AMD Radeon HD 6790 1024 MB

[Jonap_1st]

good to see 6790 doesnt ended up like 5830. maybe little drop to around $130-140 would make it sweet choice..

[n-ster]

If it's at 150$, this is disapointing really. 2x 6 pin, really? and it can't even beat a 5830? I thought it would be a great card that would easily beat the 5830, and perhaps even the gtx 460 and sit at almost = to GTX 460.

If this required 1x 6 pin, then it would be better already. Else I think this should be priced UNDER 130$

[Delta6326]

fan is way to loud for that temp! still the 460 looks like a good deal

[F2K]

Originally Posted by n-ster

If it's at 150$, this is disapointing really. 2x 6 pin, really? and it can't even beat a 5830? I thought it would be a great card that would easily beat the 5830, and perhaps even the gtx 460 and sit at almost = to GTX 460.

If this required 1x 6 pin, then it would be better already. Else I think this should be priced UNDER 130$

Some AIBs already have a 1x 6pin version (PowerColor, VTX3D, Club3D)

[N3M3515]

No shader unlocking?
Seems this card doesn't overlock like i would've like
I'll pass this one

[HalfAHertz]

WHY cut the ROPs again?? I understand that they don't want to cannibalize 6850 sales but I would have preferred to see 32 ROPs and maybe a tad higher core clocks...As a lot of others have mentioned already the 460 is still king of the mid range.

[mdm-adph]

Originally Posted by alexsubri

1st and good review as always! I was reading the leaked benchmarks of crysis and i guess they were right. Thumbs up to AMD for making this card at $150. Great value and sucker punches 550ti. We'll see how nVidia punches back with the new 460 SLi on a stick solution comes about.

edit: are you going to have a crossfire review up? i am really eager to see it

I think we should do like some other forums do and auto-ban if someone says "first."

[Rowsol]

Originally Posted by Jiraiya

same price GTX 460 768mb !

Yea, not a fan of this. The 6850 for $165 or the gtx 460 768mb @ $150 is a better option.

[N3M3515]

Quoted from anandtech forum:

"Recent video card innovations have been real unimpressive lately. It really does seem like we are not much further than 3 years ago in terms of visual video card performance. Are we hitting a massive roadblock here?"

"For the time being there’s not much going for the 6790 to recommend it. Throw some rebates on the Radeon HD 6790 to get it down to $130 and we can talk. Until then the GeForce GTX 460 768MB or the Radeon HD 6850 are both much better products."

Seems that my trusty 4870 and 4890 have no rivals as of 2 years old.
PD: Don't reply to me about how 4870 & 4890 being tier 1 cards because when i bought them 2 years ago they where at 135usd and 170usd respectively, i don't care if they launched at 99999usd, i bought at 135 and 175 TWO years ago. I don't care about dx11 either because this cards don't have the horsepower for it anyway.
Some years ago one could buy last years high end for 200 bucks for example:

5950 ultra vs 6600gt
6800 ultra vs 7600gt ===> 5950 vs 7600gt almost 4x perf in 2 years.
7800 gtx512 vs 8800gt

maybe it's because 40nm?

[arnoo1]

i don't understand 1 thing
how do you manage a 80c+ load temp when power consumption is around 140watts?
my gtx 275 does not get hotter than 65c with 63%fan speed ,and that's not noisy, and a power consumption of 225watts

[Jeffredo]

MSI N460GTX Twin Frozr II SOC GeForce GTX 460 (Fer...

As a few others have said - why bother? The HD 6790 or GTX 550 Ti shouldn't even be considered when you can get a great card like the GTX 460 Twin Frozr SOC for the same price and a MIR.

[mastrdrver]

Wizzard are you using one of the 3 benchmarks for Civ 5 (If so which one)?

Great review as always.

Thanks

[Semi-Lobster]

Originally Posted by N3M3515

Quoted from anandtech forum:

"Recent video card innovations have been real unimpressive lately. It really does seem like we are not much further than 3 years ago in terms of visual video card performance. Are we hitting a massive roadblock here?"

"For the time being there’s not much going for the 6790 to recommend it. Throw some rebates on the Radeon HD 6790 to get it down to $130 and we can talk. Until then the GeForce GTX 460 768MB or the Radeon HD 6850 are both much better products."

Seems that my trusty 4870 and 4890 have no rivals as of 2 years old.
PD: Don't reply to me about how 4870 & 4890 being tier 1 cards because when i bought them 2 years ago they where at 135usd and 170usd respectively, i don't care if they launched at 99999usd, i bought at 135 and 175 TWO years ago. I don't care about dx11 either because this cards don't have the horsepower for it anyway.
Some years ago one could buy last years high end for 200 bucks for example:

5950 ultra vs 6600gt
6800 ultra vs 7600gt ===> 5950 vs 7600gt almost 4x perf in 2 years.
7800 gtx512 vs 8800gt

maybe it's because 40nm?

Really interesting perspective, Hardware Canucks gave a very different (and glowing) perspective on the 6790.

[HalfAHertz]

Originally Posted by N3M3515

Quoted from anandtech forum:

"Recent video card innovations have been real unimpressive lately. It really does seem like we are not much further than 3 years ago in terms of visual video card performance. Are we hitting a massive roadblock here?"

"For the time being there’s not much going for the 6790 to recommend it. Throw some rebates on the Radeon HD 6790 to get it down to $130 and we can talk. Until then the GeForce GTX 460 768MB or the Radeon HD 6850 are both much better products."

Seems that my trusty 4870 and 4890 have no rivals as of 2 years old.
PD: Don't reply to me about how 4870 & 4890 being tier 1 cards because when i bought them 2 years ago they where at 135usd and 170usd respectively, i don't care if they launched at 99999usd, i bought at 135 and 175 TWO years ago. I don't care about dx11 either because this cards don't have the horsepower for it anyway.
Some years ago one could buy last years high end for 200 bucks for example:

5950 ultra vs 6600gt
6800 ultra vs 7600gt ===> 5950 vs 7600gt almost 4x perf in 2 years.
7800 gtx512 vs 8800gt

maybe it's because 40nm?

That is so true! I was thinking something along those lines the other day too. The 4850 was selling for 109-129$ and the 4870s were around 129-149 just before they got EOLd. And they literally offer only a marginally worst performance. I agree that the 5770 and the 6790 can OC much further and increase the performance gap but dang even when you OC them to near 1GHz, you're looking at 40-50% more performance in the best case scenario and that's compared to a 2year old product...You may argue that the problem is the unoptimized games and not the cards or that you get a few extra features but dang I expected better...Why would I want Dx11 or 3 screen eyefinity when I'm having difficulty running just 1 screen at 19x12 for 150$
Give me MOAR Ati and Nvidia!

[N3M3515]

From The TechReport:
"The unfortunate truth is that, for $149, the 6790 is kind of a raw deal. A graphics card without a cause, really. Head to Newegg right now, and you can grab a Radeon HD 6850 for $164.99—that's before a $20 mail-in rebate that'll bring the card down to just $144.99, as long as you eventually get that check in the mail. The 6850 produces much higher frame rates across the board, draws about as much power, and may actually emit less noise.

No matter how hard I try, I just can't think of a situation where I'd recommend the 6790.

Perhaps if you have an irrational hatred for mail-in rebates and have a budget so tight that going over by $15 would force you to mortgage your house and take up residence under a bridge. If you're that strapped for cash, though, perhaps a $149 graphics card isn't a wise expense to begin with."

[CDdude55]

Looks like an awesome budget card!

[Arska]

6790 is a hopeless card if you're looking to better your current card, 4870 or higher. I'm still rocking my 4870 512M from nearly three years ago. It really seems like performance/price ratio hasn't improved properly for a very long time, maybe we'll have to wait until 28nm for things to change.

[Arska]

Originally Posted by N3M3515

Perhaps if you have an irrational hatred for mail-in rebates

Or maybe you just don't want to burden yourself with all that rebate crap. Some people do, I don't, but then I don't live in USA, and rebatewise I'm quite happy with that.

[sliderider]

I'm still not convinced of the value of this card. Doing a Google search shows the lowest priced HD6790 at $150 and the lowest priced HD6850 at $165. The HD6850 is faster and uses less power than the HD6790. The HD6850 has also been proven to be better overclocker than the HD6870 that the HD6790 is derived from. You'll easily save the $15 difference in price on your electricity bill in a short time and have more fun with your games with the HD6850 and the HD6850 has the advantage of being able to fit in a smaller case for those building a computer for HTPC or other applications where a small case is a necessity so why would you even consider the HD6790?

[antuk15]

This card is aimed to replace the 5770 in terms of cost and given time it will.

It's a new card so prices are a bit inflated as they always are when cards are fresh out the door.

Give it time, The time price the drop, The drivers will improve and the card will come into it's own and be THE budget card to have

[sliderider]

Originally Posted by antuk15

This card is aimed to replace the 5770 in terms of cost and given time it will.

It's a new card so prices are a bit inflated as they always are when cards are fresh out the door.

Give it time, The time price the drop, The drivers will improve and the card will come into it's own and be THE budget card to have

It won't replace the 5770, though. The 5770 will stay in the lineup and likely be renamed 6770. You can already get 5770 cards for $115-$120 and AMD is not going to abandon that price point because they don't have anything to fill that spot. It will be at least 12 to 18 months before HD6790 drops to that point.

[antuk15]

Originally Posted by sliderider

It won't replace the 5770, though. The 5770 will stay in the lineup and likely be renamed 6770. You can already get 5770 cards for $115-$120 and AMD is not going to abandon that price point because they don't have anything to fill that spot. It will be at least 12 to 18 months before HD6790 drops to that point.

They have already rebranded the 5770 to 6770 but it's an OEM only card.

Meaning there's no TRUE desktop replacement for it, Which is the why the 6790 will take over

[sliderider]

Originally Posted by antuk15

They have already rebranded the 5770 to 6770 but it's an OEM only card.

Meaning there's no TRUE desktop replacement for it, Which is the why the 6790 will take over

And what does AMD sell when nVidia releases a revised Fermi card below the GTX550? ANOTHER Barts variant with even fewer functional units? That would be too expensive for that market. 5770 has mature drivers and is cheap to manufacture so it isn't going anywhere for a while.

[Jeffredo]

ASUS Direct CU GTX 460 768MB for $109.99 after $30 MIR.

ASUS ENGTX460 DirectCU TOP/2DI/768MD5 GeForce GTX ...

Yet another example of the immediate redundancy of the HD 6790 @ $150.