Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD 4770 512MB

Value and Final Thoughts

As discussed at the beginning of the article, the mid-range GPU market is an ever-shifting kaleidoscope of fivers and fractions of frames per second. The performance difference between this card and the reference design is all but non-existent so to get an idea of where we stand we need to look at the competition.

If you're specifically looking for a card that can play Crysis for as little as possible then Nvidia's GeForce GTS 250 is way ahead of the other cards on test in that particular game, though even then you'll have to drop the settings to make it run with a smooth 25fps minimum frame rate, not to mention spend another £20.

In Fallout 3, the Radeon 4770 was one of the best cards of the lot especially when we worked up to higher resolutions and more AA. While the more expensive GeForce GTS 250 took back the lead in S.T.A.L.K.E.R Clear Sky, the Radeon HD 4770 was way ahead of the price-matched GeForce 9800 GT and very close to the numbers racked up by the HD 4850 which doesn't do a great job of justifying the extra £20 it costs.


The custom cooler on the Gigabyte kept the GPU a little cooler at stock speeds but the fan doesn't feature PWM control so it's not as quiet as the reference design. The heatsink also doesn't provide any cooling for the memory so if anything, we felt that this cooler should make the card cheaper than the reference design.

One area that this card didn't do so well on is the Folding@home department, but then that's something that is inherent to all ATI GPUs at the present time. If you're looking for a mid-range GPU to maximise your PPD then the 9800 GT is still one of the best out there.

Clearly the Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD4770 provides considerably more gaming performance than Nvidia's direct equivalent, the 9800 GT. If you've only got £80 to spend then we're sticking to our guns that you'd be hard pushed to find more gaming performance than the HD 4770 provides, but the Gigabyte isn't the cheapest HD 4770 out there and gives little to no performance gain for the extra few quid it costs more than the reference design. Because of this, you're better off opting for the cheaper version of the card.

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Score Guide