Conclusion

The HD7790 GPU has proven itself as quite a powerful GPU offering with more clock potential than AMD wants to give it. That is in no way the board partner’s fault and therefore we cannot penalize the cards for it. But it is worth noting that AMD could have one hell of a fun overclocking monster on its hand if they would just let it off its chain here.

XFX build one very nice and solid card with the aluminum shrouded cooler and uber quiet fans it makes itself into a card that looks like a million bucks without costing that. The quality is excellent as normally on mainstream card of this level. This is somewhat surprising as most of these cards are built as cheaply as allowable. We are very happy to see XFX taking the quality feel so seriously on a mainstream model as it just adds to a better user experience overall.

The choice of higher end board level components means that overall the lifespan of the card is much higher or likely to be higher with higher end components to keep problems at bay and keep things running more smoothly.

Overall XFX took a lower level midrange card, polished it like a diamond and made it have the body of a supercar so even the most entry uses can have one hell of a nice card in their right with the fit and finish normally reserved for the elite.

OUR VERDICT: XFX R7790 Black Edition

Performance 8.5 Value 9 Quality 10 Features 9 Innovation 9 We are using a new addition to our scoring system to provide additional feedback beyond a flat score. Please note that the final score isn’t an aggregate average of the new rating system. Total 9 Pros Cons Excellent overclocking potential Nice price point Excellent finish shroud/cooler Support up to 4 displays Excellent thermal performance Low power consumption Super quiet cooler Runs most games quite well at HD resolution Simply a awesome looking card Overclock ceiling cut off GPU&Memory potential Driver maturity questionable

Summary: The XFX R7790 Black edition offers a excellent lower midrange card with an excellent price point but the feel of a much higher end card. For this it earns the Bjorn3D Silver Bear Award.