Official AMD Radeon 6790 Review Thread

[Avalon]

Wasn't expecting the halving of ROPs. It's basically just a tweaked 5770 now. Somewhat disappointed, since AMD could have really hit a homerun here. It's just too much slower than the 6850 to justify saving $10.

 

[n0x1ous]

Didnt see a mention of availability, but nothing on newegg yet. It shows the powercolor from earlier in the week but its deactivated.

I hate how there are no reference models with these lower end cards. You would think at least one partner would use it.

 

[Skurge]

Shows what a good card the 5770 was. Amd and nvidia still haven't provided any reasons not to consider it when in that price range.

The 460 768 is great value, but it might not be an option cause of the power consumption.

How old is the 5770 now? 18 months?

 

[apoppin]

Shows what a good card the 5770 was. Amd and nvidia still haven't provided any reasons not to consider it when in that price range.

The 460 768 is great value, but it might not be an option cause of the power consumption.

How old is the 5770 now? 18 months?

The HD 5770 is still a good value for its selling price. Remember that it was also launched at $150.

HD 6790 is a cheap card to produce just like the GTX 550 Ti is. They are worthy replacements for the HD 5770 and GTX 450 respectively and market pricing will settle in for the new Radeon just as it did for the newest Geforce.

 

[Mopetar]

The GTX460 768mb is being replaced by the GTX 550 Ti.

That's like replacing a Porsche with a Pinto.

Yeah but isn't the 5770 almost at the end of it's life?

I honestly hope they keep it around until the 7000 series. They'd be just as well off maintaining a cheaper price with the 5770 than trying to replace it with the 6790. The 6790 has a ~75% larger die area and barely much more efficiency.

 

[Lonyo]

The 5700 isn't being replaced soon.

Maybe it will even remain until the 7000 series.

No reason to release a new card other than to make it smaller and cheaper, but if they can't do that or it's not necessary, then there's no reason to replace the 5700 GPU really.
When you consider we are still stuck with 40nm, there isn't a whole lot to gain with a new GPU design. It might be that the 5700 level gets replaced with the first 28nm GPUs since that way they can drive down costs and get their eye in with the new tech maybe, but other than making the GPU smaller somehow with a redesign, there's no reason to do it when you're stuck with the same process and the same underlying architecture (VLIW5).

 

[formulav8]

This card was a dissapointment, especially since amd is apparently going to set the high $150 price in stone. But it was interesting to see that the 5770 definitely was NOT bandwidth starved. No wonder I couldn't get anymore frames from a 5750. Even with the gpu tweaks the 5770 wasn't to much slower in alot of stuff.

 

[bryanW1995]

My thoughts? meh. It's right in between gtx 460 768 and 5770. 5% or so faster than gtx 550. Better price would be $130-135, but this will probably be a pretty limited run card anyway so they could keep it at $150.

5770 matches up fairly well against it though. Here's an image from the TH review:

Considering the 5770 is $110 at most and can generally be had for $100 quite easily, the $50 price premium doesn't make the 6790 competitive enough. It probably needs a $20+ price drop to hit the sweet spot.

not sure what tom's is smoking, but according to TPU and AT you need a lot higher resolution than 1680x1050 for the 6790 to approach gtx 460 768 performance.

 

[bryanW1995]

The card uses more power than a 6850 while often being a lot slower. What a hunk of junk. :thumbsdown:

Yeah, it's not quite the absolute turd that 5830 was, but it definitely has a pungent smell. My bet is that barts has a very high yield rate so AMD doesn't fell much/any pressure to be price competitive right now.

 

[Skurge]

My thoughts? meh. It's right in between gtx 460 768 and 5770. 5% or so faster than gtx 550. Better price would be $130-135, but this will probably be a pretty limited run card anyway so they could keep it at $150.



not sure what tom's is smoking, but according to TPU and AT you need a lot higher resolution than 1680x1050 for the 6790 to approach gtx 460 768 performance.

Toms has been full it for a while now, especially that article that concluded that 8gb gave you better textures and stability than 4gb in GTA4.

 

[Termie]

Yeah, it's not quite the absolute turd that 5830 was, but it definitely has a pungent smell. My bet is that barts has a very high yield rate so AMD doesn't fell much/any pressure to be price competitive right now.

I think most would agree that the 5830 was a turd, but it's actually faster than the 6790, and for now, at least, it's cheaper (AR).

Faster: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_6790/22.html
Cheaper: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150502

Here's the Newegg listing for the 6790: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...on%20HD%206790

 

[MentalIlness]

 

[floogy]

I think it's more of a spot to get rid of those '3rd tier' chips. Not to mention the higher number alone will sell. For example, Joe at Fry's has $150 to spend on a new video card. Given no other information, he'll go with the 6790 over a 5830 or 5770 simply because of the number. Not everyone reads AT or Tom's.

 

[BladeVenom]

not sure what tom's is smoking, but according to TPU and AT you need a lot higher resolution than 1680x1050 for the 6790 to approach gtx 460 768 performance.

Tom's review is OK. The results you get depend on what games you test, and what the game settings are. No one is using the same set of games, at the same settings. With the cards being as close in performance as they are, it's no surprise that some sets of benchmarks are going to come out with the 6790 on top.

 

[RaistlinZ]

Card needs to be priced at $130.00

The 6850 1GB can be had for $144.99 after rebate.

 

[Skurge]

I think most would agree that the 5830 was a turd, but it's actually faster than the 6970, and for now, at least, it's cheaper (AR).

Faster: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/HD_6790/22.html
Cheaper: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150502

Here's the Newegg listing for the 6790: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...on%20HD%206790

The naming scheme claims another one. LOL

 

[Termie]

The naming scheme claims another one. LOL

Yes, yes...pretty confusing.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Shows what a good card the 5770 was. Amd and nvidia still haven't provided any reasons not to consider it when in that price range.

The 460 768 is great value, but it might not be an option cause of the power consumption.

How old is the 5770 now? 18 months?

The interesting thing is that the 5770 was a turd when it lunched - Slower than the 4870 and GTX260 and more expensive.

 

[Silverforce11]

The 5770 is a tiny GPU. It has amazing perf/die size and its one of the reasons AMD isn't going to EOL it anytime soon. Not until 28nm.

 

[Silverforce11]

Something to note here are mid-range or low end cards generate so little enthusiasm from the forum users in all the tech forums. Yet these are the cards which ship in massive quantities and are the bulk of the profit generated. Thus, price/perf and perf/w or perf/die size are critical factors.

But when it comes to halo parts, top end enthusiast cards that almost nobody will ever buy.. there's a lot of passion.

 

[Mopetar]

The interesting thing is that the 5770 was a turd when it lunched - Slower than the 4870 and GTX260 and more expensive.

Also ran cooler and drew less power. On average it was slower, but in a few games it was dead even, and actually came out ahead in a few titles.

Regardless, right now it's so reasonably priced for a card that will deliver solid 1680 performance for almost any game.

 

[MagickMan]

The 5770 is a tiny GPU. It has amazing perf/die size and its one of the reasons AMD isn't going to EOL it anytime soon. Not until 28nm.

The 5770 makes for a fantastic HTPC card that can do a little limited gaming at 1080p, great value for $99.

 

[-Slacker-]

Something to note here are mid-range or low end cards generate so little enthusiasm from the forum users in all the tech forums. Yet these are the cards which ship in massive quantities and are the bulk of the profit generated. Thus, price/perf and perf/w or perf/die size are critical factors.

But when it comes to halo parts, top end enthusiast cards that almost nobody will ever buy.. there's a lot of passion.

This. Gotta make 37 threads about 2 dual gpu niche video cards and gotta make sure it gets at least 700 posts per thread, because a card I'll never own in my lifetime is importantz!

 

[GaiaHunter]

Also ran cooler and drew less power. On average it was slower, but in a few games it was dead even, and actually came out ahead in a few titles.

Regardless, right now it's so reasonably priced for a card that will deliver solid 1680 performance for almost any game.

That was exactly my point.

Even though the 6790 consumes more power than the 6850 while being slower, the fact is both the 6790 and 6850 consume low power to start with and don't consume more power than NVIDIA offerings of similar performance and price.

So it is just a question of waiting for prices to drop.

At the moment with the 6850 being so close in price there is few reasons to buy the 6790 over the 6850.

 

[GaiaHunter]

Something to note here are mid-range or low end cards generate so little enthusiasm from the forum users in all the tech forums. Yet these are the cards which ship in massive quantities and are the bulk of the profit generated. Thus, price/perf and perf/w or perf/die size are critical factors.

But when it comes to halo parts, top end enthusiast cards that almost nobody will ever buy.. there's a lot of passion.

The thing is that new architectures generally debut on single GPU high end cards.

Look at the 4850 (hardly a halo part) reviews thread - http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=188430&highlight=ati+4xxx+series+review - massive thread.

The Halo dual parts is more about fanboy wars.