Today we will talk about a number of AMD Radeon R7 200 series video cards. We will talk about four representatives: 260, 250 and 240 series. Despite the fact that there are several separate options, the difference between them is not that great. We will definitely point out and consider all the most noticeable differences so that you do not have to think about what to buy again.
Price
Let's start right away with the price category of these cards. Despite the fact that they are all high-performance GPUs and can handle large data streams, they are in the so-called economy sector. On average, you will have to pay up to 10,000 rubles for such a card, depending on the specific model and store, which is good news.
Although modern games are created exclusively for the newest video cards, and ultra-settings work only on video processors from 50,000 rubles, this does not mean that cheap cards cannot replace them. The fact is that AMD Radeon R7 200 series reviews from users are extremely positive, which means they are in high demand.
Specifications
We'll start with the most common 200 series. All of them are made according to the technological process that determines the crystal size of 28 nm. The value is not too high, in comparison with other video cards, it could be better. Otherwise, this would lead to overheating of the card, however, two built-in cooling coolers negate this design flaw in AMD Radeon R7 200 series. The photos in the article clearly demonstrate this. The only drawback is that you have to clean the cooling system more often.
AMD Radeon R7 200 series, the characteristics of which we are considering, are connected via the PCI-E x16 version 3.0 interface. Quite standard, but much better than AGP. When buying, just pay attention to this nuance.
Monitor
As for the display of information on the screen, then the AMD Radeon R7 200 series driver gives heat. If in the 240 series the video card supports only two monitors, then in all subsequent ones there are several possibilities.
- If you also use HDMI, you can connect up to 3 screens.
- With the DisplayPort connector, their number increases to four.
- With an MST hub, you can connect as many as 6 monitors.
At the same time, these video cards support a resolution of 4096x2160. These video cards are suitable for both conventional and widescreen displays. Thus, video cards are capable of supporting multi-monitor systems, and the software supplied with them will help the user with the implementation of his plan.
TTX
Let's now talk about the technical component of the AMD Radeon R7 200 series. The characteristics of these video cards are such that they are able to effortlessly support the performance of the most modern and demanding games. The exception is AMD Radeon But it was released quite a long time ago.
For example, the frequency of the GPU, which largely determines the performance of a video card, fluctuates around 1 GHz and can vary depending on the manufacturer. At the same time, for the 240 model, this value is approximately 800 MHz.
The video card memory has GDDR5 and DDR3 formats. But at the same time, if the old models use only outdated memory, then the new ones (260 series) contain exclusively modern technology.
It can also vary significantly within the same model. It also depends entirely on the manufacturer. However, despite all efforts, you will not be able to find an AMD Radeon R7 200 series graphics card whose specifications contain more than 2 gigabytes of memory. But this is not necessary if you are interested in modern games and the requirements for them.
Based on the memory format, the bandwidth of the AMD Radeon R7 200 series also follows. The characteristics that we get at the output demonstrate the best possible performance of these video cards:
- 250 and 240 series provide bandwidth up to 72 GB / s;
- 260, 260x and 265 provide data exchange rates of 96/104/180 GB / s, respectively.
As you can see, all other things being equal, only the newest models win. However, with an average price of 7,700 rubles, buying this video card to upgrade your PC will not be a big problem.
Computing process
Having considered the general data available to the buyer on the price tag in the store, we move on to more accurate figures. The characteristics of the AMD Radeon R7 200 series will allow us to say for sure which of these video cards is better than the rest.
We'll start with the number of general purpose processors. With their help, the color and shape of objects displayed on the screen is calculated. As you can imagine, the speed of the card as a whole depends on this parameter. And here we can safely say that the 240 model lags far behind its counterparts in the series.
- AMD Radeon R7 240 has only 5 computing units, which is 320 processors.
- AMD Radeon R7 250 contains 8 blocks, and 250x - already 14.
- AMD Radeon R7 260 has 12 blocks, 260x - 14, but 265 model contains as many as 16 computing devices. An explanation is not even required here.
Additionally
Of course, the technical characteristics of the AMD Radeon R7 200 series are very important. What technologies a modern video card can support determines its functionality and utility for the user.
Video cards of the reviewed series feel confident when working with Direct X 12.0 and Open CL 1.2. They also work perfectly with Open GL 4.3. And the CrossFire technology has long ceased to amaze and is also perfectly supported by these cards. What are the differences then?
- The first stumbling block is AMD TrueAudio. This technology was created to maintain better sound quality. But not all games use it, just as not all equipment is capable of supporting it. Of all the cards presented, only 260 and 260x support this technology.
- The VCE decoder responsible for HD video can also be a problem. It is supported only in cards from 250x and above.
Review of Radeon R7 240 and 250 | The market for graphics adapters under $ 100
A high-performance gaming PC can cost a lot. Even the mid-range system is priced close to $ 1000. Given the presence of PC-related technologies in the Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One consoles, it is not surprising that their prices go up to $ 400 and $ 500, respectively.
However, there is another side to the market. Given the number of people using desktop PCs, you can imagine how many of them have ancient weak integrated GPUs that are completely unusable for games. Very often, it is a decent video card that is the parameter on which the difference between a weak computer and an acceptable gaming platform is based. Installing a good graphics accelerator in a low-performance PC can turn a modest box into a powerful enough system to handle Battlefield or Assassin Creed IV: Black Flag.
But what if your budget is tight? Is it possible to achieve the result described above by spending no more than a hundred dollars?
Today we are going to compare inexpensive video cards in the conditions of modern games with rather demanding graphics settings. We will also consider new video cards. Radeon R7 240 and Radeon R7 250... Will they be able to offer gamers good performance at an affordable price?
Below are the cards involved in the comparison and their characteristics.
| GeForce GT 630 GDDR5 | GeForce GT 640 DDR3 | Radeon R7 240 | Radeon HD 6670 | Radeon HD 7730 | Radeon R7 250 | Radeon HD 7750 GDDR5 | Radeon HD 7770 | |
| Number of shaders. cores | 96 (Fermi) | 384 (Kepler) | 320 (GCN) | 480 (VLIW5) | 384 (GCN) | 384 (GCN) | 512 (GCN) | 640 (GCN) |
| Number of texture blocks | 16 | 32 | 20 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 32 | 40 |
| Number of raster blocks | 4 | 16 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 16 | 16 |
| Technical process, nm | 40 | 28 | 28 | 40 | 28 | 28 | 28 | 28 |
| Core frequency (Boost), MHz | 900 | 900 | 730 (780) | 800 | 800 | 1000 - 1050 | 800 | 1000 |
| Memory frequency, MHz | 900 DDR3 | 891 DDR3 | 900 DDR3 | 900 DDR3 or GDDR5 | 900 DDR3 1125 GDDR5 | 900 DDR3 1150 GDDR5 | 1125 GDDR5 | 1125 GDDR5 |
| Memory bus, bit | 128 | 128 | 128 | 128 | 128 | 128 | 128 | 128 |
| Prop. way. memory, GB | 28.8 DDR3 | 28.5 DDR3 | 28.5 DDR3 | 28.8 DDR3 64 GDDR5 | 28.8 DDR3 72 GDDR5 | 28.8 DDR3 73.6 GDDR5 | 72 | 72 |
| Thermal package, W | 65 | 65 | 30 | 44 DDR3 60 GDDR5 | 47 | 60 | 55 | 80 |
| Price spread | $65 | $60 - $120 | $70 - $90 | $ 70- $ 102 DDR3 $ 80- $ 125 GDDR5 | $80 - $125 | $87 - $103 | $100 - $137 | $100 - $170 |
| Price in US $, (RUB, in Russia) | $65 (2200) | $80 (2600) | $70 (2400) | $ 80 DDR3 (2200) $ 90 GDDR5 (2600) | DDR3-2200 GDDR5 - 2500 | $90 (2900) | $100 (2800) | $110 (3300) |
The price of many of them fluctuates quite significantly. For instance, GeForce GT 640 can be purchased for both $ 60 and $ 120. Therefore, we take the third price from the end of our rating of video cards as a "template" price. In the course of preparing today's material, we need to obtain enough performance data to draw reasonable conclusions.
Review of Radeon R7 240 and 250 | Meet the "newbies"
While in retail Radeon R7 240 and Radeon R7 250 are new models and have been available to suppliers and manufacturers for about a year in the form of Radeon HD 8570 and 8670, respectively. Both video cards are based on the Oland GPU. Although the GPU supports higher clock speeds with PowerTune with Boost technology, it is considered a first generation GCN processor and lacks the features found in the series cards. Radeon R9 290 such as TrueAudio, improving the accuracy of the original LOG and EXP operations, or optimizing the Masked Quad Sum of Absolute Difference (MQSAD).
In the Radeon R7 240, the AMD Oland Pro GPU has five active out of six available compute units (Compute Units or CU), each equipped with 64 shader cores and four texture units. In total, 320 shader cores and 20 TMUs are obtained. The two ROPs are capable of handling eight operations per clock cycle. A pair of 64-bit dual-channel memory controllers provide an aggregate 128-bit bus. This is the narrowest memory channel that we have seen in a solution on Graphics Core Next, so we are extremely curious how the new card will perform when compared to the previous generation Radeon HD 6670 DDR3 models with 480 VLIW5 shader cores.
In fact comparison Radeon R7 240 at 730 MHz base frequency and 780 MHz peak frequency with Radeon HD 6670 DDR3 800 MHz will allow us to evaluate the GCN efficiency versus VLIW5 (which we know was less efficient than VLIW4). Both new cards use a 128-bit interface with 900 MHz DDR3 memory, so they have the same memory bandwidth.
Radeon R7 250 is equipped with a full-fledged GPU called Oland XT. All six computational units are used, as a result we have 384 shader cores and 24 texture units. The internal interface has not changed: two ROP sections and a 128-bit memory interface. Therefore, in general, there is not much difference between these GPUs. However Radeon R7 250 there are several advantages. The cores operate at 1000 MHz and can accelerate up to 1050 MHz with sufficient thermal headroom. In addition, manufacturers can optionally equip this model with faster GDDR5 memory. Already now we do not recommend making a choice in favor of models with DDR3, since their price is very close to the versions with GDDR5.
You may have already noticed the similarities Radeon R7 250 from Radeon HD 7730 based on a "stripped down" version of the Bonaire chip with the same number of CUs, cores and ROP partitions. Nevertheless, Radeon HD 7730 runs at 800 MHz, and GDDR5 memory is 25 MHz slower. For comparison, we included it in the benchmarks.
XFX Radeon R7 240 Core Edition
XFX provided us with two samples Radeon R7 240... Both are overclocked to 780 MHz with thermal headroom and feature 2GB of 800 MHz DDR3 memory. The memory modules are soldered to the same compact 177x70 mm printed circuit board. The only functional difference between the two is the cooling solution. One model has an active cooling system with a 50mm fan, while the other is passively cooled.
Curiously, the memory of the XFX is 100 MHz slower than the 900 MHz specified in the AMD specifications. We slightly increased the frequency in the Overdrive menu, so our tests are done with AMD specs, not XFX.
The back side of the cards is identical. Both use Hynix H5TQ2G63BFR memory modules and feature rounded PCB edges.
XFX equips both models with dual link DVI, HDMI and VGA.
Radeon R7 240 has a relatively low thermal package of 30 W, so a PCI Express slot is enough to power the card.
Although the card could be made in a single slot form factor, XFX used a dual-slot design for improved cooling.
Radeon cards of this class are not equipped with CrossFire bridge connectors (there is no built-in AMD XDMA engine either). It can be connected to a second card via the PCI Express bus.
The XFX kit includes warranty documentation, a quick installation guide for the card, drivers, instructions for the video card, peripherals, power supply, and support information. Also in the set you will find a CD with drivers and connector frames.
XFX Radeon R7 250 Core Edition
The XFX Radeon R7 250 Core Edition adheres to the AMD 1050 MHz reference peak frequency, and is also complemented by 1GB GDDR5 1150 MHz memory on a full 177x114 mm PCB. Black acrylic cooler Ghost is made in classic style.
By analogy with boards Radeon R7 240 the edges of the PCB of this card are rounded.
The output configuration is the same: dual link DVI, HDMI and VGA.
To cope with the 65W CPU, the XFX Ghost is equipped with an 85mm fan. The space between the fan case and the card itself is designed for air circulation, with the GPU and memory modules covered by a large heatsink. This graphics adapter does not have a physical CrossFire connector, just like Radeon HD 7750 ... A configuration of two of these cards is possible via PCI Express.
The card has a similar configuration: a card with information on warranty service, instructions for installing drivers, video cards and peripherals, instructions for the power supply and information on technical support. There is also a driver disc, but no frame.
Review of Radeon R7 240 and 250 | Test bench and benchmarks
We generate two types of benchmarks to analyze the video card market under $ 100. For the first type, we set the detail settings and resolution at a level at which the cards can compete (up to a minimum resolution of 1280x720 pixels). The second type of tests is carried out at a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels with more demanding details.
In our lab, we have largely gotten rid of mechanical hard drives and are using solid-state drives instead, which do not have I / O latency. Samsung sent the 256GB Samsung 840 Pro drives to our offices, so we use them as standard.
Naturally, discrete graphics require a stable power supply, so XFX sent us a PRO850W power supply with 80 PLUS Bronze certification. The modular PSU has a single + 12V rail, rated at 70 A. According to XFX, this model provides continuous (non-peak) power up to 850 watts at 50 degrees Celsius (noticeably more than in most cases).
| Test bench configuration | |
| CPU | Intel Core i5-2550K (Sandy Bridge) overclocked to 4.2GHz @ 1.3V |
| Motherboard | Asus P8Z77-V LX LGA 1155, Intel Z77M chipset |
| Net | integrated Gigabit LAN controller |
| RAM | Corsair Performance Memory, 4 x 4 GB, 1866 MT / s, CL 9-9-9-24-1T |
| Storage device | Samsung 840 Pro SSD 256GB S at 6Gb / s |
| Video cards | XFX Radeon R7 240 DDR3 730/750 MHz GPU, 2GB DDR3 @ 900 MHz (1800 MT / s) XFX Radeon R7 250 GDDR5 1000/1050 MHz GPU, 1 GB GDDR5 @ 1150 MHz (4600 MT / s) Sapphire Radeon HD 7730 GDDR5 800 MHz GPU, 1 GB GDDR5 @ 1125 MHz (4500 MT / s) Reference Radeon HD 6670 GDDR5 800 MHz GPU, 1 GB GDDR5 @ 1000 MHz (4000 MT / s) Gigabyte Radeon HD 6670 DDR3 800 MHz GPU, 1GB DDR3 @ 900 MHz (1600 MT / s) Reference AMD Radeon HD 7750 800 MHz GPU, 1 GB GDDR5 @ 1125 MHz (4500 MT / s) Gigabyte Radeon HD 7770 1000 MHz GPU, 1GB GDDR5 @ 1125 MHz (4500 MT / s) Zotac GeForce GT 630 GDDR5 810 MHz GPU, 1 GB GDDR5 @ 900 MHz (3600 MT / s) Reference Nvidia GT 640 900 MHz GPU, 1 GB DDR3 @ 891 MHz (1782 MT / s) |
| Power Supply | XFX PRO850W, at X12V, EPS12V |
| System software and drivers | |
| operating system | Windows 8 Professional 64-bit |
| DirectX | DirectX 11 |
| Video Drivers | AMD Cprialyst 13.11 Beta 9.5 Nvidia GeForce 331.93 Beta |
| Test configuration | |
| Metro: Last Light | version 1.0.0.0, DirectX 10, built-in benchmark |
| Grid 2 | version 1.6.89.06, version 1.5.26.05, 25 seconds, Fraps |
| Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag | version 1.04, THG test, 60 seconds, Fraps |
| Battlefield 4 | version 1.2, Direct X 11, built-in benchmark, 60 seconds. Fraps |
| BioShock Infinite | version 1.0.1441711, built-in benchmark, Fraps |
At one time, AMD engineers were the first to introduce the DVI-D interface, which supports WQHD resolution (2560x1440 pixels). Then DisplayPort and Eyefinity technology, which allows one GPU to display an image on three monitors at once. Now AMD has announced full support for 4K resolution, or Ultra HD. Moreover, the connection to the display can be done both using DisplayPort 1.2 and using HDMI 1.4b, but only at a scanning frequency of 30 Hz.
Low-end segment
We talked about the architectural features of Radeon R7 / R9 graphics solutions. Now it's time to get acquainted with the video cards themselves. As expected, we have divided the devices into three categories: Low-end, Middle-end, and High-end. There are several video accelerators in each segment.
Obviously, the creation of GPUs designed for devices of different classes follows the same scenario. Namely, there is a basic unit - this is the Compute Unit of the GCN architecture. By adding and subtracting these units, you get the GPU.
The second point: for greater clarity and to increase the practical value of this article, we gave examples of specific models of graphic adapters that are on the open market. The main rule is that only non-reference video cards are presented, which, in our opinion, have their own unique features.
And now to the point. There are three devices in the Low-end category. Two of them are based on the Oland GPU. The most productive adapter is based on the Cape Verde chip. The technical specifications for the Radeon R7 240, Radeon R7 250, and Radeon R7 250X are shown below.
The basis for assembling a computer is a video card. The final cost of the PC directly depends on its cost. For this reason, budget models are very popular in the video accelerator market. One of the brightest representatives is the AMD Radeon R7 240.
The accelerator entered the market in 2013. The video card cannot boast of high performance. But even so, its capacity is still sufficient for everyday tasks, as well as for running some modern games and programs.
The video card is based on the improved GCN architecture. According to users and experts, the improvement had a positive impact on the performance of the accelerator. In addition, the R7 240 adds support for the API Mantle system.
AMD Oland PRO is used as the graphics core. Its frequency is 780 MHz in acceleration mode. The minimum frequency is 730 MHz.
The number of rasterization units of the device is 8. The amount of memory is 2 GB of GDDR3 type and 4 GB of GDDR5. Due to the difference in memory capacity, the memory frequency values \u200b\u200bdiffer. In the first case, it is 1600 MHz, and in the second - 4600 MHz. The bandwidth is 28.8 Gbps. The bus width is 128 bits.
The characteristics of AMD Radeon R7 240 show that the power of the video card will be sufficient to work in office programs and applications, as well as to run and play comfortably in projects with low system requirements.
Radeon R7 240 review
Two versions of the video accelerator from AMD were released on the market: Radeon R7 240 4 Gb and R7 240 2 Gb. In addition to performance, the cost directly depends on these parameters.
This model boasts an improved active cooling system. To do this, manufacturers have added an additional small fan to the existing heatsink. The only drawback of this solution was that the accelerator became more noisy during the workflow.
The power consumption of the AMD Radeon R7 240 series is 50W. It follows from this that a 300 W power supply is required for the video card to work comfortably. This indicator will be enough in conjunction with a productive processor and RAM from 6 GB.
To unleash the maximum potential of a video accelerator, you do not need to purchase a powerful processor. Therefore, the cheap AMD Phenom 2 X6 1055T model is suitable as a chip. This bundle will be more than enough for optimal performance. The device is equipped with three connectors: HDMI, VGA and DVI.
How to overclock an AMD Radeon R7 240 graphics card
If you want to increase the basic power parameters, then you can overclock the AMD Radeon R7 240 video card. There are several ways to do this.
In the first case, you can use the standard Catalyst utility tools. The disadvantage of this method is that the maximum allowable increase in GPU power through this utility cannot exceed 1000MHz. This limitation is set by the manufacturer.
To avoid such limitations, you can use MSI Afterburner. With this utility you can increase the core count up to 1100MHz.
To check the video accelerator for glitches and problems, use Funmark software. It allows for a stress test, upon completion of which failures will be displayed if found.
To check the current power readings of the R7 240, download and run the GPU-Z utility. She will provide you with detailed information on the current technical parameters.
These overclocking parameters should be enough to solve more "difficult" tasks, such as: processing video and images, running modern games.
Test results in games
To get a complete picture of the capabilities of a video card, you need to run tests in games AMD Radeon R7 240. Testing was performed in the following projects.
Far Cry 3. The game was launched at high graphics settings in FullHD format. The FPS indicator was at the level of 35-37 frames. In serious action scenes and locations with a high density of objects: vegetation, NPCs, friezes and lags were not observed.
Alan Wake. At high settings in a resolution of 1920 × 1080, the frame rate was 25-30. This is due to the fact that the game is not the best optimization for computers. In places with a lot of light, microfreezes occurred.
Dota 2. A game in the MOBA genre. The R7 240 performed well in this project. Even at the highest graphics settings, the minimum FPS was a stable 35 frames, which is a very good value for a comfortable gameplay.
GTA 5. The launch was carried out at medium settings. FPS was kept at 25 frames. In some locations, there were drops of up to 20 frames. This is due to the fact that GTA V is very demanding on the amount of video card memory. With a decrease in the quality of graphics, FPS rose to a stable 28.
Fallout 4. Even at the lowest graphics settings, the FPS in this game did not rise above 15 frames. This is not enough for a comfortable game. Lags also occur very often in the game. This is due to the fact that the locations do not have time to download to the end.
Dishonored. At high settings in FullHD format, the game showed stable and, most importantly, comfortable 27 frames. The minimum drawdowns of this indicator occur in moments with a large congestion of NPCs.
Max Payne 3. The game is very well optimized for PC. Therefore, even at the highest graphics settings and FullHD format, the FPS indicator did not drop below 30 frames. No freezes or lags were found in the action scenes. The video accelerator does a very good job with Max Payne 3.
Battlefield 4. In campaign mode at low graphics level, the number of frames was at 20. When the settings were increased, this figure dropped to 15, which ruins the whole gameplay. In online battles, the FPS is even lower - 17-18 frames with freezes in intense battles.
Watch Dogs. The game ran at 1920 × 1080 resolution and low settings. The game does not differ in its optimization and therefore the FPS indicator was at a rather low level - 23. Despite this, no serious lags were noticed during the gameplay.
Wolfenstein. A game with very good optimization. Thanks to this, the FPS indicator was at a very comfortable level - 30 frames. The game settings were set to medium. Freezes and lags were not found even during skirmishes with a large number of enemies.
Tomb Raider. When running the game on medium settings, the minimum frame rate was at an acceptable level of 25 FPS. This figure is more than enough for playing in FullHD format.
Metro: Last Light. At medium graphics settings, the video card performed well. The minimum FPS was 27 frames at 1920 × 1080 pixels. There were no freezes and lags during shootouts with enemies either.
Based on the tests carried out, we can conclude that the video accelerator can hardly cope with the launch of modern gaming projects. For the most part, the R7 240 is designed for office tasks rather than heavy-duty applications.
Comparison of manufacturers
Three major manufacturers are engaged in the release of the video card to the market. To identify the most optimal, it is necessary to make a comparative analysis in the form of a table.
| Manufacturer | HIS AMD Radeon R7 240 icooler | Asus Radeon R7 240 | Gigabyte AMD Radeon R7 240 |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPU | Oland PRO | Oland PRO | Oland PRO |
| Technical process | 28 nm | 28 nm | 28 nm |
| Number of transistors | 1040 million pcs. | 1040 million pcs. | 1040 million pcs. |
| Rendering blocks | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Crystal area (mm2) | 90 | 90 | 90 |
| Number of streaming multiprocessors | 320 | 320 | 320 |
| The amount of video memory (MB) | 2048 and 4096 | 2048 and 4096 | 2048 and 4096 |
| Video memory type | DDR3 / GDDR5 | DDR3 / GDDR5 | DDR3 / GDDR5 |
| GPU frequency (MHz) | 780 | 730 | 900 |
| Processor limit temperature (° С) | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| DirectX | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| Tire width | 128 bit | 128 bit | 128 bit |
| Memory frequency | 1600 MHz DDR3 / 4600 MHz GDDR5 | 1600 MHz DDR3 / 4600 MHz GDDR5 | 1600 MHz DDR3 / 4600 MHz GDDR5 |
| Bandwidth (GB / s) | 72 | 72 | 72 |
| AMD Radeon R7 240 price, rub. | 3999 | 4285 | 4598 |
There are no major differences in the cost of the video accelerator. The most powerful in terms of technical parameters is the model from Gigabyte, since it has the highest core frequency.
Download driver
Every 2-3 months, a new driver for the Radeon R7 240 video card is released. Updating the software for the accelerator allows you to maintain its performance at an optimal level.
You can download drivers for the AMD Radeon R7 240 video card from the company's official website.
