Introduction

A few weeks ago AMD launched their Radeon HD 7700 Series. The cards use the all-new Cape Verde graphics processor which is based on AMD's new GCN Graphics Core Next architecture that promises increased performance and lower power draw.

Cape Verde is a downscale from the "Tahiti" silicon, on which higher Radeon HD 7900 series parts are based. There are fewer number of redundant components, so Cape Verde is left functionally-identical to Tahiti, but is smaller, built for more affordable graphics cards. Cape Verde also retains the basic hierarchy of the architecture as implemented in Tahiti.



Gigabyte's HD 7770 OC is a custom implementation of the HD 7770. It features a massively increased GPU clock speed of 1100 MHz. Memory clock has been increased too, to 1250 MHz.

Packaging

Contents

You will receive:

• Graphics card
• Driver CD + Documentation
• Analog VGA Adapter

The Card

Gigabyte's card uses the same cooling solution as their HD 6770 and GeForce GTX 550 OC. The heatsink uses a very large 10 cm fan to provide maximum airflow to the card.


The card requires two slots in your system.


Display connectivity options include one DVI port, one full size HDMI port one full size DisplayPort. You may use all the outputs at the same time, thanks to AMD's superior display output architecture.

An HDMI sound device is included in the GPU, too. It is HDMI 1.4a compatible which includes HD audio and support for Blu-ray 3D movies. The DisplayPort outputs are version 1.2 which enables the use of hubs and Multi-Stream transport.


You may combine up to two HD 7770 cards from any vendor in a multi-GPU CrossFire configuration for higher framerates or better image quality settings.


Pictured above are photos of the front and back, showing the disassembled board. High-res versions are also available (front, back). If you choose to use these images for voltmods etc, please include a link back to this site or let us post your article.