AMD Radeon HD 6790 Review: More Mid-Range Might

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Hot on the heels of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 550 Ti introduction, AMD releases a card with the same MSRP and vastly superior performance. But can it also stand up to the GeForce GTX 460 768 MB? We put the new card to the test!

Power, Temperature, And Noise Benchmarks

We’re interested in seeing how much power the Radeon HD 6790 reference card actually draws:

Under load, the new card disappoints by drawing 11 more watts than the Radeon HD 6850. A higher clock speed and Radeon HD 6870-based PCB are probably to blame here, and we hope that AMD's board partners come up with more efficient designs for their non-reference models.

In any case, the Radeon HD 6790 still uses a little less power than Nvidia's GeForce GTX 460 768 MB.

The reference Radeon HD 6790 cooler provides acceptable performance, right in the middle of our test group.

These levels look high, as we took the noise level one inch from the fan side of the card in order to highlight the differences. When tested at load, the cooler borrowed from the Radeon HD 6870 barely has to spin faster to keep the 6790 cool. This is a great result.

Don Woligroski
60 Comments Comment from the forums
  • rohitbaran
    Wow. Great card for the price, considering what nVidia has for the same segement.
    Reply
  • tacoslave
    I think the 550ti is the most useless release this year and yes even though the 6790 card draws more power than i would like its still miles ahead of the 550 ti. As for the gtx460 768 i think it would be stupid to take it off the market its nvidia's new 8800gt and only competition for amd 6790.
    Reply
  • compton
    The best part of 6790 appears to be the bitchin' CF scaling, if nothing else. Depending on where prices end up, it still would be hard to recommend when a few dollars more can get you the 6850.
    Reply
  • plznote
    Should be a bit cheaper imo.
    Reply
  • compton
    I would hope that prices end up around $139 or so, without rebates. Still the 5770 and 460s are the value kings, so I'm glad to see AMD not over pricing them. nVidia could take a lesson.
    Reply
  • error with 6970 min fps f1 game at 1920 x 1080 res
    Reply
  • Trueno07
    Wow, nice card for the money, and very competitive. Good job AMD...
    Reply
  • dragonsqrrl
    rohitbaranWow. Great card for the price, considering what nVidia has for the same segement.Nvidia no longer has anything in this segment. Well, maybe the GTX460 768, but on average it's still priced above $150. The GTX550Ti underwent an expected below MSRP price drop soon after launch, and the average price is now around $130, probably where it should've been to start.
    tacoslaveI think the 550ti is the most useless release this year and yes even though the 6790 card draws more power than i would like its still miles ahead of the 550 ti. As for the gtx460 768 i think it would be stupid to take it off the market its nvidia's new 8800gt and only competition for amd 6790.Again the GTX550Ti doesn't directly compete with the HD6790 and has underwent a pretty significant price drop in the short time since its launch. The GTX560 is set to replace the GTX460 768 and compete directly against the HD6790 at the $150 price point.
    Reply
  • bombat1994
    Nvidia fail at the mid range segment. the only good card they have released recently was the 460. the 450, 550, failed hard. this card will be good if the companies can lower the the power usage. good job ati
    Reply
  • ivan_chess
    On the final graph, why is the 6790 listed below the 460? According to the graph it should be above it.
    Reply