AMD Radeon R7 265 Review: Curaçao Slides In At $150
With pricing all over the map, AMD wants to plug the gap between its Radeon R7 260X and R9 270. To that end, it's introducing a Curaçao-based Radeon R7 265 with better-than-Radeon HD 7850 performance at $150. Will that be enough to stave off Maxwell?
Test Setup And Benchmarks
We tested all of the cards in today's story with each company's latest beta drivers: Catalyst 14.1 beta 6 from AMD and 334.67 beta from Nvidia. Moreover, we used medium- to high-detail settings at 1920x1080 to give the Radeon R7 265 and its competition a realistic workload, which should strike a good balance between image quality and performance for this class of card. I'm also including screenshots to demonstrate how these detail levels appear in-game.
Header Cell - Column 0 | Test System |
---|---|
CPU | Intel Core i5-2550K (Sandy Bridge), Overclocked to 4.2 GHz @ 1.3 V |
Motherboard | Asus P8Z77-V LX. LGA 1155, Chipset: Intel Z77M |
Networking | On-Board Gigabit LAN controller |
Memory | Corsair Performance Memory, 4 x 4 GB, 1866 MT/s, CL 9-9-9-24-1T |
Graphics | Sapphire Radeon R7 260X1100 MHz GPU, 2 GB GDDR5 at 1625 MHz (6500 MT/s)XFX Radeon HD 7850860 MHz GPU, 1 GB GDDR5 at 1200 MHz (4800 MT/s)Sapphire Radeon R7 265925 MHz GPU, 2 GB GDDR5 at 1400 MHz (5600 MT/s)Reference Radeon R9 270925 MHz GPU, 2 GB GDDR5 at 1400 MHz (5600 MT/s)Reference Nvidia GTX 650 Ti925 MHz GPU, 1 GB DDR3 at 1350 MHz (5400 MT/s)Reference Nvidia GTX 650 Ti Boost980/1033 MHz GPU, 2 GB GDDR5 at 1502 MHz (6008 MT/s)Reference Nvidia GTX 660980/1033 MHz GPU, 2 GB GDDR5 at 1502 MHz (6008 MT/s) |
Hard Drive | Samsung 840 Pro, 256 GB SSD, SATA 6Gb/s |
Power | XFX PRO850W, ATX12V, EPS12V |
Software and Drivers | |
Operating System | Microsoft Windows 8 Pro x64 |
DirectX | DirectX 11 |
Graphics Drivers | AMD Catalyst 14.1 Beta 6, Nvidia GeForce 334.67 Beta |
We've almost completely eliminated mechanical storage in the lab, and instead lean on solid-state drives to alleviate I/O-related bottlenecks. Samsung sent all of our offices 256 GB 840 Pros, so we standardize on these exceptional SSDs.
Naturally, discrete graphics cards require a substantial amount of stable power, so XFX sent along its PRO850W 80 PLUS Bronze-certified power supply. This modular PSU employs a single +12 V rail rated for 70 A. XFX claims that this unit provides 850 W of continuous power (not peak) at 50 degrees Celsius (a higher temperature than you'll find inside most enclosures).
Benchmark Configuration | |
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3D Games | |
Metro: Last Light | Version 1.0.0.14, Built-in Benchmark |
Grid 2 | Version 1.8.85.8679, Built-in Benchmark Scene D6 |
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag | Version 1.05, Custom THG Benchmark, 40-Sec |
Battlefield 4 | Version 1.0.0.1, Custom THG Benchmark, 90-Sec |
BioShock Infinite | Version 1.1.24.21018, Built-in Benchmark |
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yankeeDDL I think the pricing issue is a moot point.If There's an Nvidia card at $190, an equally-performing (or slightly slower) car will be sold for $180 making a good profit, not at $150 to kill Nvidia.Card manufacturer won't benefit from Nvidia being pushed out of the market.Reply -
Novuake Compelling card, but sad that a price hike on the 270 had to force it. So seems useless now.Reply -
meluvcookies A 25% increase on the R9 270 was, essentially, a betrayal of consumer trust by AMD. I was totally excited to get in at the $180 price point, but now I'm waiting for Nvidia's offerings in that neighborhood to see if they can offer anything as compelling as the 270 was a couple months ago when it was still at its original price.Reply -
firefoxx04 Wow, If it beats the 7850, I wonder how it stacks up against my overclocked 6850. I have two in crossfire but being limited to 1GB vram can be a hindrance. When I bought my original 6850, it was only $150 and my second was $100. I wonder what AMD has for $250 that could smoke my current setup / aka be a good single card upgrade.Reply -
huilun02 12670915 said:Wow, If it beats the 7850, I wonder how it stacks up against my overclocked 6850. I have two in crossfire but being limited to 1GB vram can be a hindrance. When I bought my original 6850, it was only $150 and my second was $100. I wonder what AMD has for $250 that could smoke my current setup / aka be a good single card upgrade.
http://www.guru3d.com/news_story/amd_radeon_r9_280_in_the_works.html -
TechnoD All these price hikes are really becoming an issue. This card is launching at the same price I paid for my 7950 ~5 months ago.Reply -
jin_mtvt And what does using more than 100W at full load has to do with this card? First we have someone complaining about not having enough " additional power pins " than someone compains about more than 100W usage on a "desktop" GPU. You are lame.Onto the pricing problem, i should not have to remind you that the prices in most of the world ( you know everywhere out of north america ) haven't followed the same trends as here . the 290 never went bozo up to 650$ in Europe ( if you use the exchange rate in position before december when the price was set ) . I would like to read more about who is really "jacking" up the prices . This card needs to be 150$, not 180$ of course , else it would be m00t .Reply