Performance tests

Testbed:

• Intel Core i7-3960X (o/c to 4 GHz) CPU
• ASUS Sabertooth X79 motherboard on the Intel X79 chipset
• MSI X79A-GD45(8B) motherboard on the Intel X79 chipset
• 8GB of 1866MHz DDR3 SDRAM from Corsair
• Seagate Barracuda 7200.14 3TB SATA2 HDD
• WD Caviar Blue WD10EZEX 1TB SATA2 HDD
• Enermax Platimax 1200W PSU
• Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, DirectX 11
• 30" Dell UltraSharp U3011 monitor
• VSync disabled
• AMD Catalyst 12.8; NVIDIA Drivers 306.23

Benchmarks:

• 3DMark 11 (FutureMark) — DirectX 11.0, Performance settings.
• Aliens vs. Predator (Rebellion/SEGA) — DirectX 11.0, Very High settings, run from in game.
• Nexuiz (2012) (IllFonic/THQ) — DirectX 11.0, built-in benchmark, maximum quality settings.
• Crysis 2 Maximum Edition (Crytek/EA) — DirectX 11.0, Very High settings, Central Park level, launched with the Adrenaline Crysis 2 Benchmark Tool.
• DiRT: Showdown (Codemasters) — DirectX 11.0, Ultra High settings, launched as follows: dirt showdown.exe -benchmark example_benchmark.xml.
• F1 2010 (Codemasters) — DirectX 11.0, Ultra High settings, run as follows: "formulaone.exe -benchmark example_benchmark.xml".
• Hard Reset (Flying Wild Hog) — DirectX 11.0, built-in benchmark, maximum quality settings.
• Heaven Benchmark 2.0 (Unigine) — DirectX 11.0, High settings.
• Metro 2033 (4A Games/THQ) — DirectX 11.0, Super High settings, PhysX disabled, run from in game.
• Total War: Shogun 2 (Creative Assembly/SEGA) — DirectX 11.0, maximum quality settings.
• Sleeping Dogs (United Front Games/Square Enix) — DirectX 11.0, built-in benchmark, maximum quality settings.

Final thoughts

The capability rating compares each graphics card with GeForce GT 630, 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, the top Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition is the leader. The Radeon HD 7870 fits just between GeForce FTX 660 and 660 Ti, both in price and performance. The Radeon HD 7770 in the overclocked and nominal modes outperforms GTX 550 Ti but costs a little more. The overall picture brings no surprises.

Sorted by usability (high to low)

The overclocked HD 7770, like the one we have today, shows better results than GTX 550 Ti does, even considering its higher price. It's pursued by Radeon HD 7750 in turn—the two AMD adapters are the best buy today. On the contrary, the HD 7870 yields to GTX 660 and GTX 660 Ti while being more expensive. As for the top adapters, the today's Radeon HD 7970 GHz Edition beats GeForce GTX 680. Now let's focus on the today's graphics adapters.

Sapphire Vapor-X HD 7970 GHz Edition is a good variant of the today's fastest single-GPU solution, although it makes some noise and occupies as many as 3 slots. The adapter operates at the default clock rates, but the core can be easily overclocked to 1100 MHz and higher.

Sapphire HD 7870 GHz Flex Edition is an excellent upper mid-end GPU, outperforming even the HD 7950 when overclocked. Moreover, it can simultaneously work with up to 4 displays, although in this case you may face 3D performance deficit.

Sapphire Vapor-X HD 7770 GHz Edition OC is the best buy for its price, the leader of the lower middle range. It operates at increased clock rates and has a good cooling system.

Sapphire HD 7750 Low Profile is a budget graphics adapter for small and silent barebone-like configurations. The graphics card provides all today's 3D features and shows satisfactory performance at low and medium resolutions.

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