Rob_B's Sapphire Vapor-X 7770 review

[Rob_B]

So I was overjoyed to hear I'd won a Sapphire Vapor-X 7770 from HEXUS as I'd been considering an update to my GPU.

I'll give a little history and explain how I view gaming upgrades...

Current Specs
X6 @ 3.3Ghz
6GB DDR2
Fanless 9500GT
Win 7 64bit

At one point I had a 5850 which I sold due to me working away from home so having zero time to game anymore. My rig basically became a machine for my wife to run her business and upload pictures to FB.
It has sat this way for a while but now I'm at home more I'd been considering getting a 5850 back as they're fairly cheap and to be blunt gaming isn't something I get much time to do still so justifying expense is tricky. If I do get time then it's easier for me to jump onto the PS3 for half an hour than the PC (unless there is a PS3 firmware update!)

Overall I'd say I'm a slightly above average gamer, yes I build rigs but don't have the time or money like I used to so it takes a back seat.
As such this review will not be covering the card from a normal 'hardcore hardware' point of view, I can't run benchmarks/power draw tests etc and anyway HEXUS covered all of this in a review already! HEXUS 7770 Vapor-X Review


So onto the card...

It arrived a couple of days after I was informed I'd won, the box is pretty plain, the contents in a brown cardboard box:


7770 by Rob_norb17, on Flickr

Card
HDMI cable
Molex to PCIE adapter
DVI>VGA adapter (I think, I didn't open it!)

And that's it, fairly bare-bones but personally I already have loads of adapters and cables lying around so if it was just the card in a box I'd still be ok!

I gathered the essentials...


essentials by Rob_norb17, on Flickr

Installing it was a breeze:
- Uninstall Nvidia drivers
- Shut down
- Swap cards
- Boot up
- Install AMD drivers
- Reboot

Et voila! 15mins total I'd reckon (and that includes calling my son in for his tea!)

Spot the difference..


photo 2 by Rob_norb17, on Flickr


photo 3 by Rob_norb17, on Flickr

I'd post a CPUZ GPU section screenshot here but the new version of CPUZ makes my PC crash to black screen :/

I jumped into the AMD CC and enabled overdrive, bumped the Core from 1100 to 1150 and the RAM from 1300 to 1350 (tiny but probably safe without testing)

Idling, the card clocks at 300/150 core/mem @ 29C (20% fan speed)

2D performance

Distinctly 'normal'
Going from a 5850 to 9500GT I'd actually noticed an improvement in 2D, I'd always thought people who said that were getting a placebo effect but I was downgrading and still noticed it.
I noticed no difference whatsoever going from the 9500GT > 7770
Funnily enough I'd also not noticed a difference going from an Nvidia GTX260 > 5850 so make of that what you will.

3D Performance
As mentioned this isn't going to delve in depth into performance stats. HEXUS covered it well and the low down is 5850>6850>7770 so I didn't expect miracles.
To be fair for a card hovering around the £100 price point I was fairly impressed, yes you can buy a 5850/6850 for less BUT is that going to be 2nd hand?

Firing up the BF3 campaign with my 9500GT still installed I had to drop to low settings and 1366*768 and it STILL lagged, crawled and tore the screen to hell.
Popping in the 7770 I played the same level @ 1920*1080 @ HIGH - 4*AA with no issues whatsoever (apart from that god awful motion blur which developers love to use so much)
I couldn't dare to compare this to my (overclocked) 5850 but suffice to say it was more than acceptable to me. If I get time to play anything else e.g. Crysis 2 I'll update this review.

9500GT

9500 1 by Rob_norb17, on Flickr

7770

7770 1 by Rob_norb17, on Flickr

9500GT

9500 2 by Rob_norb17, on Flickr

7770

7770 2 by Rob_norb17, on Flickr

Noise
It's noisier than my fanless 9500GT (big surprise there) but it IS surprising how quiet this thing is, at idle it's not heard above my PSU and @ load it's quieter than my 5850 was.

Overall opinion & Conclusion
Overall I'd say this is a decent, mid range GPU. The package is minimal which hopefully keep costs down. The Vapor X costs from around £110 but the stock 7770 can be had from around £90+
The card is also nice and short, certainly shorter than a 5850 which is always a bonus no matter how big your case is! It could also be shorter if Sapphire hadn't added a strange little sticky out bit on the fan shroud which seems to serve no purpose other than to give it a pointy leading edge (but who sees their card from top down view?!)

With 2nd hand 5850s going for ~ £80 on eBay then I'd definitely accept slightly lower performance for a warranty

Overall it's a big thumbs up from me. If I'd spent £100 upgrading to this card I wouldn't have been disappointed.

Finally thanks to Sapphire and HEXUS for another AWESOME HEXUS competition!

Rob

[Zak33]

BANG TIDY REVIEW

we love you Rob

[Zak33]

Spot the difference..

look at the dust moting around those wheels

[Zak33]

Overall it's a big thumbs up from me. If I'd spent £100 upgrading to this card I wouldn't have been disappointed.

Finally thanks to Sapphire and HEXUS for another AWESOME HEXUS competition!

So people... there you go: if you're in the market, with about a £ton to drop on a proper gaming card for 1920*1080 @ HIGH - 4*AA in BF3, you've found a card to look at

[Rob_B]

So I've been playing around with BF3 a bit as I was having a strange washed out effect, seems with AA enabled (not Post, that's fine) I get this sort of look, note the washed out-ness and strange darkness of certain objects e.g eyes/glasses/bottles.


BF3 MSAA Issue by Rob_norb17, on Flickr

Turning MSAA off solves this problem, not sure if its driver related as I installed 12.8 straight away. Not sure if this affects any other AMD card.

[stevie lee]

12.8 drivers? i had quite a few issues with them when i put them on. fuzzy text in LOTRO, wierd shadings and ghosty images. its the drivers causing it (according to google), either put on 12.9 beta, or go back to the 12.6 ones. they work very well on this card i found

[bigsnow]

Wow, amazing

learn a lot from this post

[Myss_tree]

Have this card in a mini itx case and at idle the power supply can be heard over it. I do not game so its not been pushed but it does not get noticeably any louder and its sitting right next door to a stock cooled i7 3770 so cooling is preety effective doing general everyday tasks.
It drives my Dell U2713HM easily enough at max resolution over display port.