Overclocking
Overclocking went quite well, especially as HIS have been providing plenty of headroom in the Catalyst Control Center of late. Whilst our overclock wasn’t a huge increase, do keep in mind that the HIS 6790 IceQ X Turbo Graphics Card is already running faster than a default card to begin with.
| Card | Core | Memory |
| Default 6790 | 840 | 1050 |
| HIS 6790 IceQ X Turbo | 900 | 1100 |
| HIS 6790 IceQ X Turbo Overclocked | 920 | 1200 |
The Difference
Since our overclocking wasn’t a huge increase from the already increased HIS clocks, there wasn’t a huge increase in the frame-rates of our games. Not to sound like a broken record, but once again, every little bit helps, with the increases enough to warrant the time taken in overclocking at least.
Final Words
Despite sharing some commonalities with the 5830, the 6790 never feels as lacklustre as the 5830 did. Despite having twin PCIe power connectors, the doesn’t use much more power than a 6850 and it’s single connector. And despite being made from GPU ‘left overs’, the HD 6790 Graphics Card is a pretty decent card.
This makes it a good base for the which expands on this with uprated Core and Memory clocks. A default card comes clocked at 840/1050 while the comes out-of-the-box at 900/1100. We also managed to squeeze a little extra from the Core and took our sample to 920. Not a particularly large increase, but the memory jumped all the way to 1200MHz without issue.
In games, the does very nicely, and would suit a single 1080p monitor well. Despite this, the does have all the ports and features needed for some Eyefinity action, although I would expect to see a need to run at reduced detail settings for the higher resolution.
At Newegg, at time of writing, the is the most expensive 6790 listed, but it’s also the only one that comes overclocked and with free shipping, so if you’re looking out for a 6790 (or two, they scale wonderfully in CrossfireX), then the is certainly worth a good look.
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