AMD Radeon HD 7750 Review: A Minimal Graphics Upgrade

Improving integrated-
graphics tech is killing
the sub-$100 graphics
card market, but the
Radeon HD 7750
provides a nice boost at
a reasonable price.
Posted on Monday Apr 23,
2012 4:00 PM by Jason
Cross
Make
no mistake: The AMD
Radeon HD 7750 is not a
fast graphics card. It will
not play the latest games
at a smooth frame rate at
full 1080p resolution with
all the details turned up.
You'll have to reduce the
resolution and dial down
the features in hot new 3D
games to achieve good
performance. Still, it's a
nice improvement over
integrated graphics, and
you can it add it to almost
any PC.
With the introduction of
Intel's Ivy Bridge
processors, new
computers really don't
need entry-level, $50-to-
$70 graphics cards
anymore. But what if you
have an older system with
less-capable integrated
graphics? Though the
Radeon HD 7750 isn't a
barn-burner, it is a good
step up from integrated
graphics, and it does offer
some advantages. At
around $109 (as of April
23, 2012), it's inexpensive.
The card is physically short
and doesn't require any
external power, so you
can plug it into just about
any desktop system. All
you need is an empty PCIe
slot--no need to check
how powerful your power
supply is or anything.
The Radeon HD 7750 is
the cheap, low-end card in
AMD's new Graphics Core
Next lineup, which
debuted with the
impressive Radeon HD
7970. Essentially, this card
has all the technology you
can find in that one--only
much, much slower. The
most direct competitor is
the Nvidia GeForce GT 550
Ti, which has fallen in price
to the same just-over-
$100 level.
In our 3D graphics
performance tests, the
7750 came up a little
short behind the 550 Ti.
The cards' relative
performance in the
synthetic 3DMark 11
benchmark tells the tale.
In most games, the results
were about the same,
with the 550 Ti being just
slightly faster. The
difference is not enough
to notice. We encountered
a few outliers in our tests,
though; in Dirt 3, for
example, the difference
was not quite so
minuscule.
On balance, you'll find that
the GeForce GT 550 Ti is a
bit speedier than the
Radeon HD 7750, but
usually not so much so
that it will have a
dramatic effect on the
games and 3D applications
you run. Where you will
notice a huge difference,
however, is in the power
draw: The 550 Ti and
7750 both sip power
when the PC is sitting idle
at the desktop, but the
550 Ti draws a lot more
power when under load.
You'll need a power
supply with an available
six-pin graphics power
plug on it for the 550 Ti,
whereas the 7750 can run
using just the power that
the PCIe slot itself
supplies.
Clearly, the AMD Radeon
HD 7750 isn't for
everyone. Enthusiasts who
want to make sure that
the latest games run great
and look amazing at high
resolutions will definitely
need more performance
than this graphics card
provides. PC owners who
don't play any games
outside of Facebook
needn't bother.
Admittedly, there is a
niche market consisting of
people who want to play
games that integrated
graphics can't handle so
well, and who might want
superior video quality too,
but have a limited budget
and can't replace their PC's
power supply to meet the
requirements of a more-
capable card. The Radeon
HD 7750 fills that niche,
but not in an especially
impressive fashion. It is
capable and efficient, but
not much more.