Review: msi r7790

MSI presents its first model of the ATI HD 7790 with improved cooling, ideal design for HTPC or Gaming ITX and a good overclock to get an extra. Don't miss out on this fantastic review.

Product ceded by:

Graphics Engine	AMD Radeon HD 7790
Norma Bus	PCI Express x16 3.0
Memory Type	GDDR5
Memory Size (MB)	1024
Memory interface	128 bit
Core clock speed (MHz)	1050
Memory clock speed (MHz)	6000
DVI output	two
HDMI output	one
Display port	one
HDCP support	Yes
HDMI support	Yes
DVI double link	Yes
Screen output (Maximum Resolution)	2560 × 1600
RAMDACs	400
DirectX Version Support	eleven
OpenGL Version Support	4.2
CrossFire support	Yes
Dimensions (mm)	185X125X38mm
Weight	410g
Thermal Design	Fansink

Utilities and Drivers Package provided by MSI

• MSI Live Update Series (Live Graphics Card BIOS & Live Graphics Card Driver)

  Automatic online download and update of VGA BIOS & Drivers, reduces the risk of downloading the wrong files, and you'll never have the trouble of searching websites. MSI Graphics Card Driver MSI StarOSD

  StarOSD can monitor system information, adjust monitor settings, and overclock the system. MSI Dual Core Center

  MSI Live

  It includes all the information of Live services in real time, such as Live MSI Product News, Live Daily Information, Live Personal Schedule Manager, Live Search and more. Adobe Acrobat Reader Microsoft® DirectX

  Norton Internet Security ™ 2008 60 days Trial

  -Blocks phishing from websites that attempt online identity theft

  -Detects and removes spyware

  -Removes viruses and Internet worms automatically

  -Protects against hacker action

The presentation of MSI as always, elegant and with its blue-white corporate colors.

As we can see, the graphics card has a very small length… Making it the ideal graphics card for HTPC, Gaming ITX or boxes with very little space. MSI has opted for a single 10cm fan design and black-blue colors. Although the refrigeration seems like a joke, it offers us great performance.

Side views. We highlight the 2 heatpipes, 6-pin connection for power, PWM fan and its CrossFire connection.

The chosen connections were: HDMI version 1.4, a Display Port and two Dual-Link DV connections.

Here the bare card. 1 GB DDR3 memory, phase dissipation, chipset with thermal paste and a 6-pin PCI Express connection.

Bonaire is the first chip in the Sea Islands family and is a direct rival to the new GTX 650 Ti BoosT Edition. In the following images we can visualize the chip and the dissipation in the phases and voltage regulators.

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel i7 3930K C2
Base plate:	Asus Rampage IV Extreme
Memory:	Kingston Hyperx Predator
Heatsink	Corsair H55
HDD	Kingston Hyperx 120gb
Graphic card	MSI Radeon 7790
Power supply	Thermaltake TouchPower 1350W

To evaluate the performance of the graphics card we have used the following applications:

• 3DMark11.3DMark Vantage.Dirt 3Metro 2033

All our tests have been carried out with a resolution of 1920 × 1080. Synthetic tests are based on HWBOT regulations for easy comparison with other equipment.

What are we looking for in the tests? First the best possible image quality. The most important value for us is the average FPS (Frames per second), the higher the number of FPS, the more fluid the game will be. To differentiate the quality a little, I leave you a table to assess the quality in FPS:

FRAMES BY SECONDS
Frames for Seconds. (FPS)	Gameplay
Less than 30 FPS	Limited
30 –- 40 FPS	Playable
40 - 60 FPS	Good
Greater than 60 FPS	Fairly Good or Excellent

Let's not fool ourselves; there are games that can have an average of 100 FPS. It may be because the game is quite old, does not require excessive graphic resources or that the graphics is the most powerful on the market, or we have GPU systems for hundreds of euros. But the reality is different, and games like Crysis 2 and Metro 2033 are very demanding and do not usually give high scores.

As we are used to, the first test is about measuring consumption. The equipment at rest marks us 81w, later we started the furmark with the card in factory values, the meter gave us 158w, then we put the maximum overclock that the card had allowed us and the consumption amounted to 201w.

The ambient temperature of 20ºC gave us barely 28ºC, when we put more “chicha” in it, the graph reaches 53ºC. and with a little overclock it touched 59ºC, we cannot ask for more from this "mini" fan.

We leave you a small table with the results obtained:

3dMark11	5969
3dMark Vantage	26100
tomb Raider	39
Metro 2033	35
Battelfield 3	31
Unigine Haven	1050
Sleeping Dog	fifty
Alien Vs Predator	51

To speak of MSI is to speak of quality in all its ranges of graphics cards. The MSI R7790-1GD5 / OC was not going to be any different: good components, cooling and possibility in its overclocking.

As we have been able to verify the ATI 7790 it is a mid-range graphics card with a more than interesting performance for the sector from € 135 to € 140. Specifically, this MSI brings us a good cooling system with a 10mm fan, a copper base with two heatpipes and a 6-pin power connection.

In our test bench we have passed a large battery of programs and games. Highlighting the 5969 Pts in 3dMark11 and its very good gameplay in games like Sleeping Dog 50 fps and Alien Vs Predator at 51 Fps. Where we can see a little more affected its performance has been with Metro 2033 and BF3 with just 35 and 31 respectively.

Its overclocking capacity has been quite good, reaching up to 1280 mhz in core. With this overclocking, it never went above 59ºC… what a blast!

However we think that if it were around € 120 it would be a top seller. And it is that its performance is somewhat lower than a 7850, but this offers us 2GB of memory and a slightly higher performance in stock. That if we practice a little OC we would get quite high.

In short, if we are looking for an inexpensive graphics card, ideal for a multimedia or small computer, cool and with an overclock margin. The MSI 7790 is your graphics card.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ EXCELLENT REFRIGERATION.	- ABOUT 120 € WOULD BE A TOP SALES.
+ OC CAPACITY
+ IDEAL SIZE FOR ITX EQUIPMENT.
+ VERY GOOD PERFORMANCE.

The Professional Review team awards him the gold medal: