Which processor will open the radeon r7 240 2gb. AMD Radeon R7 and R9 are an updated line of graphics cards. TrueAudio audio processing technology

Today we will talk about a number of video cards. AMD Radeon R7 200 series. 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 price category 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 specific model and the store, which is good news.

Although modern games are created exclusively for the newest video cards, and ultra-settings only work 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.

Characteristics

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 PCI-E interface x16 version 3.0. 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 use HDMI as well, you can connect up to 3 screens.
With the DisplayPort connector, their number increases to four.
When using 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 regular and widescreen displays. Thus, video cards are capable of supporting multi-monitor systems, and software, supplied with them, will help the user with the implementation of the conceived.

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 graphics processor, 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 memory of the video card is in 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 the 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, it also follows throughput AMD Radeon R7 200 series. 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. They are used to calculate the color and shape of objects displayed on the screen. As you can imagine, the performance of the card as a whole strongly 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 compute 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

Undoubtedly, specifications AMD Radeon R7 200 series are very important. What technologies a modern video card can support determines its functionality and usefulness 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, then, are the differences?

The first stumbling block is AMD TrueAudio. This technology was created to support more quality sound... But not all games use it, just as not all equipment is capable of supporting it. Of all the cards presented this technology only support 260 and 260x.
Also, the VCE decoder, which is responsible for HD video, can be a problem. It is supported only in cards from 250x and above.

The basis for assembling a computer is a video card. The final cost of the PC directly depends on its cost. For this reason, the video accelerator market is very popular budget models... 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 power is still sufficient to carry out everyday tasks, as well as to run 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 the amount of memory, the memory frequency is different. 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 the AMD Radeon R7 240 show that the graphics card will have enough power to work in office programs and applications, as well as for launching and playing comfortably in projects with low system requirements.

Radeon R7 240 review

Two versions of the AMD video accelerator 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. For this, manufacturers have added additional fan small size to the existing radiator. 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 for the comfortable operation of the video card, a 300 W power supply is required. This figure will be enough in conjunction with a productive processor and RAM from 6 GB.

To unleash the maximum potential of the video accelerator, you do not need to purchase powerful processor... Therefore, a cheap model is suitable as a chip. AMD Phenom 2 X6 1055T. 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 by standard means Catalyst utilities. 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 restrictions, you can use MSI program Afterburner. With this utility you can increase the core count up to 1100MHz.

To check the video accelerator for glitches and problems, use the Funmark software. It allows for a stress test, upon completion of which failures will be shown if found.

To check the current power readings of the R7 240, download and run the GPU-Z utility. She will provide you detailed information about 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 carried out 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 big amount illumination cases of microfreeze.

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 drawdowns 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, the 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 on low graphics, 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, 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 launching 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 a resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels. Freezes and lags during shootouts with enemies were also not observed.

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 produce 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
Video memory size (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 it comes out new driver for Radeon graphics R7 240. Software updates for the accelerator keep its performance at the optimal level.

You can download drivers for the AMD Radeon R7 240 video card from the company's official website.

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, it is not surprising that their prices go up to $ 400 and $ 500, respectively.

However, there is another side to the market. Considering the number of people using desktop PCs, you can imagine how many of them have ancient weak integrated GPUs that are completely unsuitable for gaming. Very often, it is a worthy video card that is the parameter on which the difference is based. weak computer and an acceptable gaming platform. 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 look at 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 example, GeForce GT 640 can be purchased for both $ 60 and $ 120. Therefore, as a "template" price, we take the third from the end of our rating of video cards by price. In preparing today's material, we need to get enough performance data to draw informed 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 the Radeon HD 8570 and 8670, respectively. Both video cards are based on the Oland GPU. Although the GPU supports higher clock frequencies using PowerTune with Boost technology, it is considered the first generation processor on the GCN architecture and does not have the features presented 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 CUs), each equipped with 64 shader cores and four texture units. In total, we get 320 shader cores and 20 TMUs. 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 new card will show itself when compared with the previous generation Radeon HD 6670 DDR3 models with 480 VLIW5 shader cores.

In fact comparison Radeon R7 240 on the base frequency 730 MHz and 780 MHz peak with a 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 DDR3 900 MHz 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, the 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 more fast memory GDDR5. 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 with Radeon HD 7730 based on a "stripped-down" version of the Bonaire chip with the same number of CUs, cores and ROP partitions. However, 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 printed circuit board size 177x70 mm. 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 AMD specifications... We slightly increased the frequency in the Overdrive menu, so our tests are performed with AMD specifications, 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

XFX Radeon R7 250 Core Edition sticks to reference peak AMD frequencies 1050 MHz, and is also complemented by 1 GB GDDR5 1150 MHz memory on a full 177x114 mm PCB. The black acrylic Ghost cooler is made in a 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 processor, the XFX Ghost is equipped with an 85mm fan. The space between the fan case and the card itself is designed for air circulation, and graphics processor and the memory modules are covered with a large heatsink. The graphics adapter does not have a physical CrossFire connector, 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 about 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 market for video cards 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 laboratory, we have almost completely got rid of mechanical hard drives, and instead of them we use solid state drives for which latency associated with I / O operations is uncharacteristic. Samsung sent Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB drives to our offices, so we use them as standard.

Naturally, discrete graphics require a stable power supply, so XFX sent us an 80 PLUS Bronze certified PRO850W PSU. The modular PSU has one + 12V rail, rated for 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 4.2 GHz @ 1.3 V
Motherboard	Asus P8Z77-V LX LGA 1155, Intel Z77M chipset
Network	built-in 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