreme over clocking ability and the results are very rewarding. Considering its very well priced and it it does do so well when pushed further it must be a dream for the budding over clocker.