The DMM HD7790 Review
Diamond Multimedia is a company best known for their AMD/ATI graphics cards. They have a wide range and sell a lot of their cards in the USA. Today I am reviewing their AMD Radeon HD 7790 which is basically an entry level gaming GPU. DMM's(Diamond Multimedia's) HD7790 is actually the reference card from ATI, however we will still go over some of its intricacies and test and overclock it. First off we need to take a look at some of its specs:
DIAMOND AMD Radeon? HD 7790 PCIE 3.0 1G GDDR5 Multi Display Video Graphics Card
Bus Type: PCI Express 3.0 x16 | Part Number: 7790PE51G
Performance
ASIC Core : 7790
Core Clock : 1075 MHz
BUS : PCI Express 3.0 x16
Ports : 1 x Dual Link DVI, 1 x HDMI, 1 Single Link DVI, 1 x Standard Display Port
Cooling : Active - FanCooler
MFG Process : 28nm process technology
Transistor Count : 2080 million
Stream Processors : 896
Video Quality
CrossFire : CrossFire X
Direct-X : DirectX? 11.1 capable graphics
Open GL : OpenGL 4.2
Max Resolution Analog : VGA Max resolution 2048x1536
Max Resolution Digital : HDMI 1.4a Max resolution: 4096x3112
HDR F.Point Rendering : 128
HDR Integer : 16-bit integer or floating point
Standard Slot Solution : DOUBLE
Anti Aliasing Modes : Up to 24x multi-sample and super-sample anti-aliasing modes
Antisotropic Modes : 16x angle independent anisotropic texture filtering
Texture Support : HDR texture compression
Memory
Memory Clock : 1550 MHz
Memory Configuration : 64Mx32
Memory Type : GDDR5
Memory Bandwidth : 99.2 GB/s
Memory Size : 1024MB
RAMDAC : 400
Display Support
HDMI : HDMI 1.4a with support for stereoscopic 3D
HDMI MODE : 1.4a
Native Display Support : DisplayPort 1.2 Max resolution: 4096x2160 per display
Dual Display support : YES
Max Resolution Analog: VGA Max resolution 2048x1536
Max Resolution Digital: HDMI 1.4a Max resolution: 4096x3112
General Product Information
Form Factor (Profile) : Standard Profile Full-Height
Package Dimension : 12 x 6.5 x 4.125 inches
Product Weight : 1.0 lbs
Weight with Content : 2.0 lbs
SKU : 77950PE51G
UPC : 757448022919
Package Content:
DIAMOND AMD Radeon HD HD 7790 PCIE 1G GDDR5 Video Graphics Card
DVI-TO-VGA-ADAPTER
CROSSFIRE BRIDGE INTERCONNECT
4 PIN MOLEX TO 6 PIN PCI EXPRESS ADAPTER
INSTALL CD
Quick Start Guide
Now we can cover the card itself:
The box is a typical DMM box, it isn't too big either but clearly shows all the specifications.
I really liked the packaging. You can't see it here but the card comes in an anti-static bag which is in a bubble package which is in the box which is inside the color box. There are also some stickers included, a DVI to D-SUB adapter (which I do use), and a Molex to GPU power adapter.
Here is the GPU, the heatsink really is pretty cool in person. I love those huge heat-pipes. The VRM even has its own min heatsink. I think the only customization is the sticker on the fan and the color of the VRM heatsink.
The back retention bracket looks fine and the backside of the PCB isn't that busy. The card itself isn't very long like some other cards.
Here we have the video outputs; we have dual DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort.
Here I have removed the heatsink, it was very simple to do and the bracket actually keeps the screws attached even when removed, this is excellent if you want to take off the heatsink. The thermal paste made excellent contact.
Here we have also removed the VRM heatsink and you can see the indentation of the MOSFETs.
The nude card, you can see the four 256MB RAM chips and the five phase VRM.
This is the actual 7790 core, DMM is running this already OCed out of the box at 1075mhz, that is a 75mhz OC compared to the standard AMD HD7790.
They used Hynix based GDDR5 and run 1GB of it at 1550mhz, 50mhz higher than the standard 7790.
Here we have the PWM for the VRM, the NCP81022, possibly 4+1 phase VRM. Currently there are or will be mods out there for voltage control as the vGPU has been locked down by AMD. This is an analog PWM from On Semi so it is a bit easier to mod since they keep things basic.
Here we have 4 phases for the vGPU and 1 phase for the vDDR. 4928N is the tiny IC with many pins, this is the high-side MOSFET it has a pretty good current rating. The other MOSFET is the 4983N which is the low-side PowerPAK. Both MOSFETs are from ON Semi. The Coiltronics inductors are also of pretty high quality and better than those low prolife laptop inductors you see on many cards from Nvidia, AMD without a doubt does better with power delivery, except controls in this case.
Here we have some drivers for the phases, they only say AZU on them, however if you search the ON Semi site enough you will find what they are. NCP5901B is the model number for these drivers.
This APW7165 is a PWM for I am guessing the vPLL VRM.
This is a single phase VRM which powers the vPLL.
Benchmarks:
Now we can move onto benchmarks. All games were benched at 1920x1080 as that is the most popular resolution by far, and probably the maximum you would want to run this card at. All games were run with their standard settings and nothing was changed, FRAPs was used for FPS. Both 3DMark versions were run in Performance. The test setup is as follow:
AMD A10 5800K OCed to 4GHz(iGPU used for benchmarks, disabled iGPU when testing the card)
DMM HD7790
Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4
Kingston HyperX LOVO 8gb(4x2) 1600mhz cas9
Thermaltake XT Gold 1475W
Kingston HyperX 240GB
Now all my GPUs are pretty high-end compared to this card, so I decided to compare it to the iGPU inside the A5800, which is a 7660D.
This one has the 7790 overclocked to show some gains. The card's overclocking is looked at after the benchmarks.
Now let's look at some real world games:
As we can see BFBC2 is playable at 60FPS, but I don't think BF3 can be played at its default settings, perhaps at a lower resolution or lower settings, however BF3 is also pretty CPU intensive and if I used Ivy Bridge I am sure I would hit closer to 60FPS.
Now we can check out some of the software and overclocking:
Here we can see the OC I used.
Overclocking the 7790 is actually pretty easy, however because of BIOS restrictions and voltage restrictions which are typical of most 7790s I am limited to 1600mhz max memory and 1200mhz max core clocks. I also cannot change the voltage for the core. However I can control some of the power limits and fan. I also tried MSI's Afterburner, however it didn't allow any extra headroom.
This is the standard score in vantage.
This is the OCed score.
Conclusion:
The Diamond Multimedia HD7790 is a pretty good value and great for someone looking to build a value oriented gaming rig, or someone who just wants a GPU which can support gaming if they so choose to go after it. Currently the card is selling for $149.99 on Newegg. That is a pretty good price to be able to play most DX11 games. Many users don't always play games however those same users might want to be able to play games when they have a chance. Most games(real games) don't run well at all on integrated graphics that we see in modern CPUs, however this GPU is a nice upgrade. Many times we see scores 2-3x greater than the Trinity iGPU, which makes most games playable. The fan runs very silent and the heatsink seems to do a great job and considering we can't increase the voltage I don't see much point to replacing it. Diamond gives this GPU an OC right out of the box, and even though it is small, it's very easy to pull up the clocks a few more MHz. All in all if you are building a rig and you want to be able to play games once in a while, and you don't want to spend half your budget on a high-end graphics card then take a look at the Diamond Multimedia HD 7790.
Diamond Multimedia is a company best known for their AMD/ATI graphics cards. They have a wide range and sell a lot of their cards in the USA. Today I am reviewing their AMD Radeon HD 7790 which is basically an entry level gaming GPU. DMM's(Diamond Multimedia's) HD7790 is actually the reference card from ATI, however we will still go over some of its intricacies and test and overclock it. First off we need to take a look at some of its specs:
DIAMOND AMD Radeon? HD 7790 PCIE 3.0 1G GDDR5 Multi Display Video Graphics Card
Bus Type: PCI Express 3.0 x16 | Part Number: 7790PE51G
Performance
ASIC Core : 7790
Core Clock : 1075 MHz
BUS : PCI Express 3.0 x16
Ports : 1 x Dual Link DVI, 1 x HDMI, 1 Single Link DVI, 1 x Standard Display Port
Cooling : Active - FanCooler
MFG Process : 28nm process technology
Transistor Count : 2080 million
Stream Processors : 896
Video Quality
CrossFire : CrossFire X
Direct-X : DirectX? 11.1 capable graphics
Open GL : OpenGL 4.2
Max Resolution Analog : VGA Max resolution 2048x1536
Max Resolution Digital : HDMI 1.4a Max resolution: 4096x3112
HDR F.Point Rendering : 128
HDR Integer : 16-bit integer or floating point
Standard Slot Solution : DOUBLE
Anti Aliasing Modes : Up to 24x multi-sample and super-sample anti-aliasing modes
Antisotropic Modes : 16x angle independent anisotropic texture filtering
Texture Support : HDR texture compression
Memory
Memory Clock : 1550 MHz
Memory Configuration : 64Mx32
Memory Type : GDDR5
Memory Bandwidth : 99.2 GB/s
Memory Size : 1024MB
RAMDAC : 400
Display Support
HDMI : HDMI 1.4a with support for stereoscopic 3D
HDMI MODE : 1.4a
Native Display Support : DisplayPort 1.2 Max resolution: 4096x2160 per display
Dual Display support : YES
Max Resolution Analog: VGA Max resolution 2048x1536
Max Resolution Digital: HDMI 1.4a Max resolution: 4096x3112
General Product Information
Form Factor (Profile) : Standard Profile Full-Height
Package Dimension : 12 x 6.5 x 4.125 inches
Product Weight : 1.0 lbs
Weight with Content : 2.0 lbs
SKU : 77950PE51G
UPC : 757448022919
Package Content:
DIAMOND AMD Radeon HD HD 7790 PCIE 1G GDDR5 Video Graphics Card
DVI-TO-VGA-ADAPTER
CROSSFIRE BRIDGE INTERCONNECT
4 PIN MOLEX TO 6 PIN PCI EXPRESS ADAPTER
INSTALL CD
Quick Start Guide
Now we can cover the card itself:
The box is a typical DMM box, it isn't too big either but clearly shows all the specifications.
I really liked the packaging. You can't see it here but the card comes in an anti-static bag which is in a bubble package which is in the box which is inside the color box. There are also some stickers included, a DVI to D-SUB adapter (which I do use), and a Molex to GPU power adapter.
Here is the GPU, the heatsink really is pretty cool in person. I love those huge heat-pipes. The VRM even has its own min heatsink. I think the only customization is the sticker on the fan and the color of the VRM heatsink.
The back retention bracket looks fine and the backside of the PCB isn't that busy. The card itself isn't very long like some other cards.
Here we have the video outputs; we have dual DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort.
Here I have removed the heatsink, it was very simple to do and the bracket actually keeps the screws attached even when removed, this is excellent if you want to take off the heatsink. The thermal paste made excellent contact.
Here we have also removed the VRM heatsink and you can see the indentation of the MOSFETs.
The nude card, you can see the four 256MB RAM chips and the five phase VRM.
This is the actual 7790 core, DMM is running this already OCed out of the box at 1075mhz, that is a 75mhz OC compared to the standard AMD HD7790.
They used Hynix based GDDR5 and run 1GB of it at 1550mhz, 50mhz higher than the standard 7790.
Here we have the PWM for the VRM, the NCP81022, possibly 4+1 phase VRM. Currently there are or will be mods out there for voltage control as the vGPU has been locked down by AMD. This is an analog PWM from On Semi so it is a bit easier to mod since they keep things basic.
Here we have 4 phases for the vGPU and 1 phase for the vDDR. 4928N is the tiny IC with many pins, this is the high-side MOSFET it has a pretty good current rating. The other MOSFET is the 4983N which is the low-side PowerPAK. Both MOSFETs are from ON Semi. The Coiltronics inductors are also of pretty high quality and better than those low prolife laptop inductors you see on many cards from Nvidia, AMD without a doubt does better with power delivery, except controls in this case.
Here we have some drivers for the phases, they only say AZU on them, however if you search the ON Semi site enough you will find what they are. NCP5901B is the model number for these drivers.
This APW7165 is a PWM for I am guessing the vPLL VRM.
This is a single phase VRM which powers the vPLL.
Benchmarks:
Now we can move onto benchmarks. All games were benched at 1920x1080 as that is the most popular resolution by far, and probably the maximum you would want to run this card at. All games were run with their standard settings and nothing was changed, FRAPs was used for FPS. Both 3DMark versions were run in Performance. The test setup is as follow:
AMD A10 5800K OCed to 4GHz(iGPU used for benchmarks, disabled iGPU when testing the card)
DMM HD7790
Gigabyte F2A85X-UP4
Kingston HyperX LOVO 8gb(4x2) 1600mhz cas9
Thermaltake XT Gold 1475W
Kingston HyperX 240GB
Now all my GPUs are pretty high-end compared to this card, so I decided to compare it to the iGPU inside the A5800, which is a 7660D.
This one has the 7790 overclocked to show some gains. The card's overclocking is looked at after the benchmarks.
Now let's look at some real world games:
As we can see BFBC2 is playable at 60FPS, but I don't think BF3 can be played at its default settings, perhaps at a lower resolution or lower settings, however BF3 is also pretty CPU intensive and if I used Ivy Bridge I am sure I would hit closer to 60FPS.
Now we can check out some of the software and overclocking:
Here we can see the OC I used.
Overclocking the 7790 is actually pretty easy, however because of BIOS restrictions and voltage restrictions which are typical of most 7790s I am limited to 1600mhz max memory and 1200mhz max core clocks. I also cannot change the voltage for the core. However I can control some of the power limits and fan. I also tried MSI's Afterburner, however it didn't allow any extra headroom.
This is the standard score in vantage.
This is the OCed score.
Conclusion:
The Diamond Multimedia HD7790 is a pretty good value and great for someone looking to build a value oriented gaming rig, or someone who just wants a GPU which can support gaming if they so choose to go after it. Currently the card is selling for $149.99 on Newegg. That is a pretty good price to be able to play most DX11 games. Many users don't always play games however those same users might want to be able to play games when they have a chance. Most games(real games) don't run well at all on integrated graphics that we see in modern CPUs, however this GPU is a nice upgrade. Many times we see scores 2-3x greater than the Trinity iGPU, which makes most games playable. The fan runs very silent and the heatsink seems to do a great job and considering we can't increase the voltage I don't see much point to replacing it. Diamond gives this GPU an OC right out of the box, and even though it is small, it's very easy to pull up the clocks a few more MHz. All in all if you are building a rig and you want to be able to play games once in a while, and you don't want to spend half your budget on a high-end graphics card then take a look at the Diamond Multimedia HD 7790.
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