AMD Radeon 6790 Review - Widescreen Analysis

The Radeon HD 6790 is positioned as an "entry level gaming card". It is in the midrange of the product stack - the 6800 and 6900 sit above, and the 6400-6600 fall below. This card is targeted at the gaming crowd, rather than the HTPC or "general purpose" user. Being an entry level card, we have to view the HD 6790 with the right expectations for what it can and can't do.

The card is targeted at single widescreen users, and this is really where it shines. Most every title hit 30fps at 1920x1080 (with each game at max settings); the exceptions being AvP, STALKER and the Heaven DX11 demo. HAWX even hits 60fps at 1080p.

Dropping the resolution to 1600x900 brings 30fps to AvP, and three out of the four STALKER demos. At this resolution, DiRT2 and Far Cry 2 pass 60fps, and Just Cause 2 barely misses.

The HD 6790 is aimed to set between the legacy HD 5770 and the newer HD 6850. Based on the performance in the graphs below, it is obvious that AMD perfectly tunes the HD 6770 to hit the mark they were aiming for. In many instances (AvP, Battle Forge, and STALKER), the card performs much closer to the HD 6850 than the HD 5770. However, in Mafia II, the card performs almost exactly like the HD 5770.