Sapphire VAPOR-X HD 7770 GHz Edition OC Pro Reviews

Sapphire's Vapor-X cooling continues to impress and in applying the technology to AMD's Radeon HD 7770, we have a card that's cool under load, quiet in use and armed with healthy overclocks on both core and memory. The HD 7770 Vapor-X is better than reference in more ways than one and there's not a lot wrong with Sapphire's implementation, but the shipping speeds and excellent cooler aren't quite enough to mask the limited performance of the underlying Cape Verde XT GPU.

The HD 7770 GHz Edition is a quite capable performer for anyone looking to get their hands on a GPU that will just game and game well. Granted with only 1GB framebuffer I would not recommend this for a large surround or EyeFinity display in game as the framebuffer could easily be taxed with a single 2560x1600 display with high textures let alone 3 or more.

The SAPPHIRE VAPOR-X HD 7770 GHz EDITION OC video card is definitely a fantastic video card for an average gamer. It does not necessarily have the potential to max out every single video game on the market at higher resolutions, but our tests showed that the video card exceeds the performance requirements at lower resolutions at medium graphics settings. This means that the SAPPHIRE VAPOR-X HD 7770 GHz EDITION OC should have enough power to run all the latest video games at medium to high graphics settings at higher resolutions of 1680 x 1080 and 1920 x 1080. This was not possible on a AMD Radeon HD 7750 graphics card. What we really enjoyed about the SAPPHIRE VAPOR-X HD 7770 GHz EDITION OC was that it is able to overclock fairly nicely with its stock vapor chamber cooler, while maintaining very low acoustic levels and keeping the GPU very cool. This means that we are able to push the card even further than what SAPPHIRE initially overclocked it to for better performance. But our question of whether the card is worth the money still lies unanswered. We do believe the card is worth the money, however to really maximize the graphics quality of your games, you might want to invest an additional $30-$75 more on a more powerful video card like the EVGA SuperClocked GTX 560 or a basic GTX 560 Ti. If you will be gaming at lower resolutions anyways, this card should not disappoint you at all. Throw Skyrim or Diablo 3 at it, and it should still work without any issues at high graphics settings.

Sapphire did a mighty good job with their HD 7770 Vapor-X. Even though Vapor-X was engineered for high-end cards, the company's exclusive cooling technology can really show its potential on this lower-midrange card. Combined with the factory overclock, the card delivers a well rounded package for the budget conscious gamer. Thanks to the large overclock out of the box, the card is 8% faster than AMD's reference design, which puts the Vapor-X on the same level as the HD 6850. This makes the card a great choice for medium-res gaming, up to, including 1680x1050.

I'm impressed with the card for what it is. It's a perfect card for a mid-range/mid-budget gaming build. The price point really sells it; the graphics are there to play what you want; just not at the highest "Ultra" settings. The factory overclocks don't leave a ton of room to play the overclocking game, but you are guaranteed 1100/1300 delivered to your door. Whatever you get after that is just an added bonus and you won't hear it when you crank the clocks either thanks to the Vapor-X cooler. It also being a member of the 7000 series and with not much competition in the same price range from NVIDIA makes this card a winner for any builder or gamer on a tight budget. This card sells itself.