AMD R7 260X Review

The AMD R7 260X graphics card has delivered slightly higher performance than an overclocked HD7790 in our review today. In most of the games we tested at 1080p the frame rates were maybe 1-3 better. This isn't a huge improvement over the last generation part, but noticeable in specific games that fall close to the 25 frame per second cut off point.

At this end of the market, price is everything.

AMD have said this card will cost $139 and it will be interesting to see how this translates to the UK market … we are hearing too many things behind the scenes to present accurate prices to our readers at launch today. Prices will certainly settle over the coming week.

Using an online dollar to pound converter (on 5th Oct) translates the R7 260X $139 asking price to £86. With 20% VAT you need to add £17 to get around £103. Online retailers told us that the prices will be between £110 and £130.

How does this compare to current AMD prices? Right now you can pick up a custom cooled, overclocked HD7790 for £97.99 inc vat. So it seems fairly closely matched on price to the last generation part. Some overclocked HD7850's are currently selling for £119.99 inc vat which poses a problem for AMD.

There is no doubt the R7 260X is faster than the gutless Nvidia GTX650Ti, which is priced around £100 in the UK today. This is a weak price zone for Nvidia however, even though the rest of their range is very strong in October.

Reviewing reference samples is always difficult. I don't like this AMD reference cooler at all. The core hits 80c under gaming load, and 86c under synthetic Furmark load. When you factor in the poor noise characteristics it doesn't have a lot going for it. That said, we know in the coming weeks AMD partners will be releasing much better solutions with enhanced coolers and lower noise emissions. We can however only review what we have in front of us today.

The R7 260X is certainly a capable graphics card that can handle many of the latest Direct X 11 engines at 1080p, but we need to wait and see what AMD partners bring out in the coming weeks, because this reference cooling solution is far from inspiring.

Pros:

• Slightly better performance than an overclocked HD7790.
• Can power many titles at 1080p.
• programmable audio pipeline.
• 2GB GDDR5.

Cons:

• Not a huge performance step up from an overclocked HD7790.
• Reference AMD cooler is not good at all.

Kitguru says: Potentially a very good card, once it gets into AMD partner hands. More reviews coming soon.

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