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ASUS HD7770-DCT-1GD5

16 Feb 2012

Running at core clock and memory clock speeds of 1120MHz and 4600MHz respectively, the ASUS HD 7770 DirectCU TOP adopts the ASUS thermal architecture and utilizes a more heat-conductive shroud and a better-performing fan.

Tags: asus, amd, graphics card, radeon hd 7770

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HWZ's Overall Rating: 7.5

Performance:

Features:

Value:

DirectCU custom cooling solution

Good mix of video outputs for multi-display purposes

Lackluster performance for the price

<div id="product-review" class="article">
			<h2 class="header-green">AMD Radeon HD 7770 - Seizing the Day with Cape Verde, the ASUS Way</h2>
		<span class="byline">Article by Wong Chung Wee on Wednesday, 15 Feb 2012</span>
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		 		<h2 class="page-title">Introducing Cape Verde</h2>
		 		<h3 class="page_title">Introducing Cape Verde - The 7700 Series Family</h3>
<p>It has been just over a month since AMD&nbsp;launched their high performance <a target="_blank" href="http://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/feature-amd-radeon-hd-7970-hd-7950-heading-southern-islands-tahiti?utm_source=homepage&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=highlights&amp;utm_campaign=HWZ2011">Radeon HD 7900 series</a> with the Tahiti GPUs taking the first salvo of the Southern Islands family. Already grabbing the most powerful single GPU graphics card title, it's probably certain that the yet-to-be launched dual-GPU based Radeon HD&nbsp;7990 would snag the crown of the most powerful consumer graphics card on the planet - that is if it can see the day of light before NVIDIA makes their move first.</p>
<p>While the high-end battleground seems secured, AMD wastes no time to launch yet another GPU&nbsp;of the Southern Islands family codename Cape Verde. This new offering from AMD&nbsp;is targeted at the mainstream performance segment of less than US$200 and boasts the same new <a href="/feature-amd-radeon-hd-7970-hd-7950-heading-southern-islands-tahiti" target="_blank">GCN architecture</a> as well as their 28nm fabrication process of the high-end Tahiti-class GPU. The main difference of course is the number of GCN modules making up the graphics core, memory bandwidth being cut down and the other usual trappings of a mainstream GPU.</p>
<p class="rtecenter"><img width="500" height="284" alt="" src="/files/img/2012/02/cape-verde.jpg" title="After Tahiti's launch, we were expecting to see the clan of Pitcairn but instead, we were greeted with Cape Verde. Nevertheless, we'll check out what it means for the mainstream audience." /></p>
<h3 class="page_title">&nbsp;</h3>
<h3 class="page_title">The AMD Radeon HD 7700 Family</h3>
<p>In keeping with tradition, AMD&nbsp;has offered two SKUs from the Cape Verde clan and they are AMD Radeon HD 7770 and AMD Radeon HD 7750. One of the key points AMD touted of this series is of the Radeon HD 7770 as the first GPU&nbsp;with a rated clock speed of 1000MHz and is a successor to the previously popular <a href="/feature-mainstream-attack-ati-radeon-hd-5770/3dmark-vantage-results-3" target="_blank">ATI Radeon HD 5770</a>. As tabulated in the table below, the US$159 suggested retail price of the Radeon HD&nbsp;7770 would go up against graphics cards from NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 550 Ti&nbsp; and the Radeon HD 6790 - both of which currently retail around US$130 to US$150. For this article, we'll be focusing on the Radeon HD&nbsp;7770 as we'll be reviewing an ASUS&nbsp;card based on this GPU.</p>
<p>Just to get an idea of how the Radeon HD 7000 series family stack up currently, we've got the 7900 and 7700 series compared in brief:-</p>
<table align="center" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="5" border="1">
    <caption>AMD Radeon HD 7000 GPUs (Tahiti and Cape Verde SKUs compared)</caption>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <th align="center" valign="middle">Model</th>
            <th align="center" valign="middle">
            <p><strong>AMD&nbsp;Radeon HD 7970</strong></p>
            </th>
            <th align="center" valign="middle">AMD&nbsp;Radeon HD 7950</th>
            <th align="center" valign="middle">AMD&nbsp;Radeon HD 7770</th>
            <th align="center" valign="middle">AMD&nbsp;Radeon HD&nbsp;7750</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th align="center" valign="middle">Core Code</th>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">&nbsp;Tahiti</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">&nbsp;Tahiti</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle"><strong>Cape Verde</strong></td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle"><strong>Cape Verde</strong></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th align="center" valign="middle">Transistor Count</th>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">&nbsp;4300 million</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">&nbsp;4300 million</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">1500 million</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">1500 million</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th align="center" valign="middle">Manufacturing Process</th>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">28nm</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">28nm</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">28nm</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">28nm</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th align="center" valign="middle">Core Clock</th>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">925MHz</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">800MHz</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle"><strong>1000MHz</strong></td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle"><strong>800MHz</strong></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th align="center" valign="middle">Stream Processors</th>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">&nbsp;2048 Stream processing units</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">1792 Stream processing units</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle"><strong>640</strong> Stream processing units</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle"><strong>512</strong> Stream processing units</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th align="center" valign="middle">Stream Processor Clock</th>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">&nbsp;925MHz</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">880MHz</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle"><strong>1125MHz</strong></td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle"><strong>1125MHz</strong></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th align="center" valign="middle">Texture Mapping Units (TMU) or Texture Filtering (TF) units</th>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">&nbsp;128</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">112</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">40</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">32</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th align="center" valign="middle">Raster Operator units (ROP)</th>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">&nbsp;32</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">32</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">16</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">16</td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th align="center" valign="middle">Memory Clock</th>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">&nbsp;5500MHz GDDR5</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">5000MHz GDDR5</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle"><strong>4500MHz GDDR5</strong></td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle"><strong>4500MHz GDDR5</strong></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th align="center" valign="middle">DDR Memory Bus</th>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">&nbsp;384-bit</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">384-bit</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle"><strong>128-bit</strong></td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle"><strong>128-bit</strong></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th align="center" valign="middle">Memory Bandwidth</th>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">&nbsp;264GB/s</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">240GB/s</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle"><strong>72GB/s</strong></td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle"><strong>72GB/s</strong></td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th align="center" valign="middle">Street Price</th>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">&nbsp;Launch Price:&nbsp;US$549</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">~US$449</td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">~<strong>US$159</strong></td>
            <td align="center" valign="middle">~<strong>US$109</strong></td>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>			</div>
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