Conclusion

Starting with the build quality of the Sapphire 7770 Overclocked Edition we have a card which sees the manufacturer take its own route with custom PCB and cooler. The cooler specifically is an improvement over the reference design and ensures that on a hardware level we have reason to opt for Sapphires model over a stock model.

In terms of design there is nothing to fault on the Sapphire model and looking at the 7770 design as a whole we have a card which offers all of the key features we saw on previous models such as PCIe Gen 3 support, the ability to power three screens, HD content acceleration, multi-channel audio over HDMI and Blu-Ray 3D support as well as DirectX 11 compatibility.

For performance there are two ways to look at the gaming side of the 7770 OC, the first is that it clearly doesn't match the GTX 560 overall which sits at a near identical price point. On the flip side in every one of the games we tested today the Sapphire card was able to produce smooth, playable framerates at 1920x1080 with maximum detail and often with anti-aliasing applied. Where the 7770 does excel in comparison to the GTX 560 is power and thermal performance where this card runs significantly cooler and draws far less power when gaming.

In terms of value Sapphire, as always, provide us with a good bundle which includes a HDMI 1.4 cable and their warranty is of course first class. That said the performance of the card, for those interested only in gaming, means that it could do with being £10-20 cheaper to make it an essential purchase... something which applies to all 7770 cards.

Summary
Although it would greatly benefit from a price cut across the entire AMD 7770 series for gaming at 1920x1080 on a budget the Sapphire Radeon 7770 Overclocked runs near silent, cool and on minimal power while providing smooth gameplay at maximum detail in the latest games.

RRP: £130