Sapphire Radeon HD 6770 FleX Edition Review

Print
by Rob Williams on July 11, 2011 in Graphics & Displays

It’s not often that we see a new graphics card get released that’s no different than its predecessor, but with the Radeon HD 6770, that’s just the case. We’re already familiar with HD 5770 performance, but let’s take a look at how this $140 card compares to its similarly-priced competition, including the recently-launched HD 6790.

Page 1 – Introduction

This past April, AMD helped fill the Radeon HD 6000 series mainstream void with the HD 6790. Compared to the HD 5770 it was essentially succeeding, I felt the card should have been called HD 6830, as its architectural benefits clearly separated it from the HD 5700/6700 series. Nonetheless, there did exist an HD 6700 series at that time, though it was OEM only.

As the title of this article suggests, that’s no longer the case. At some point over the past couple of months, AMD decided to allow vendors to release both the HD 6750 and HD 6770 cards to the public, which now gives us a total of seven mainstream and higher HD 6000 GPUs to choose from, ranging from $100 – $700.

The Radeon HD 6770 we’re taking a look at here today, courtesy of Sapphire, retails for about $140 USD, whereas ordinary models retail for closer to $120. Encompassed within that $20 premium is a custom cooler and the ability to run Eyefinity (3 monitors) right out of the box thanks to its inclusion of an active DVI to HDMI cable and a built-in DisplayPort chipset.

But let’s not jump too far ahead of ourselves… what about the reference HD 6770? What does it offer here in relation to the HD 5770? Ah, it’s times like these when I just love writing about something, because I can feel lazy yet efficient. The answer: nothing. Well, unless you want to count the name change, which I guess is something.

If HD 6700 == HD 5770, then what’s the point? Also easy to answer: marketing. For the sake of it being easier to sell a “current” model than a last year model, the simple change had to be made for the sake of OEMs. And, it seems the same mentality carried over to the consumer market as well. Currently, Newegg lists very few HD 5770s, and all share the same pricing as the HD 6770.

Model
Core MHz
Mem MHz
Memory
Bus Width
Processors
Radeon HD 6990
830
1250
4096MB
256-bit
3072
Radeon HD 6970
880
1350
2048MB
256-bit
1536
Radeon HD 6950
800
1250
2048MB
1024MB
256-bit
1408
Radeon HD 6870
900
1050
1024MB
256-bit
1120
Radeon HD 6850
775
1000
1024MB
256-bit
960
Radeon HD 6790
840
1050
1024MB
256-bit
800
Radeon HD 6770
850
1200
1024MB
128-bit
800
Radeon HD 6750
700
1150
1024MB
128-bit
720

Like the HD 5770, the HD 6770 is a Juniper XT, built upon a 40nm process and consists of 1.04 million transistors. It features the same number of cores as the HD 6790, though because that card has a wider memory bus, the performance still lies in its favor.

As mentioned before, Sapphire’s “FleX” edition HD 6770 features a non-reference cooler and includes a DisplayPort processor on-board that negates the requirement for a DP monitor in the event you want to go with a 3×1 configuration. For those with older or budget displays that don’t feature the connection, this feature is a hugely welcomed one.

Sapphire Radeon HD 6770 1GB

At the back of the card are dual DVI ports, and HDMI and also a DisplayPort. If you’re planning to go with an Eyefinity setup, you can use both DVI ports here as normal, and plug the third DVI monitor into the active cable Sapphire has provided, which then plugs into the HDMI port.

Sapphire Radeon HD 6770 1GB

Do I see an ATI logo on this card? Tsk tsk, Sapphire. Well, let’s be fair… AMD still hasn’t totally removed ATI branding from its own GPU driver, so I guess we can’t pick on Sapphire too much.

As the HD 6770 isn’t any different than an HD 5770, nor is this card overclocked, we can already take a guess at how the card will fare in our results ahead. We recently removed the HD 5770 from our charts due to the fact that they were getting too large, but we can still compare the card to the slightly more expensive HD 6790.

Support our efforts! With ad revenue at an all-time low for written websites, we're relying more than ever on reader support to help us continue putting so much effort into this type of content. You can support us by becoming a Patron, or by using our Amazon shopping affiliate links listed through our articles. Thanks for your support!

Rob Williams

Rob founded Techgage in 2005 to be an 'Advocate of the consumer', focusing on fair reviews and keeping people apprised of news in the tech world. Catering to both enthusiasts and businesses alike; from desktop gaming to professional workstations, and all the supporting software.

twitter icon facebook icon instagram icon