Now that AMD's Radeon R7 240 and 250 are here, we want to know a little more about what the sub-$100 market looks like. Can the latest Oland-based boards serve up playable performance in the latest titles, or are there other hidden gems to discover?
Without a doubt, high-end gaming PCs can get really expensive. Even our definition of "mid-range" hovers around the $1000 mark. With a bunch of PC-derived technology at the heart of Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One, it's no wonder the latest consoles are so appealing at $400 and $500.
There's another way to think about the market, though. Consider how many people own desktops. Sure, a lot of them have old, crappy integrated graphics engines wholly insufficient for gaming. Often times, though, the only component differentiating a weak word processing machine and a capable entertainment platform is a decent graphics card. Adding one might turn a modest little box into a system strong enough for Battlefield 4 or Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.
But what if you're on a strict budget? Can you achieve that goal with a hundred dollars or less?
Today we're going to compare inexpensive graphics cards to see what they're capable of in modern titles at fairly demanding settings. We're also going to scrutinize AMD's recently introduced Radeon R7 240 and 250 cards. Do they offer good value to gamers with limited funds for new hardware?
Here are the cards we're comparing, along with their specifications:
| 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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shader Cores | 96 (Fermi) | 384 (Kepler) | 320 (GCN) | 480 (VLIW5) | 384 (GCN) | 384 (GCN) | 512 (GCN) | 640 (GCN) |
| Texture Units | 16 | 32 | 20 | 24 | 24 | 24 | 32 | 40 |
| Color ROPs | 4 | 16 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 16 | 16 |
| Fab Process | 40 nm | 28 nm | 28 nm | 40 nm | 28 nm | 28 nm | 28 nm | 28 nm |
| Core (Boost) Clock | 900 MHz | 900 MHz | 730 (780) MHz | 800 MHz | 800 MHz | 1000 (1050) MHz | 800 MHz | 1000 MHz |
| Memory Clock | 900 MHz DDR3 | 891 MHz DDR3 | 900 MHz DDR3 | 900 MHz DDR3 or GDDR5 | 900 MHz DDR3 1125 MHz GDDR5 | 900 MHz DDR3 1150 MHz GDDR5 | 1125 MHz GDDR5 | 1125 MHz GDDR5 |
| Memory Bus | 128-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit |
| Memory Bandwidth | 28.8 GB/s DDR3 | 28.5 GB/s DDR3 | 28.8 GB/s | 28.8 GB/s DDR3 64 GB/s GDDR5 | 28.8 GB/s DDR3 72 GB/s GDDR5 | 28.8 GB/s DDR3 73.6 GB/s GDDR5 | 72 GB/s | 72 GB/s |
| TDP | 65 W | 65 W | 30 W | 44 W DDR3 60 W GDDR5 | 47 W | 60 W | 55 W | 80 W |
| Newegg Price Range | $65 | $60 to $120 | $70 to $90 | $70-$102 DDR3 $80-$125 GDDR5 | $80 to $125 (Amazon) | $87 to $103 | $100 to $137 | $100 to $170 |
| Typical Price | $65 | $80 | $70 | $80 DDR3 $90 GDDR5 | NA | $90 | $100 | $110 |
A lot of these cards are available across a fairly wide price range. For example, the GeForce GT 640 goes from $60 to twice that number on Newegg. So, I'm citing the third-cheapest price I can find as "typical". No matter how you do the math, though, this is a bit of a challenge for nailing down value. We should still have enough performance data by the end of this story to draw sound conclusions, though.
- The Sub-$100 Graphics Card Market
- Introducing The Radeon R7 240 And 250
- Test Setup And Benchmarks
- Results: Metro: Last Light
- Results: Grid 2
- Results: BioShock Infinite
- Results: Battlefield 4
- Results: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
- Power And Temperature Benchmarks
- When It Comes To Graphics, $100 Goes A Long Way
A 400W is overkill if you're running a power-efficient CPU.
Look at the results, the most this system puilled with the R7 240 is 122 Watts under load. That's the whole system, with an overclocked Core i5-2500K!
A good 250W PSU should be fine. AMD is kind of recommending overkill here, but they do that to protect people from poor quality PSUs. A 250W HP shouldn't be a problem as long as the platform isn't power hungry.
Watch the language - G
Watch the language - G
A 400W is overkill if you're running a power-efficient CPU.
Look at the results, the most this system puilled with the R7 240 is 122 Watts under load. That's the whole system, with an overclocked Core i5-2500K!
A good 250W PSU should be fine. AMD is kind of recommending overkill here, but they do that to protect people from poor quality PSUs. A 250W HP shouldn't be a problem as long as the platform isn't power hungry.
*EDIT BY EDITOR*
You're absolutely right! We fixed the charts, thanks for catching that!
A good 250W power supply will have 18-20 amps on the 12V rail, which is fine for the R7 240.
I don't know why you bring up the 7770, it clearly draws a lot more power than the R7 240.
We were talking about the R7 240, not the 7770.
Even the 7770 is only a ~86W card... just barely high enough to require a 6pin PCIe power connection.
What? What the heck are you talking about?