MSI R7770 2PMDIGD5 and XFX R7770 Black Edition Super Overclocked

MSI Radeon HD 7770 2PMDIGD5

I mentioned earlier that we had a couple of retail cards for this release, both of which are based on the Radeon HD 7770 product.  First up is MSI’s base version of the GPU, the R7770 2PMDIGD5 which you will likely find for the $159 base price.

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MSI has gone with a dual fan shroud on the HD 7770 1GB and we’ll see later in our testing whether or not that was useful for temperatures or sound level testing compared to the reference design.  This card is running at pretty close to reference clocks:

  • 1020 MHz GPU clock (versus 1000 MHz standard)
  • 1125 MHz memory clock (reference)

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MSI has kept the output configuration the same – a single dual-link DVI as well as a full size HDMI and two mini-DP.

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I did notice that the single 6-pin power connection is easy to install on the MSI card but kind of annoying to remove as to fit your thumb under the shroud I had to flex it upward.

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In the box MSI includes a power converter, a DVI to VGA adapter as well as a mini-DP to full-size DP adapter.

XFX Radeon HD 7770 Black Edition Super OC

XFX sent along an overclocked version of the Radeon HD 7770, the Black Edition SOC that they are estimating will be sold for about $179.

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For the HD 7770 launch XFX is using a very similar design to the Radeon HD 7900-series cards we have looked at with a "Double Dissipation" cooler and what they are calling "Ghost Thermal Technology".  The result is a card with great cooling capability and highly overclocked speeds:

  • 1120 MHz GPU clock (versus 1000 MHz standard)
  • 1300 MHz memory clock (versus 1125 MHz standard)

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The cooler design on the XFX model is pretty classy yet keeps the red/black combination that many users really like from the AMD reference creations.  The output configuration remains unchanged.

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The 6-pin power connector is easy enough to access and the single CrossFire connector allows you to pair up more than one HD 7770 for additional performance (which we demonstrate on a later page). 

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In the box you’ll find a DVI to VGA adapter, CrossFire connector mini-DP to DVI adapter and a case badge that you can cut someone with.  

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