AMD Radeon HD 7750 & Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition Review: Evading The Price/Performance Curve
by Ryan Smith & Ganesh T S on February 15, 2012 12:01 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- HTPC
- GCN
- Radeon HD 7000
Video Post-Processing: GPU Loading
We saw in our coverage of discrete HTPC GPUs last year that noise reduction loaded up the GPU, and as such, was even disabled in the low end GPUs for want of shader resources. Starting with this review, we are planning to tabulate GPU usage under various post processing scenarios instead of running decoder benchmarks. GPU-Z gives us the necessary data for this purpose.
A 1080i60 H.264 clip (same as the one used in the discrete HTPC GPU article last year) was decoded with the LAV Video Decoder (DXVA2 Copy-Back mode) using EVR-CP as a renderer in GraphStudio Next's Decoder Performance section. Various post-processing options were turned on and off in CCC and the GPU usage recorded in each case.
| Video Post Processing GPU Usage: 1080i60 H.264 | |
| AMD Radeon HD 7750 (1GB GDDR5) / Catalyst 12.1 | |
| LAV Video Decoder DXVA2 (Copy-Back) v0.46 / EVR-CP | |
| Post Processing Algorithm | GPU Load |
| No Video Post Processing | 19% |
| Vector Adaptive Deinterlacing + Pulldown Detection | 25% |
| Edge Enhancement | 22% |
| Noise Reduction | 48% |
| Dynamic Contrast and Colour | 25% |
| All Post Processing / 'Enforce Smooth Video Playback' Disabled | 62% |
We also put some Full SBS / Full TAB 3D clips (which are basically 2 x HD resolution) through the same process. Those progressive clips resulted in around 70% of the GPU being loaded with all the post processing steps enabled.
It is not yet possible to use the madVR renderer from within GraphStudio Next, but, in future HTPC / HTPC GPU reviews, you can expect to find similar benchmarking with the madVR renderer (now that it is possible to use madVR along with hardware accelerated decode for AMD GPUs also). That said, we see that up to 62% of the GPU is loaded using just EVR-CP. It is not clear how much room is left for madVR processing, and we hope to address that question in future reviews.
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ArizonaSteve - Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - link
Time for the DOJ to start looking into the price fixing that's going on here.A5 - Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - link
Price fixing is explicit, purposeful collusion between 2+ manufacturers to set prices at an unnaturally high level. For an example, see the memory market in the early 2000s.That is not what is happening here.
mattgmann - Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - link
Both of these companies settled price fixing lawsuits in 2008 under similar circumstances. They've cheated before; don't be surprised if they're cheating again.mckirkus - Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - link
If Coke and Pepsi both start pricing cans of soda at $50 each, doesn't mean people will buy them. The 7770 is a $50 can of soda.CeriseCogburn - Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - link
Yeah sure is price fixing when the always victorious gtx460 is $110 bucks and beats the 7770 every time and there's a large stock available...Or the other, triple fan GTX580 at the egg for $359, and the other reduced way down from $500.
AMD is scalping we customers even now and has been since before this review.
chizow - Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - link
There's an easy solution to price fixing: Don't buy at their asking price, or buy the faster, last-gen for cheaper.Its not like GPUs go bad like produce or get consumed like oil. Just keep using whatever you have in your rig now, because chances are its just as fast at a cheaper price than what AMD is asking for these "new" next-gen parts.
Iketh - Thursday, February 16, 2012 - link
meh I'm not worried about it just yet, it's too early... I bet it's because of poor yields, which would make the pricing legitimate... remember it's a new arch on a new nodeif the situation is the same in a month or 2, i'll be among those complaining
akbo - Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - link
I guess AMD is gonna let go of the old 6850 quick, 'cause no one is gonna buy it with this prices. Perf/watt very good tho, although mem bandwith very dissapointing. DDR4 is not coming soon enough, let alone GDDR6. 128 bits are simply not enough and 256 bits is adding more power/complexity. Can't wait for the day when GDDR6 comes and hopefully doubles bandwith for lower power/efficient clock speed. Oh, and gpu companies, when that day comes, don't be stingy like you always are and end up giving us 64 bits instead.silverblue - Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - link
Bring back TBDR and you won't need stupidly wide memory buses. ;)Roland00Address - Wednesday, February 15, 2012 - link
This is figuring out the price per performance, how many dollars you have to spend to get each FPS. Using Anandtech's Crysis: Warhead: 1680x1050 Gamer Quality Everything, Enthusiast Shaders+4xAA (Lower is better since you get a better bang for your buck.) Prices are from Newegg, using the cheapest card out there, no MIR are factored in, price includes shipping. Notes the 7750 and 7770 are not on newegg yet, so I am using the MSRP with no shipping to figure out the FPS per dollar. The GTX460 is using an older anandtech test since it is no longer using the more recent benchFPS Per Dollar/Video Card/FPS/Price/Shipping/Total
$3.81 Radeon 5750 28.1 99.99 6.98 106.97
$3.23 Radeon 5770 32.5 104.99 0.00 104.99
$3.23 Radeon 6850 45.7 139.99 7.56 147.55
3.01 Radeon 6870 53.1 159.99 0.00 159.99
3.46 Radeon 7750 31.8 109.99 0.00 109.99
4.35 Radeon 7770 36.8 159.99 0.00 159.99
3.88 Geforce GTX550 TI 32.7 119.99 6.98 126.97
3.56 Geforce GTX460 1GB 41.4 139.99 7.56 147.55
3.65 Geforce GTX560 48.5 169.99 6.98 176.97
As you can see, the Radeon 7750 is actually a very good card for its price. It beats the old Radeon 5770 series, and all the Geforce only losing to the Radeon 6800 series in the terms of value. Don't forget though the Radeon 7750 can be single slot, doesn't need a 6 pin, and generates less noise and heat.
The 7770 on the other hand is the most expensive card in the terms of value. Notice that Geforce cards have a higher dollar per fps (they have less value), for the Radeon card to succeed it only has to compete with Geforce since Radeon still makes money if you buy one of the other Radeon cards. If the 7770 was priced at 131.01 it would have identical value as the gtx460 1gb, and 142.78 if the card was priced against the value of the GTX550 TI.
I wouldn't be surprised that the Radeon 7770 will drop to the 139.99 or 149.99 price range once all the older 5700 series and 6800 series leave the channel. I do not think we are going to see much cheaper 7750s though since it is a recycled part and its price per performance is very good already. OEMs are going to be eating up the 7750s like candy.