Review (PowerColor) AMD Radeon HD 6790: Affordable yet Powerful

Conclusions

AMD Radeon HD 6790, Performance Assessment

Our tests show that AMD’s brand new “Barts LE” GPU is powerful enough to yield reasonable frame rates in most modern games with the all the graphics settings turned on, at lower resolution such as 1360x 768, at least. You can scale the resolution up to 1920×1080 and the games would still be very much playable, albeit only in “lightweight” titles that do not rely too heavily on tessellation.
As for the PowerColor Radeon HD 6790 in our possession, we can say that it performs well for a non-reference card. The Radeon HD 6790 has only been launched, but PowerColor already comes with a customized variant. The non-reference cooler effectively dissipates heat, resulting in relatively low operating temperature. Its accessory bundle is not overly generous with only the most basic items included, but that should be sufficient for most users.

Performance Comparison: AMD Radeon HD 6790 VS GeForce GTX 550 Ti

Put side-by-side, Radeon HD 6790 seems to be slightly ahead of its nearest competitor, the GeForce GTX 550 Ti. This is true for most cases in our test. GTX 550 Ti excels in some titles, such as Lost Planet 2. However, NVIDIA has apparently cut the price of GTX 550 Ti to provide it with an added advantage so that it could better compete this new adversary from AMD. According to our observation, a GTX 550 Ti graphics card can be obtained for as little as US$ 135 at some online shops. In this segment of the market, that slight price difference could mean a lot.

So, Is It a Good Choice?

The US$ 150 price point is currently occupied by numerous models from both AMD and NVIDIA. Radeon HD 6790 adds up to the already long list of available choices. This latest addition to AMD’s current lineup seems like a promising new comer, but it’s worth remembering that Radeon HD 6790 is also positioned relatively close (in terms of pricing) to models that sit one step above it, such as the Radeon HD 6850 or GeForce GTX 460 768 MB. Add a few more bucks, and you could afford these powerful alternatives. The final decision rests in your hands, of course!

PowerColor HD 6790

• Manufacturer: PowerColor
• Info: www.powercolor.com
• Price: –
• Indonesian Distributor : Sempurna Utama
• Phone: 021 – 6128178, 62201285

TECHNICAL DATA

• Chip: AMD HD 6790
• Interface: PCI Express 2.1 x16
• Memory Size: 1024 MB
• Core Clock: 840 MHz
• Memory Clock: 4200 MHz
• Stream Processor: 800
• D-Sub Output: Yes (via DVI to D-Sub converter)
• DVI Output: Yes (x1)
• HDMI Output: Yes (Full-size HDMI)
• Display Port Output: Yes (mini-Display Port)
• Memory Type: GDDR5
• Memory Interface: 256-bit
• Included Accessories: Quick Installation Guide, Driver Disc, and DVI to D-Sub display converter.