Introduction

Spoiled by having plenty of powerful enthusiast components to play with, I often forget that, for most casual and entry-level gamers, the luxury of running a high-end video card is not possible. This might be because of mostly budgetary constraints but also because a lot of non-enthusiasts still buy their system whole. These pre-assembled systems often come with power supplies and motherboards that have limited expansion capabilities, so their only option is to spend more by buying another component, aside from the video card, in order to complete the upgrade.

Video cards that require no additional PSU power are often inadequate and noticeably sluggish when it comes to running the latest games. Thankfully, technology has caught up to this demand with the release of 28nm GPUs, allowing for better power efficiency at a smaller profile. In particular, AMD's Cape Verde Pro, using this 28nm process, will come in many configurations, including ones using non-reference coolers made by various manufacturers for better overclocking capabilities.

The ASUS Radeon HD 7750 1GB GDDR5 video card requires less power than previous generation mainstream video cards. The ASUS Radeon HD 7750 1GB GDDR5 does not need any additional 75W PCI Express PSU connectors and draws all the power it requires from the PCI-E x16 slot. ASUS gave the HD 7750 1GB GDDR5 a slight bump in core clock to 820MHz and provides further performance tuning enhancements via GPU Tweak, a software bundled in the driver CD. Equipped with a full-sized HDMI, DisplayPort, and DVI port, the ASUS Radeon HD 7750 1GB GDDR5 is Eyefinity 2.0 capable, supporting multiple displays for gaming or productivity.