AMD Radeon HD 6790 1GB Review

How we tested

As always, we did our best to deliver a clean set of benchmarks, with each test repeated three times and an average of those results is what we’re reporting here. In the rare case where performance was inconsistent, we continued repeating the test until we got three results that were consistent.

The tests performed are a mixture of custom in-game timedemos and manually played sections, using FRAPS to record the average and minimum frame rates. We strive to not only record real-world performance you will actually see, but also present the results in a manner that is easy to digest.

Intel Core i7 Test System

• Intel Core i7-965 processor (3.2GHz: 133MHz x 24)
  
• Asus Sabertooth X58 motherboard (Intel X58 Express with three PCI-E 2.0 x16 slots)
  
• 3x 2GB Corsair TR3X6G1333C9 memory modules (operating in dual-channel mode at 1,600MHz 9-9-9-24-1T)
  
• Corsair X128 120GB SSD running v1 firmware
  
• Corsair HX1000W PSU
  
• Windows 7 Home Premium x64
  
• Antec Twelve Hundred Chassis

AMD graphics cards

• AMD Radeon HD 6970 1GB (840MHz GPU, 4.2GHz memory) using release driver (Catalyst 11.4 beta)
  
• AMD Radeon HD 6990 4GB (2 x 830MHz GPUs, 2 x 5GHz memory) using release driver (Catalyst 11.4 beta)
  
• AMD Radeon HD 6970 2GB (880MHz GPU, 5.5GHz memory) using Catalyst 11.2 WHQL
• AMD Radeon HD 6950 2GB (800MHz GPU, 5GHz memory) using Catalyst 11.2 WHQL
  
• AMD Radeon HD 6950 1GB (800MHz GPU, 5GHz memory) using Catalyst 11.2 WHQL
  
• AMD Radeon HD 6870 1GB (900MHz GPU, 4.2GHz memory) using Catalyst 11.2 WHQL
  
• AMD Radeon HD 6850 1GB (725MHz GPU, 4GHz memory) using Catalyst 11.2 WHQL
  
• AMD Radeon HD 5970 2GB (2x 725MHz GPUs, 2 x 4GHz memory) using Catalyst 11.2 WHQL
  
• AMD Radeon HD 5870 1GB (850MHz GPU, 4.8GHz memory) using Catalyst 11.2 WHQL
  
• AMD Radeon HD 5850 1GB (725MHz GPU, 4.0GHz memory) using Catalyst 11.2 WHQL
  
• AMD Radeon HD 5770 1GB (850MHz GPU, 4.8GHz memory) using Catalyst 11.2 WHQL

Nvidia graphics cards

• Nvidia GeForce GTX 590 3GB (2 x 607MHz GPUs, 1,214MHz stream processors, 2 x 3,4114MHz memory) using launch driver (GeForce 267.71 beta)
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 1.5GB (772MHz GPU, 1,544MHz stream processors, 4,080MHz memory) using GeForce 266.58 WHQL
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 570 1.3GB (732MHz GPU, 1,464MHz stream processors, 3,800MHz memory) using GeForce 266.58 WHQL
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti 1GB (820MHz GPU, 1,640MHz stream processors, 4,000MHz memory) using GeForce 266.58 WHQL
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1GB (900MHz GPU, 1,800MHz stream processors, 4,104MHz memory) using GeForce 266.58 WHQL
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 1.5GB (756MHz core, 1,512MHz stream processors, 3.8GHz Memory) using GeForce 266.58 WHQL
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 470 1.2GB (607MHz core, 1,215MHz stream processors, 3.3GHz memory) using GeForce 266.58 WHQL
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 1GB (675MHz core, 1,350MHz stream processors, 3.6GHz memory) using GeForce 266.58 WHQL
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 460 768MB (675MHz core, 1,350MHz stream processors, 3.6GHz memory) using GeForce 266.58 WHQL
  
• Nvidia GeForce GTX 450 1GB (783MHz GPU, 3,608MHz memory) using GeForce 266.58 WHQL

Games Tested

• Colin McRae: Dirt 2 (DX11)
  
• Call of Duty: Black Ops (OpenGL)
  
• Arma II: Operation Arrowhead(DX9)
  
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (DX11)