Sapphire HD 7750 Low Profile edition – for mini-HTPC and light DX11 gaming
Conclusion
This has been quite an enjoyable exploration for us in evaluating the Sapphire HD 7750 Low Profile edition. We were surprised to see solid increases in framerates from being overclocked. We see that these sub-$120 cards also offer great features for a similar price to stock HD 7750s and GTX 550s. Performance of an overclocked HD 7750 approaches that of a stock HD 7770 but generally falls short.
It isn’t the DX11 gaming performance that makes the Sapphire HD 7750 Low Profile card especially attractive. Rather, it is its unique design as a very small low profile card that also handles decent light DX11 gaming that will make this card very popular among the HTPC and mini case crowd. With a premium of only about 15 dollars over regular HD 7750s, the Sapphire HD 7750 Low Profile card is a great value. It is very hard to find a low profile card at all that will manage DX11 with decent framerates.
Overclocking is the HD 7750’s saving grace regarding performance and this appears to be true with the entire 7000 series. The Sapphire HD 7770 Low Profile card is a decent gaming choice at the $120 price point with good support for multi-monitor.
Of course looking a bit further into the future, we will have to see what Nvidia will bring to the table with their own 28nm new architecture Kepler GPUs and especially the card that replaces the GTX 550 Ti. At this point, the HD 7700 series are unchallenged at 28nm.
We see that AMD’s partners and especially Sapphire, are working on features and unique capabilities to put cool and quiet overclocked HD 7770s as well as low profile HD 7750s on the market to give us great choice. We see quiet cards that can also play DX11.1 games at 1080P and the HD 7750 would also be a very good choice for a HTPC in a mini case. So let’s look at the Pros and Cons of Sapphire’s HD 7750 Low Profile edition:
Pros
- The Sapphire HD 7750 Low Profile edition is a versatile single-slot card that can be used for light DX11 1080p gaming or even as a HTPC card in a mini-ITX case.
- The Sapphire HD 7750 offers a quiet running video card even when overclocked
- Sapphire’s HD 7750 Low Profile edition offers a great value over older low profile cards that cannot match its performance.
- Display outputs are flexible and the adapters necessary to use them are included in the box.
- TriXX is a very good overclocking utility that goes beyond Catalyst Control Center.
Cons
- None.
The Verdict:
- If you are buying a $120 video card for HTPC right now and must have a very small and quiet-running single-slot DX11 card that can overclock, the Sapphire HD 7750 Low Profile edition is the card for you. It is perfect for HTPC and where space is an extreme consideration.
We do not know what the future will bring, but the Sapphire 7750 Low Profile edition brings good performance to the Radeon HD 7700 family right now. This editor believes that AMD, and especially Sapphire, bring very full-featured DX11.1 videocards to the market that will find good acceptance among customers and their fans alike.
As a good performer in the HD 7750 series that fills a unique role, the Sapphire HD 7770 Low Profile edition deserves our ABT Editor’s Innovation Award for bringing a small single slot card with decent DX11 gaming performance and quietness to HD 7000 series. It is perfect for mini cases and for HTPC.
The competition is hot as the prices on even the new video cards have softened and Nvidia offers their own set of features including PhysX, CUDA and 3D Vision with their competing GTX 550 Ti. Their own new entry-level 28nm line up is also due to launch relatively soon. Stay tuned, there is a lot coming from us at ABT including a CPU Air versus Watercooling shootout, a Kingston SSD evaluaton and more mobile tech evaluations. There is also a new mystery card evaluation coming shortly – check our forum for hints!
Mark Poppin
ABT Senior Editor
Please join us in our Forums
Become a Fan on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
For the latest updates from ABT, please join our RSS News Feed
Join our Distributed Computing teams
- Folding@Home – Team AlienBabelTech – 164304
- SETI@Home – Team AlienBabelTech – 138705
- World Community Grid – Team AlienBabelTech
