Radeon R7 250X Review: Reprising Radeon HD 7770 At $100

Game Benchmark Results

We begin with Battlefield 4, tested using the game's Medium preset at 1920x1080. Click the screenshot for a full-size representation of how this title looks as we cruise through our  benchmark.

Click for 1080p pop-up

As you can see, Battlefield still looks good at this detail setting, and AMD's Radeon R7 250X maintains at least 54 FPS. Let's move on to Metro: Last Light.

Click for 1080p pop-up

Although a DirectX 10 code path and the Low detail preset don't sound particularly cutting-edge, bear in mind that at its most demanding settings, Metro: Last Light brings almost any graphics configuration to its knees. As you can see in our screenshot, the game still looks great at our compromised settings. You still get little extras like shadows, even.

The Radeon R7 250X never falls below 33 FPS, and it maintains an average of 54 FPS. Not bad at all.

Click for 1080p pop-up

In contrast, the Radeon R7 250X can handle BioShock Infinite's High preset, which looks quite nice (as the screenshot shows). AMD's "latest" keeps its nose above 33 FPS and averages 49 FPS.

Click for 1080p pop-up

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag has to run at its lowest detail settings on this class of card, but we are able to raise the texture quality setting to Normal and the environment quality from Very Low to Low. As with Metro: Last Light, that doesn't sound like an attractive combination. However, the output still looks pretty darned good. What's more, the Radeon R7 250X doesn't drop below 42 FPS.

Click for 1080p pop-up

Finally, let's look at Grid 2, which isn't particularly graphics-bound and allows us to utilize the High preset in addition to 4x MSAA. AMD's Radeon R7 250X delivers minimum frame rates above 59 FPS with an average in the 70s.

  • RedJaron
    Hmm, so they still don't have an attractive alternative to the 7750? Bad move, AMD. Baaaad move . . .
    Reply
  • rolli59
    Renaming is a trend nowadays so no surprises!
    Reply
  • icraft
    Eh. I used the HD 7770, and while it is a good budget card, it had its issues. They should have put much faster memory on there, especially for 2GB cards, and bumped core to 1100 or better. My card saw better performance with a 200Mhz memory bump than with a 100Mhz core bump, so memory bandwidth is an issue here.
    Reply
  • Immaculate
    Why do the reviewers keep using a 2500K?
    Reply
  • SteelCity1981
    why would you get this card? why not get the 7770 that's now in the same price range and has 256 more shaders instead. I mean the r250 is the same as the 7700 in every way except the 7700 has 640 more shaders compared to the r250's 384. so it wouldn't make sense to buy an r250 esp now since the 7700 is in the same price range.
    Reply
  • cleeve
    12650126 said:
    Why do the reviewers keep using a 2500K?

    Why wouldn't we? What's wrong with an overclocked 2500K?
    Reply
  • cleeve
    12650223 said:
    why would you get this card? why not get the 7770 that's now in the same price range and has 256 more shaders instead. I mean the r250 is the same as the 7700 in every way except the 7700 has 640 more shaders compared to the r250's 384. so it wouldn't make sense to buy an r250 esp now since the 7700 is in the same price range.

    If you read this review you would see that the R7 250X is *exactly* the same as the 7770.

    It does not have 384 shaders, it has 640. You're thinking of the R7 250, not the new R7 250X. ;)

    Reply
  • The_Trutherizer
    Some might say it's unfair to NVidia and Intel, but R7s HAVE to be paired with a Kevari in reviews for people to really get a sense of the options provided by AMD these days. It's just soo relevant. And with games supporting Mantle as well. ASAP. Battlefield already does... Isn't the time more than ripe for people to get a feel for what the future may hold? Personally I've ran the swarm stress test Mantle demo and I know there is a massive difference between D3D and Mantle in both performance and quality. Fair enough... I have a 280x and an Intel 4670 cpu - I'm pretty much agnostic about brands. But I'd sincerely love to see what AMD has actually been cooking up on the entry level.
    Reply
  • SteelCity1981
    cleeve I did read it, maybe you should actually read what I wrote I was talking about the r250 not r250x. like I said it doesn't make sense to buy a r250 when you can find 7770's as cheap or even an r250x rebrand for the same price an an r250.
    Reply
  • InvalidError
    12650126 said:
    Why do the reviewers keep using a 2500K?
    Because:
    1) it works
    2) for most games and low/mid-range GPUs, it is also just about as fast as the fastest current CPUs so there is no actual urge to use the highest-powered, newest and latest CPUs available.
    Reply