AMD Radeon R7 200 Series MegaThread: FAQ and Resources

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unknownofprob

unknownofprob

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Oct 3, 2013
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**NOTE: This thread is still under development, individual pages are still under work and things are going to be edited and changed - just keep this in mind, I'm working on it. **

*Individual pages for each card model are under development**

AMD Radeon R7 2XX Megathread
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The AMD Radeon R7 2XX series was the first ever budgeting card series created and launched for the purpose of affordable cards with decent performance. If your on a tight budget or don't need much graphics power you have most likely come to the right place. If you are considering gaming on ultra at resolutions above 1920x1080 for modern day games, the R9 2XX platform is for you and not the R7 series. This card platform offers cards which have relatively low TDP figures, which means most of these cards are relitavely small due to the cooler needed to keep it within max safe operating temperature at reference clocks. Overclocking can be done with any graphics card but this series is not truely meant for it as many aftermarket colers fitted cannot always handle the increse in TDP, which can result in high running temperatures and even throttling of the card. The R7 2XX series come equipped with enough video ram for your everyday tasks, and also support multiple monitors. The latest inclusion to this category is the R7 265, which currently is the best R7 2XX series card available with 2GB GDDR5 models available. If gaming on a restricted budget this card is a good alternative but at it's price range you would be better off going for an R9 270. The R7 2XX series graphics cards all support 2/way crossfire, but for what these cards are, they are simply not worth crossfiring at all. Because the R7 2XX category has launched (6) reference model cards and no more appear to be released due to the upcoming R7/R9 3XX series graphics cards, this thread will have no rumor sections. All of the current R7 2XX series models are listed below with their first look specification:

*Note: All models listed are with STANDARD video ram specification. Manufacturers produce and supply higher video ram models and also different video ram types then the baseline.*


R7 240
Chip Codename: Oland PRO
Video Ram: 2GB DDR3
Memory Bus: 128-bit
Bandwidth: 28.8GB/s
30W TDP
ROPs: 8
Cores: 320
Texture Units: 20
RRP: USD $70

R7 250
Chip Codename: Oland XT
Video Ram: 1GB GDDR5
Memory Bus: 128-bit
Bandwidth: 73.6GB/s
65W TDP
ROPs: 16
Cores: 384
Texture Units: 24
RRP: USD $89

R7 250X
Chip Codename: Cape Verde XT
Video Ram: 1GB GDDR5
Memory Bus: 128-bit
Bandwidth: 72GB/s
80W TDP
ROPs: 16
Cores: 640
Texture Units: 40
RRP: USD $99

R7 260
Chip Codename: Bonaire
Video Ram: 1GB GDDR5
Memory Bus: 128-bit
Bandwidth: 98.8GB/s
95W TDP
ROPs: 16
Cores: 768
Texture Units: 48
RRP: USD $109

R7 260X
Chip Codename: Bonaire XTX
Video Ram: 2GB GDDR5
Memory Bus: 128-bit
Bandwidth: 104GB/s
115W TDP
ROPs: 16
Cores: 896
Texture Units: 56
RRP: USD $139

R7 265
Chip Codename: Pitcairn
Video Ram: 2GB GDDR5
Memory Bus: 256-bit
Bandwidth: 179GB/s
150W TDP
ROPs: 32
Cores: 1024
Texture Units: 64
RRP: USD $149


'R7' Refers to the category, '2' (first number) refers to the series, '4-6' (second number) refers to the model, '0 or 5' (third number) - after the release of the R7 265 this number has no meaning, inclusion of the 'X' (fourth letter in sequence) on the end of some means it's an extreme edition graphics card. With all this implied, the higher the number, the better the card is in the series.


AMD Radeon Driver updates and Release thread found here.


Thread Notifications:

-Individual pages are currently under work for each card model

-A driver updates and release thread has now been released


An AMD Radeon R9 2XX MegaThread is currently up on Toms Hardware if you are considering checking out this card category. This thread is closing near to completion with individual pages under final inspection before the rest of the cards facts are uploaded.


Please refrain from spamming messages about incorrect information listed in this thread or posting opinions about what you 'think' is correct, If you manage to spot something or would incline to have a suggestion, please send me a private message through Toms Hardware for an investigation and changes. Fanboy arguments or Trolling are NOT tolerated in this thread, if so the moderation team will be sorting that out. Thank you
 
System configuration:
- monitor: UP2414Q (connected via DisplayPort 1.1)
- video card: MSI R7 265
- driver: Catalyst Omega 14.12
- os: Ubuntu 14.10

The monitor works at 2560x1440 @60hz via DisplayPort 1.1 (tested on a Windows laptop with an NVidia mobile card) but the Catalyst software on Linux does not list the resolution, nor can I set it via xrandr. I cannot find any documentation on how to add a custom resolution in the Linux Catalyst Control Center.

If there a place to open an official bug report against the Catalyst Omega drivers? Is there any documentation for adding custom resolution in Linux via Catalyst?


Thank you!
 


I have The R7 260X 2GB I know there budget cards but they run games very well for me I game at 1280x1024 but that's for the time being I will upgrade to a 24 or 28inch HD Monitor at 1920x1080 at some point do I need a new card it would be a shame really as I have only had this card for 6 months would adding another card in the 4x slot give me optimum performance or would a upgrade be in order say the R9 280X 4GB I that's the case I will wait a while longer what do you think 🙂

Joe
 


Thanks mate I will keep this card for now and get the R9 280X 3GB in the future 🙂

Joe
 
Here is my situation. I primarily game on a computer hooked to my TV from the couch with an Xbox 360 controller. This computer has a Radeon 7850 GPU and a FX 6300 CPU. This works great for console ports at 1080p for the most part. I don't really like playing computer games that rely on a keyboard and mouse on it though. It's awkward from my couch and most of them have much smaller text than console ports and it's unreadable from the couch.

I have another computer at a desk upstairs that was not built for gaming. I went cheap and put a $50 AMD A4-5300 in it instead of a separate CPU and GPU. I want to use this computer for games like Divinity: Original Sin, Smite, Diablo 3, Sim City, and Civ V that rely on small text and mouse/keyboard controls.

I tried Smite it last night on the A4 APU. I wasn't expecting much from this cheap A4 build but it was able to run Smite smoothly for 2+ hours at 1920x1080 on medium settings. These were the settings the game picked by itself and I didn't try to tinker with them.

As expected, mouse and keyboard games with small font like this are much more comfortable at a desk. I'm thinking about making an upgrade and here are my options. Let me know if something else would fit my situation better.

Option A - get a cheap GPU like the R7 250 to put in the A4 machine. It looks like I can get overclocked models with 2 GB of DDR3 or 1GB models with DDR5 on Amazon for about $95. If I get one of these I want it to be able to play the games I mentioned at 1080p with high settings. I don't believe any of the games I mentioned are graphically intensive. I just don't know if budget cards like this will make a drastic improvement over the A4's built in 7480d.

Option B - get a R9 290 for the main gaming PC. I could take the 7850 I'm currently using in that machine and put it in the A4 machine. Overclocked 4GB models are currently $300 on Amazon. If it would make a drastic improvement I suppose I could also spend $340 for a GTX 970. If any of these cards include free games like Far Cry 4 or Dying Light that could help sway my decision.

Option C - Do nothing and keep my money. If the R7 250 isn't drastically better than the the A4 APU for the games I mentioned and the R9 290 isn't drastically better than my 7850 for 1080p gaming I'll just stick with what I have. I don't need resolutions higher than 1920x1080 or framerates higher than 60. My 7850 is only two years old and I'm still happy with it. I wasn't planning to upgrade for another year or two.

Edit: I've done some more reading and it seems like the r9 280 might be a better fit for than the 290 me since I'm not planning on going above 1080p. I can replace my 7850 with a Sapphire r9 280 for $179.99. At that price I'm thinking the upgrade to my gaming PC is pretty reasonable and I can use the 7850 on my secondary machine. Is this a big upgrade from the 7850?


 
To be entirely honest it's a personal choice to what you get for what you need it for. The R9 280 would be my opt, it's an excellent value/performance card. It's not the biggest of improvements over the 7850, but it will be noticeably better at 1080p for a gaming PC.


The 7850 will be fine with the A4 only if the CPU is not running at or close to 100% or if it is throttling at a way too high temperature. If this is not the case, there is no bottleneck with the 7850 and A4 5300. Even though it is a low end CPU, and people may differ with reasoning, a question for them is how else could the GPU be limited by the CPU?

 


Glad to hear, if you have any other AMD radeon GPU questions feel free to ask them here!
 


Ok, this conversation has got me thinking dangerous thoughts now. The price of the r9 280 has gone up $10 since I posted this yesterday but the Sapphire model is still only $189.

I'm also thinking of replacing my FX 6300 with an FX 8370. This would let me change out both of the main components of my gaming PC without having to replace my motherboard, 8GB of 1600Mhz RAM, or my power supply since these are both AM3+ CPUs.

I could then ditch my A4 completely and put the FX 6300 and Radeon 7850 in my desk PC. It only has 4GB of RAM and a cheap motherboard but that would turn my home office machine into a nice little secondary gaming machine.

I have a couple concerns though. First I only put a Corsair builder series 430W power supply in that machine when I built it. Again it was built cheaply for simple remote access to my office. Is that even a big enough power supply to run the FX 6300 and 7850 with 4GB of RAM? On that same note, would my 600W gaming PC power supply be enough for an R9 280, FX 8370, and 8GB of RAM? I'd rather not go too crazy upgrading everything. I'd like to just buy the new GPU and CPU if I do this.

Second, part of me thinks this whole thing is crazy. My current gaming PC runs all my games at 1080p with medium to high settings. It wasn't until I saw the recommended specs for Far Cry 4, Shadow of Mordor, and The Witcher 3 that I even thought about upgrading.

As for secondary machine, I'm only using it for a few games that are better played at a desk than a couch. Most of these games are in my Steam library so I can use in-home streaming to do all the heavy lifting on the gaming PC. There is no noticeable lag when I use this setup. The only downside is that it seems to be limited to 1280x720 and I'd rather use 1920x1080.

The only games I currently want to play at the desk that aren't in Steam are Smite, Diablo 3, and Sim City. I don't think any of these games require beastly gaming PCs. In fact I have played quite a few hours of Smite on the A4 at 1080p with medium settings and it ran smoothly. I also tested with Sim City for about an hour and that seemed to run well at medium settings too. Maybe the A4 is enough for the few desk style games I want to play that aren't in my Steam library.

I've basically ruled out the R7 250 upgrade to the A4 PC. I'm sure the R7 is enough to max out all these games at 1080p but it doesn't make sense to put $100 into upgrading that when I can spend $189 and have a better GPU in both machines. That R9 280 price is great but is it smart to buy a new GPU right before the 300 series is announced?

 
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