INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   2 months have passed since the beginning of this project and the time has come for us to finally to start our usual graphics cards reviews (many of you pointed out the lack of such reviews so here they are). There have been quite a few newly released cards from both NVIDIA and AMD since the last time i performed such a review (almost 5 months ago) and so there are quite a few right now stacked next to our test rig waiting for their turn. One of those is the latest entry-level Radeon HD 7770 iCooler 1GB GHz edition by HIS digital which uses the latest Cape Verde GPU by AMD.

 

     HIS - Hightech Information System Limited is an internationally acclaimed graphics cards company. Time and time again, HIS were compared and tested by hundreds of worldly renowned critics. The results are phenomena, HIS have proven to offer far superior, cooler, quieter, and faster graphic cards than any other leading rivals. Up to the fourth quarter of 2008, HIS has won over 1000 awards with AMD graphic solution from major media worldwide. HIS is being recognized by providing performance leading and award-wining products. HIS was established in 1987 with the mission to produce the highest quality PC products in the industry. Besides strong devotion to excellent products and services, HIS has been conducting business with the aim to "Glorifying God". Honesty and integrity are the two key principals of how HIS are conducted. Ethical business practice has been an everyday commitment to our clients, vendors, and investors. Headquartered in Hong Kong, and with sales offices and distribution networks in Europe, Middle East, North and South America, Asia Pacific Regions our worldwide customers benefits from efficient and localized services. ISO Certified, HIS's manufacturing facility in China is managed by a team of professionals with expertise in quality control and production planning. Working with world-class clients, HIS has been consistently meeting high quality standards and fulfilled volume order in short lead-time.

 

     The new Cape Verde GPU featuring 640 Shader units, 16 ROPs (raster operators) and a 128bit memory bus is based on the brand new GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture by AMD. Now since the latest Cape Verde GPU is basically a cut-down version of the Tahiti GPU used in the more high-end 79xx series it should be able to achieve good performance levels with low power consumption. So since we are talking about a low/entry level card and since the previous Radeon HD 6770 was nothing to get excited over was quite curious to see what the new Radeon HD 7770 was all about and I wasn’t disappointed.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The card is placed inside the typical tall box HIS uses with pretty much all their cards lately.

 

 

At the left side HIS explains the differences between the PCIex, AGP and PCI slots.

 

 

The bundle contents list is placed at the right side.

 

 

Moving to the back of the box we see an in-depth explanation of all of the units features.

 

 

The Radeon HD 7770 iCooler 1GB is placed inside a thick black piece of Styrofoam.

 

 

Inside the box you will find the card, DVI-I to VGA adapter, HIS case badge, user's guide, a paper showcasing where to install the card and two software CDs.

 

 

 

THE HIS RADEON HD 7770 ICOOLER 1GB GHZ EDITION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The card features an entirely different cooling system than what HIS has gotten us used to with their TurboX series.

 

 

Unlike the TurboX models which come with 2 fans the iCooler model comes with a single 92mm fan.

 

 

A single 6pin power connector is used to power the card.

 

 

This time over HIS didn't use their own heatpipe cooler but rather the normal heatsink of the reference design.

 

 

HIS remains loyal to their light blue PCB color (has become their trademark over the years).

 

 

Crossfire capability is of course present.

 

 

Moving at the front we see two mini display port connectors, one dual-link DVI ports and one full sized HDMI 1.4a port with support for Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD, AC-3, DTS and 7.1 channel audio.

 

 

The new batch of cards by HIS also come with the iTurbo program for easy overclocking and control of the units fan.

 

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

 

 

 

 

 

     Just like in the past launch reviews is not something i prefer to do for a variety of reasons and i don't think that will change, not anytime soon. Also i always try to perform all tests with the latest possible drivers (even beta ones), however due to time issues and also because some older models are no longer in our hands this is not possible so once again both the card and the driver used to benchmark it (when it was available) will be noted in this section. Also take into consideration that all tests were done with the default driver settings in both the Catalyst Control Panel and the NVIDIA Control Panel (power management modes are set to maximum performance) to make things fair and square.

 

HIS Radeon HD 7770 iCooler 1GB - Catalyst 12.3
Gainward GeForce GTX 590 3GB - GeForce 301.24 Beta

 

     Once again the screen used for all the benchmarks is our primary NEC 30" 3090WQXi LCD with a maximum resolution of 2560x1600. Unlike in the past and since quite a few of you asked instead of having multiple different settings and just 2 resolutions we decided to have a total of 3 resolutions (2560X1600, 1920X1200, 1680X105) and a single quality setting (4xAnti Aliasing) to make it easier to pinpoint the differences between cards (more FPS, easier to see). We also changed our game lineup and so this time over we will be using Aliens VS Predator, Crysis 2, Battlefield 3, Alan Wake, Hard Reset and The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim. For these benchmarks we maxed out the graphics settings of each game and also updated them to their latest versions. All tests were repeated 3 times and in a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate Service Pack 1 64Bit installation on an OCZ RevoDrive 3 240GB SSD. As usual all tests took place in a room with a controlled ambient temperature of 23 degrees Celsius, the temperatures of the cards were recorded using AIDA64 (former Everest Ultimate by Lavalys) and GPU-Z while the noise levels were recorded using our ExTech HD600 dBA meter from a distance of no more than 5-10cm away.

 

 

TEST RESULTS - ALIENS VERSUS PREDATOR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - CRYSIS 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - BATTLEFIELD 3

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - ALAN WAKE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - HARD RESET

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - THE ELDER SCROLLS V SKYRIM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - TEMPERATURES / NOISE LEVELS / POWER CONSUMPTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - OVERCLOCKING

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We managed to push the core of the card to 1095MHz (almost a 10% increase) and the memory modules to a full 1670MHz (almost 45%).

 

 

The actual performance gain in games however was almost 15% in Hard Reset and 7% in Skyrim.

 

 

Only 2 degrees Celsius more in the core is nothing, however I don’t know how stable the memory modules will be in the long run.

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Having finished all the tests it's now quite easy to see that the latest Radeon HD 7770 iCooler 1GB GHz edition by HIS is in fact perhaps the single graphics card around the USD100 price range which I’d choose if i couldn't go any higher. Of course placing it up against the high-end mGPU GeForce GTX 590 3GB may not seem fair but aside the fact that the GTX 590 is currently running our primary test rig 24/7 it's also a good reference point to see just how good the Radeon HD 7770 (or any card) really is. The new cooler HIS used with their iCooler line is not really new and is basically the same found with reference design ones. However they did use a different type of fan which according to them is a lot less noisy than the stock one (having reviewed plenty of HIS cards in the past i believe them). Overclocking was very easy and although we only managed to squeeze 3-5fps in some games still it's free so why not?

 

   You can currently find the HIS Radeon HD 7770 iCooler 1GB GHz Edition for around USD135 inside the USA and 125Euros inside the EU a price tag which puts it right next to the cheapest Radeon HD 7770's in the market. Overall the HIS Radeon HD 7770 iCooler 1GB GHz Edition delivers a very good performance punch especially if you take into consideration its price tag, low noise/power consumption levels and PCIex 3.0/DX 11.1 compatibility. Certainly it can't compete with the more high end 68xx/69xx/78xx/79xx lines of AMD cards but if you are on a very tight budget and you are looking for the best price/performance ratio around the USD100 mark then the Radeon HD 7770 iCooler 1GB GHz Edition by HIS is the way to go.

 

PROS

- Build Quality
- Performance
- Almost Inaudible
- Low Power Consumption
- Connectors
- PCIex 3.0 & DX 11.1 Compatible
- Price (For Some) 

 

 

CONS

- Only 10% Core Overclock