Arriving without any noticeable fanfare, AMD recently launched their new Radeon R7 250X GPU which is expected to come in at a very attractive $99 price tag.
The AMD Radeon R7 250X, which is essentially a rebranded AMD Radeon HD 7770 GHz edition, is expected to fill the gap between the Oland based R7 250 and the new Bonaire based R7 260/R7 260X. As far as specs go, the Radeon R7 250X is quite competitive against the current Radeon R7 series lineup sporting a 1GHz clock speed, 2GB GDDR5 VRAM, 640 stream processors, 40TUs and 16 ROPs.
| Manufacturer | AMD | AMD | AMD | AMD | AMD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Model | Radeon R7 240 | Radeon R7 250 | Radeon R7 250X | Radeon R7 260 | Radeon R7 260X |
| GPU | Oland Pro | Oland XT | Cape Verde XT | Bonaire XT | Bonaire XTX |
| Architecture | GCN 1.0 | GCN 1.0 | GCN 1.0 | GCN 1.1 | GCN 1.1 |
| Fabrication | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm |
| Stream Processors | 320 | 384 | 640 | 768 | 896 |
| Texture Units | 20 | 24 | 40 | 48 | 56 |
| ROPs | 8 | 8 | 16 | 16 | 16 |
| Core Clock/Boost Clock | 730780MHz | 1000/1050MHz | 1000MHz/UNK | UNK/1000MHz | UNK/1100MHz |
| Memory Clock | 1.8GHz | 4.6GHz | 4.5GHz | 6.0GHz | 6.5GHz |
| Memory | 2GB GDDR5 | 2GB GDDR5 | 2GB GDDR5 | 2GB GDDR5 | 2GB GDDR5 |
| Memory Bus Width | 128-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit |
| PSU Connectors | N/A | N/A | 1 x 6-pin | 1 x 6-pin | 1 x 6-pin |
| API Support | DirectX 11.2, Mantle, OpenGL 4.3 | DirectX 11.2, Mantle, OpenGL 4.3 | DirectX 11.2, Mantle, OpenGL 4.3 | DirectX 11.2, Mantle, OpenGL 4.3 | DirectX 11.2, Mantle, OpenGL 4.3 |
| TrueAudio Technology | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
While it’s a rebrand, the Radeon R7 250X is definitely looking to be quite a great option for those in the market for a sub-$100 graphics card.
In comparison to the Radeon R7 250, the R7 250X is actually quite a step up despite the fact that AMD is planning to price it at only about $10 above the R7 250. With nearly double the stream processors, nearly double the texture units and double the ROPs, you can expect to see the R7 250X perform at roughly less than double the performance of the R7 250 for not much more in price.
As for the Radeon R7 260/R7 260X, the R7 250X should be quite competitive as well although since it’ll be based off GCN 1.0 rather than GCN 1.1 hardware, it’ll lack some of the GCN 1.1 features such as AMD True Audio support.
AMD is also claiming that the Radeon R7 250X will be very competitive against Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 650 at a lower pricepoint. On average, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 is currently retailing at around the $110-$120 making the Radeon R7 250X’s $99 pricetag quite appealing for gamers on a budget.
Source: AMD
