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AMD Radeon HD 7730 Review: A Harbinger Of The Kaveri APU?

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We got our hands on two Radeon HD 7730 cards from Sapphire: one with 2 GB of DDR3 and the other sporting 1 GB of GDDR5. How do they compare to AMD's Radeon HD 6670s, and what might we glean from these boards about the upcoming Kaveri-based APUs?

Results: F1 2012

Codemasters' F1 2012 isn't the most demanding title out there. But it can certainly push entry-level hardware when its quality settings are dialed up. We're testing at 1920x1080, enabling 4x MSAA, and experimenting with the High detail preset.

Only AMD's Radeon HD 6670 DDR3 is unplayably slow at this setting. The new Radeon HD 7730s do well, though Nvidia's GeForce GT 640 manages to outperform the GDDR5-equipped trim. Again, the pricier Radeon HD 7750 can't be touched.

The frame rates for each card stay above 30 FPS for most of our test, with the exception of AMD's Radeon HD 6670 DDR3.

We see very low frame time variance across the board, suggesting these single-card configurations deliver frames at a consistent rate, regardless of the instantaneous frame rate.

55 Comments Comment from the forums
  • rmpumper 05 August 2013 05:00
    Just look at that performance difference between DDR3 and GDDR5. AMD sure needs to implement GDDR5 in Kaveri in order not to waist all that GPU potential.
    Reply
  • MrPintar14 05 August 2013 05:20
    Typo on second page, both 7730 GPUs say DDR3 but the second one should say GDDR5
    Reply
  • designasaurus 05 August 2013 05:21
    11292234 said:
    Just look at that performance difference between DDR3 and GDDR5. AMD sure needs to implement GDDR5 in Kaveri in order not to waist all that GPU potential.

    Your comment, while being perfectly accurate, actually made me notice something interesting. Take a look at the charts, and you'll see that the GCN 7730s are less affected by the switch from DDR3 to GDDR5 than the VLIW 6670s! That means GCN is leaving less performance on the table if it's paired with slower memory, which is ideal for the situation an APU is usually in (PS4 aside).
    Reply
  • Onus 05 August 2013 05:26
    At the right price, this looks like a real winner, especially the GDDR5 version. If a $90 HD7750 is too rich, an HD7730 for $65 looks like it is still capable of playing most games, especially at 720p resolutions where a lot of HTPC cards operate.
    The "secret sauce" that could really catapult this one would be if some of its disabled pieces might be able to be switched on.
    Reply
  • ET3D 05 August 2013 06:04
    Regarding Kaveri, it looks from this that CGN means better performance with DDR3, but also higher power consumption. If AMD wants to keep to the same power envelope it might have to reduce GPU clock speeds, which will eat into the performance advantage. In the end, it feels from this that Kaveri will offer only a minor performance boost.

    Hopefully AMD has done more power optimisations and that won't be the case.
    Reply
  • 17seconds 05 August 2013 06:06
    There it is, F1 creeping its way back into the test suite.
    Reply
  • shikamaru31789 05 August 2013 07:10
    I'm a little dissapointed if this is what we can expect from Kaveri. I was hoping for something that would come closer to matching the APU in the Xbox One. I want to build a small HTPC for gaming in my living room, and an APU would have been ideal for that since the smaller HTPC cases don't have room for large discrete graphics cards. I don't know, maybe Kaveri could still be useful if they actually get Hybrid Crossfire working properly, a Kaveri APU paired with a discrete 7730 and DDR3 2133 might just work out for my purposes.
    Reply
  • slomo4sho 05 August 2013 07:27
    I don't see why manufacturers continue to utilize this ram in newer products... Just get rid of DDR3 already...


    Also, how is this Cape Verde GPU a "Harbinger Of The Kaveri APU"? It is a trimmed down 7750 and since a 7750 can provide no real insight into the performance of upcoming Kaveri APUs then how does this entry level card provide any better insight?
    Reply
  • army_ant7 05 August 2013 07:39
    On page 10, does the reference HD 7750 really have a load temp of 97C?
    (73C + 24C ambient = 93C)

    Anyway, the GDDR5 HD 7750 looks like a viable game-enabler for PC gamers on a budget. Also, it's a nice refresh for that price point's options. I do hope it sells for around $60 or less. :-D
    Reply
  • sarinaide 05 August 2013 07:40
    11292661 said:
    I'm a little dissapointed if this is what we can expect from Kaveri. I was hoping for something that would come closer to matching the APU in the Xbox One. I want to build a small HTPC for gaming in my living room, and an APU would have been ideal for that since the smaller HTPC cases don't have room for large discrete graphics cards. I don't know, maybe Kaveri could still be useful if they actually get Hybrid Crossfire working properly, a Kaveri APU paired with a discrete 7730 and DDR3 2133 might just work out for my purposes.

    I have found a Trinity based APU more than enough for a HTPC. I would not have banked on Kaveri matching the XB1 and PS4's custom build silicon as in the name the APU designed for MS and Sony was of custom design and the hardware was always going to scale beyond that for desktop parts. If you offered me HD7730-7750 performance on a Kaveri I would be very pleased with that. What hasn't been brought to light is that the Spectre IGPU on Kaveri features around 512 Stream Processors and increased ROP's and compute units so it may very well be a potent iGPU.

    Dual Graphics has improved with Catalyst 13.8 to the point it is now playable, if a Richland can DG with the HD7730's that would be tremendous fo gaming under $200 for chip and card.

    Reply