GIGABYTE HD 7770: A Preview

Aditya Gune February 15, 2012 AMD, Hardware, Previews, Video Cards/Graphics Cards 1 Comment

Check out our preview of the GIGABYTE HD 7770 video card, and stay tuned for the actual review!

The GIGABYTE HD 7770

The AMD HD 7000 series is here, with a brand new chip and a new design. The HD 7000 is the latest series of graphics cards just released by AMD, and carries a new graphics processing architecture called Southern Islands. When it was first announced, Southern Islands was rumored to be just a die shrink of the platform used by the HD 6900 series (Cayman).

However, it soon became clear that it was its own architecture, and was intended to compete with Nvidia’s successor to the GeForce 500 series. There has yet been no official announcement from Nvidia regarding the next line of GeForce GPU’s, codenamed Kepler. However, AMD’s release of the HD 7000 series will surely motivate them further.

The card we’re previewing today is the HD 7770 from GIGABYTE. The HD 7770 is a midrange card using a 28nm fabrication process, and is codenamed Cape Verde XT. The HD 7770 is rumored to carry approximately 1.5 billion transistors and has complete support for the PCI-Express 3.0 standard.

Image Credits: GIGABYTE USA

Features

GIGABYTE HD Experience Series

Powered by AMD Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition GPU
Integrated with the first 1GB GDDR5 memory and 128-bit memory interface
Features Dual-link DVI-I / HDMI / mini DisplayPort * 2
Overclock to 1100 MHz
Support CrossFireX™ and Avivo™HD
System power supply requirement: 450W

Ultra Durable 2

Using high quality components on graphics cards is the key factor for having a long lasting, stable and reliable product. GIGABYTE is again setting a new standard by using Ferrite Core Chokes, Low RDS (on) MOSFET and Lower ESR Solid Capacitors, providing the stability and reliability from their high-end graphics solution. In addition, GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 2 Edition graphics cards now feature a sophisticated layout topology. This state-of-the-art power design from GIGABYTE delivers the ideal integration of thermal, electric characteristics, digital signals, power circuitry and optimum placement of components for enhanced graphics performance.

Ultra Cooling – Low RDS(on) MOSFET Design

Low Power Loss – Ferrite Core Choke Design

Longer Life – All-Solid Capacitor Design

Gold plated HDMI

Gold plated, durable large contact area connectors have been used for optimum signal transfer between connections

GIGABYTE custom-designed 10 cm cooler

As opposed to the stereotype, GIGABYTE is able to maximize fan size to 10cm with the latest cooling design. With a 10cm fan, the card is virtually silent that its noise level runs much lower

AMD Eyefinity

Supporting multiple independent display outputs simultaneously, AMD Eyefinity technology delivers innovative graphics display capabilities enabling massive desktop workspaces and ultra-immersive visual environments for the ultimate panoramic computing experience.

AMD EyeSpeed

AMD EyeSpeed technology helps you:
■Enjoy beautifully rich and clear video playback when streaming from the web
■Take in your favorite movies in stunning, stutter-free HD quality
■Run multiple applications smoothly at maximum speed
■Enjoy lightning fast game play and realistic physics effects

Cross Fire™

Multiply and Conquer with Multi-GPU Performance:CrossFire’s “supertiling” GPU sharing speeds rendering by evenly dividing the graphics processing, intelligently alternating the rendering workload to each Radeon GPU for efficient load balancing, and optimized performance.CrossFire boosts image quality along with rendering speed, eliminating the need to crank down screen resolutions to get the high image quality you want.CrossFire supports a wide range of ATI-based graphics cards and motherboards, and offers compatibility with a broad array of third party components for a flexible and robust solution.

Avivo™ HD

Avivo™could provide vibrant high fidelity, flawlessly smooth next-generation video playback. Avivo™ technology easily allows your PCs to become digital home media center by its compelling video pipeline design that comprises the latest high definition video hardware acceleration, including H.264 and WMV9.

Microsoft Windows 7

Microsoft Windows 7 is the next generation operating system that will mark a dramatic improvement in the way the OS takes advantage of the graphics processing unit (GPU) to provide a more compelling user experience. By taking advangate of the GPU for both graphics and computing, Windows 7 will not only make todays’s PCs more visual and more interactive but also ensure that they have the speed and responsiveness customers want

RoHS Compliant

As a citizen of the global village, GIGABYTE exert ourselves to be a pioneer in environment care. Give the whole of Earth a promise that our products do not contain any of the restricted substances in concentrations and applications banned by the RoHS Directive, and are capable of being worked on at the higher temperatures required for lead free solder. One Earth and GIGABYTE Cares!

Specifications

Chipset	Radeon HD 7770
Digital max resolution	2560 x 1600
Analog max resolution	2048 x 1536
Process Technology	28 nm
PCB Form	ATX
Core Clock	1100 Mhz
Memory Clock	4500 MHz
Memory Size	1 GB
Memory Bus	128 bit
Card Bus	PCI-E 2.1
Memory Type	GDDR5
DirectX	11
OpenGL	4.2
Multi-view	4
I/O	HDMI * 1 DVI-I * 1 Mini DisplayPort *2
Card size	H=41.5 mm, L=212 mm, W=136.5 mm
Power requirement	450 W