Overclocking the Gigabyte GV-R477D5-512H-B videocard was easy, it only took a few steps in ATI Catalyst Control center to push the core GPU clockspeed from 750MHz up to 830MHz, and the 512MB of GDDR5 memory from 3200MHz up to 3400MHz. With both of the Radeon HD 4770 videocards overclocked to these speeds, in Crossfire mode, they were able to achieve the highest score PCSTATS has recorded in 3DMark06 to date - 14901 3DMarks.

Thanks to a die-shrink to 40nm, the ATI R740 GPU is significantly more energy-efficient when compared to GPUs with equivalent graphical power manufactured on larger processing technologies. A system using an Intel E8400 processor and the Gigabyte GV-R477D5-512H-B videocard drew 187 watts under heavy GPU load, and two Radeon HD 4770s in Crossfire drew 279W under peak load. This is a dramatic improvement over last-generation's 90nm GPUs like the Geforce 8800GTX, where a single videocard could draw 350W of power!

The lower power requirements are also complemented by significant reductions in both heat and noise output, even when the Gigabyte GV-R477D5-512H-B was Crossfire'd with another Radeon HD 4770, the videocards remained warm and fairly quiet - not finger burning hot.

The best part is that Crossfire is so widely supported right now on both Intel and AMD motherboards that it's easy to pick up a single Gigabyte GV-R477D5-512H-B videocard today, and throw in a second Radeon HD 4770 card as an easy upgrade later on. Matching up $220 of gaming videocards with a $220 processor is a recipe for an affordable gaming rig if I ever saw one. The Gigabyte GV-R477D5-512H-B videocard is a fine value on its own, but two of them together give an edge in that sliver of a world where affordable videocards exist. I like the Radeon HD 4770, I like two of them even better!