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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!

Benchmark Results: Synthetics

Futuremark’s 3DMark 11 leads our benchmark vanguard:

The new Radeon sits comfortably between the Radeon HD 5770 and Radeon HD 6850, probably a little closer to the higher-end card.

We know that GeForces don’t fare quite as well in this test, but since the GeForce GTX 550 Ti performs close to the Radeon HD 5770 when it comes to games, we still expect the Radeon HD 6790 to perform close to the GeForce GTX 460 768 MB.

The Unigine Heaven benchmark is most useful as a yardstick of tessellation performance, although it favors GeForce architecture, even when this enhancement is disabled. In any case, the Radeon HD 6790 performs relatively close to the Radeon HD 6850.

60 Comments Comment from the forums
  • rohitbaran 05 April 2011 10:16
    Wow. Great card for the price, considering what nVidia has for the same segement.
    Reply
  • tacoslave 05 April 2011 10:18
    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 05 April 2011 11:17
    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 05 April 2011 11:19
    Should be a bit cheaper imo.
    Reply
  • compton 05 April 2011 11:21
    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
  • 05 April 2011 11:23
    error with 6970 min fps f1 game at 1920 x 1080 res
    Reply
  • Trueno07 05 April 2011 11:33
    Wow, nice card for the money, and very competitive. Good job AMD...
    Reply
  • dragonsqrrl 05 April 2011 11:46
    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 05 April 2011 13:25
    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 05 April 2011 13:39
    On the final graph, why is the 6790 listed below the 460? According to the graph it should be above it.
    Reply