AMD Radeon HD 7730M vs AMD Radeon HD 7770M

AMD Radeon HD 7730M

The AMD Radeon HD 7730M is a DirectX 11 graphics card for medium sized laptops and positioned in the performance class. It is manufactured in 28nm and based on the GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture.

The Radeon HD 7730M is not yet officially announced and therefore the information is still based on rumors and leaks like

http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=98&pgno=4

The design of the Radeon 7700M series has its roots to the Cape Verde chip as found, for example, on the desktop Radeon HD 7750 with 512 1D shader cores and 32 texture units. However, it has a core clock of only 575 - 675 MHz compared to 800 MHz for the HD 7750.  As a result, power consumption is expected to be much lower. While the desktop-version supports PCIe 3.0, the 7700M-Series doesn't (according to AMD).

The performance slightly below the DDR3 version of the GeForce GT 640M. Therefore, current (Spring 2012) and demanding games run fluently in medium or high settings in most cases.

Features of the 7730M include the new UVD3 video decoder for decoding MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, Flash and now also Multi-View Codec (MVC) and MPEG-4 part 2 (DivX, xVid) HD videos directly from the AMD GPU.

The 7700M series also supports automatic graphics switching between the integrated GPU and discrete GPU. Called Enduro, the technology supersedes AMD's Dynamic Switchable Graphics and is similar to Nvidia's Optimus. Furthermore, the 7730M can directly support up to 6 connected monitors using Eyefinity Technology if Enduro is disabled.

Other features of the 7700M series include ZeroCore for reducing power consumption when the display is turned off and Power Gating to power down areas of the chip that are not used. PowerTune allows automatic overclocking and underclocking of the graphics card as long as the GPU is within its TDP range. For example, the chip may be underclocked when running FurMark and OCCT, but will overclock in certain games like Lost Planet, Crysis or Resident Evil 5.

The integrated HD audio processor is able to transmit HD Audio (TrueHD or DTS Master Audio) over HDMI and DisplayPort (e.g., for Blu-Ray videos). Additionally, it now allows audio to output simultaneously and in parallel to multiple devices with the new Discrete Digital Multipoint Audio (DDMA) feature.

Power consumption of the 7730M is suited for 15-inch-laptops or greater.

AMD Radeon HD 7770M

The AMD Radeon HD 7770M is a 28nm DirectX 11 graphics card based on the GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture. Built primarily for large laptops, the graphics card is positioned in the performance category as of 2012.

The design of the Radeon 7700M series has its roots to the Cape Verde chip as found, for example, on the desktop Radeon HD 7750 with 512 1D shader cores and 32 texture units. However it but has a core clock of only 675 MHz versus the 800 MHz of the HD 7750.  As a result, general performance of the HD 7770M is expected to be slower than the desktop 7750 cards.

The performance should be similar to the GeForce GT 650M and GT 740M and therefore in the mid-range class.

Features of the 7770M include the new UVD3 video decoder for decoding MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, Flash and now also Multi-View Codec (MVC) and MPEG-4 part 2 (DivX, xVid) HD videos directly from the AMD GPU.

The 7700M series also supports automatic graphics switching between the integrated GPU and discrete GPU. Called Enduro, the technology supersedes AMD's Dynamic Switchable Graphics and is similar to Nvidia's Optimus. Furthermore, the 7770M can directly support up to 6 connected monitors using Eyefinity Technology if Enduro is disabled.

Other features of the 7700M series include ZeroCore for reducing power consumption when the display is turned off and Power Gating to power down areas of the chip that are not used. PowerTune allows automatic overclocking and underclocking of the graphics card as long as the GPU is within its TDP range. For example, the chip may be underclocked when running FurMark and OCCT, but will overclock in certain games like Lost Planet, Crysis or Resident Evil 5.

The integrated HD audio processor is able to transmit HD Audio (TrueHD or DTS Master Audio) over HDMI and DisplayPort (e.g., for Blu-Ray videos). Additionally, it now allows audio to output simultaneously and in parallel to multiple devices with the new Discrete Digital Multipoint Audio (DDMA) feature.

Power consumption of the 7770M should be clearly lower than the desktop 7750 which is rated at an ACP (average power) of 55 Watt.