P770 and P790 share real DNA: both are forged, hollow-body irons built around TaylorMade's FLTD CG progression and SpeedFoam Air for feel. Past that, they're built for different golfers. P790 is the players-distance flagship, bigger head, more forgiving, aimed at a wide handicap range. P770 shrinks the same underlying technology into a more compact, thinner-topline shape aimed at better ball strikers who want the look of a players iron without giving up all the forgiveness of a hollow body.
The loft chart
This is where the two irons actually separate. P770 runs meaningfully weaker lofts than P790 across the entire set, not the marginal one-degree gaps you'd see comparing P790 across its own generations. The numbers below reflect both irons' current 2025 builds, pulled from matching factory spec data rather than mixed across model years, which matters here since both P770 and P790 have shifted lofts more than once since their original launches.
P790 dropped the 3-iron from its standard set with the 2025 refresh, so that row has no direct P790 equivalent; P770 still offers one. Both charts above reflect each iron's current 2025 build specifically, not the earlier generations still listed on many retailer pages, so if you're cross-checking against a different source, confirm which model year it's quoting.
What the loft gap means on the course
P770 sits 1 to 3 degrees weaker than P790 through the set, widest in the middle (6 through 8-iron, where it opens to a full 3 degrees) and narrowing to just 1 degree at the pitching and approach wedges. That's a real gap, meaningfully more than the 1 to 2 degrees separating R7 from the current P790 despite R7 being 20 years older, because P790 itself only strengthened its lofts for 2025 while P770 has stayed closer to its original numbers. Independent reviewers testing the two side by side have measured roughly 10 yards more carry distance from P790 over P770 at matched swings, consistent with a gap this size. That's not a construction difference so much as a direct result of the loft chart above. A weaker-lofted 7-iron simply doesn't fly as far as a stronger-lofted one, regardless of how advanced the face technology is behind it.
This is also why golfers who blend the two into a combo set (P790 in the longer irons for launch and forgiveness, P770 in the scoring irons for control) often order the P770 clubs slightly stronger than stock, to keep the gapping consistent across the switch point. That's a fitting decision, not something either iron gets wrong on its own, but it's worth knowing before assuming a straight swap between models will feel seamless.
Shape, forgiveness, and who each is built for
Both irons use the same core construction philosophy: a forged hollow body, SpeedFoam Air behind the face for feel, and FLTD CG positioning the center of gravity low in the long irons and progressively higher through the short irons. Where they diverge is size and forgiveness. P790 has a larger head, more offset, and a wider forgiveness margin, built to work for a broad range of handicaps. P770 trims the topline, reduces offset, and shrinks the blade length heel to toe, trading some of that forgiveness margin for a look and feel that better ball strikers tend to prefer at address. TaylorMade positions P770 as a modern players iron rather than a players-distance iron specifically because of that weaker loft and more compact shape, not because the underlying technology is any less advanced.
Island Greens Pick
Take P790 if distance and forgiveness are the priority. The stronger lofts and larger head are built specifically for that, and testing backs up a real, measurable distance gain over P770 at the same swing. Take P770 if you want a more compact, traditional players-iron look and you're consistent enough with your strike to not need P790's wider forgiveness margin. Neither iron is "better" in the abstract; the loft chart alone predicts most of what you'll feel switching between them.
From the bag
I've spent real time with P790, coming off a set almost 20 years old, and it rewards a good tempo swing over raw power. Great feel, genuinely forgiving, off-center strikes still go the distance with a tighter grouping than I expected. P770 was a different story: these were hard to hit, period, and any off-center strike felt genuinely painful. That tracks with the smaller forgiveness margin on paper, but living through it on the course is a different thing than reading it off a spec sheet. If you're not a consistently center-face ball striker, that gap is one you'll feel on the very first mishit.
Nelly Korda actually plays both of these irons at once: a P770 in her 5-iron for the added launch and stopping power on longer approaches, paired with a more compact players iron the rest of the way through her set, a real-world example of the combo-set logic described above. That combination is confirmed consistently across MyGolfSpy, Golf Monthly, National Club Golfer, and GolfWRX's own WITB coverage. P790 has a smaller PGA Tour footprint by comparison, it's built more for the wider handicap range it's designed for than tour-level workability, so we're not attaching specific names to it here rather than overstate a thin signal.
Have an old set of R7s and wondering if P790 is worth the jump? Read the R7 vs. P790 comparison.