Performance tests

Testbed:

• Intel Core i7-975 3340 MHz CPU
• ASUS P6T Deluxe motherboard on the Intel X58 chipset
• 6GB of 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM from Corsair
• WD Caviar SE WD1600JD 160GB SATA HDD
• Tagan TG900-BZ 900W PSU
• Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, DirectX 11
• 30" Dell 3007WFP monitor
• VSync disabled
• NVIDIA Drivers 285.62, AMD Catalyst 11.9

Benchmarks:

• Far Cry 2 (Ubisoft) — DirectX 10.0, Shaders 4.0 (HDR), built-in benchmarking utility (the Middle level), maximum settings.
• Crysis Warhead (Crytek/EA) — Cargo, DirectX 10.0, Shaders 4.0, Very High settings, batch file, timedemo available by e-mail request.
• Colin McRae: DiRT 2 (Codemasters) — DirectX 11, Ultra High settings, run as follows: "dirt2.exe -benchmark example_benchmark.xml".
• Metro 2033 (4A Games/THQ) — DirectX 11, Super High settings, PhysX disabled, run from in game.
• Just Cause 2 (Avalanche Studios/Eidos Interactive) — DirectX 10.0, Super High settings, run from in game.
• Aliens vs. Predator (Rebellion/SEGA) — DirectX 11, Shaders 5.0, Very High settings, run from in game.
• F1 2010 (Codemasters) — DirectX 11, Ultra High settings, run as follows: "formulaone.exe -benchmark example_benchmark.xml". Game provided by NVIDIA.
• Tropics Benchmark 1.3 (Unigine) — DirectX 10.0, High settings.
• Heaven Benchmark 2.5 Pro (Unigine) — DirectX 11, High settings.
• 3DMark 11 (FutureMark) — DirectX 11, Performance settings.

We'd like to thank Unigine for helping us set up their benchmarks.

Final thoughts

We've recently switched to a simpler rating system and now we only have two of those: capability and usability. The capability rating compares each graphics card with GeForce GT 430 which is considered a baseline, or 100%. The rating is based on both synthetic and gaming results and shows, as the name implies, what a product is capable of.

The usability rating is obtained by dividing each card's capability rating by its price. It basically shows whether a given product is over or underpriced, considering what it can do, and thus how reasonable it is to buy it.

The complete ratings can be found in our i3Dspeed. Below are just the parts relevant to today's review.

Sorted by capability (high to low)

As you can see, in the 115-145 USD range, Radeon HD 6770 is a better choice than a more expensive GeForce GTX 550 Ti, and Radeon HD 6750 wins in a similar way over a slightly more expensive GeForce GTS 450 GDDR5 (some GTS 450 variants come equipped with GDDR3 memory, but their performance is about twice as low).

Sorted by usability (high to low)

As you can see, Radeon HD 6770 and Radeon HD 6750 lead in the mid-end part of the rating, Radeon HD 6770 being the absolute leader in usability. By the way, since both Radeon HD 5750/5770 and Radeon HD 6750/6770 share the same core, just buy what's cheaper at your local store. Nevermind the naming, these are basically the same cards.

Speaking of products we reviewed today, HIS 6750 Fan 1GB GDDR5 is a decent, compact card for around $100. It has a good, quiet cooler and a reasonable set of output connectors.

HIS 6770 IceQ X Turbo 1GB GDDR5, despite the "Turbo" label, only offers 30 extra megahertz of core clock rate and the performance boost is even less than 3% — well within the measurement error. That's why we only provide results for a regular Radeon HD 6770 clocked at the standard 850 MHz. In all other aspects, this is a nice graphics card with a good, quiet, stylish cooler and all necessary output connectors.

Write a comment below. No registration needed!