How Low Should You Go? ASUS Radeon R7 250X Graphics Card Review

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by Rob Williams on September 10, 2014 in Graphics & Displays

After we were done benchmarking AMD’s $110 Radeon R7 260 last winter, we were impressed enough to call it a “console killer” (thanks in part to the ‘next-gen’ consoles having been released not soon before). Will we be able to say the same thing about the R7 250X, a model a mere one-step down? That’s what we’re going to find out.

Page 7 – Best Playable: Single Display

For about as long as GPU-accelerated games have existed, 60 frames-per-second has been an ideal performance target. This target framerate, in turn, established the 60Hz monitor as a de facto standard. The 60Hz monitor delivers its best results when the framerate matches its refresh rate. To make sure the monitor’s refresh rate and game’s framerate keep aligned, to avoid visible tearing, VSync should be enabled.

While I believe our Best Playable results will appeal to any gamer, they could especially prove useful to those intrigued by livingroom gaming or console replacements. The goal here is simple: With each game, the graphics settings are tweaked to deliver the best possible detail while keeping us as close to 60 FPS on average as possible.

Because our Metro Last Light and Total War: SHOGUN 2 tests are timedemos, and because this kind of testing is time-consuming, I am sticking to six out of the eight games I test with for inclusion here.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
Minimum Average
AMD Radeon R7 260X 51 60
Graphics Settings
& Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080
Environment: High Shadow: Normal
Texture: High Reflection: Normal
Anti-aliasing: FXAA God Rays: Off
Ambient Occlusion: Off Volumetric Fog: On
Motion Blur On
Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag - Best Playable - AMD Radeon R7 260X
AMD Radeon R7 260 48 58
Graphics Settings
& Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080
Environment: High Shadow: Normal
Texture: High Reflection: Normal
Anti-aliasing: Off God Rays: Off
Ambient Occlusion: Off Volumetric Fog: Off
Motion Blur Off
Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag - Best Playable - AMD Radeon R7 260
ASUS Radeon R7 250X 39 48
Graphics Settings
& Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080
Environment: Normal Shadow: Low
Texture: Low Reflection: Normal
Anti-aliasing: Off God Rays: Off
Ambient Occlusion: Off Volumetric Fog: On
Motion Blur Off
Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag - Best Playable - ASUS Radeon R7 250X

When tested with our regular settings, the performance we saw with AC IV: Black Flag from the R7 250X was… well, horrible. Taking a hammer to every single option we have, we’re left with “Low” all over the board, but the game still looks pretty good, and delivers nearly 50 FPS on average.

Battlefield 4
Minimum Average
AMD Radeon R7 260X 49 62
Graphics Settings
& Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080
Texture Quality: High Texture Filtering: High
Lighting: High Effects: High
Post Processing: High Mesh: High
Terrain: High Terrain Decoration: High
Anti-aliasing Deferred: Off Anti-aliasing Post: Off
Ambient Occlusion: Off
Battlefield 4 - Best Playable - AMD Radeon R7 260X
AMD Radeon R7 260 48 58
Graphics Settings
& Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080
Texture Quality: High Texture Filtering: High
Lighting: High Effects: High
Post Processing: Medium Mesh: High
Terrain: High Terrain Decoration: High
Anti-aliasing Deferred: Off Anti-aliasing Post: Off
Ambient Occlusion: Off
Battlefield 4 - Best Playable - AMD Radeon R7 260
ASUS Radeon R7 250X 45 62
Graphics Settings
& Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080
Texture Quality: High Texture Filtering: High
Lighting: Medium Effects: Medium
Post Processing: Medium Mesh: High
Terrain: High Terrain Decoration: High
Anti-aliasing Deferred: Off Anti-aliasing Post: Off
Ambient Occlusion: Off
Battlefield 4 - Best Playable - ASUS Radeon R7 250X

While “Low” was the name of the game in AC IV: Black Flag with the R7 250X, the card fared a lot better with Battlefield 4. With half of the settings dialed in to High, and some others to Medium, our system can hit our target of 60 FPS. Once again, the result isn’t too bad, quality-wise.

Crysis 3
Minimum Average
AMD Radeon R7 260X 36 54
Graphics Settings
& Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080
Anti-aliasing: Off Texture: Medium
Effects: Medium Object: Medium
Particles: Medium Post Processing: Medium
Shading: Medium Shadows: Low
Water: Low Anisotropic Filtering: x16
Motion Blur: Medium Lens Flares: Yes
Crysis 3 - Best Playable - AMD Radeon R7 260X
AMD Radeon R7 260 36 50
Graphics Settings
& Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080
Anti-aliasing: Off Texture: Medium
Effects: Medium Object: Medium
Particles: Low Post Processing: Low
Shading: Medium Shadows: Low
Water: Low Anisotropic Filtering: x16
Motion Blur: Medium Lens Flares: Yes
Crysis 3 - Best Playable - AMD Radeon R7 260
ASUS Radeon R7 250X 32 47
Graphics Settings
& Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080
Anti-aliasing: Off Texture: Low
Effects: Low Object: Low
Particles: Low Post Processing: Low
Shading: Low Shadows: Low
Water: Low Anisotropic Filtering: x16
Motion Blur: Low Lens Flares: Yes
Crysis 3 - Best Playable - ASUS Radeon R7 250X

Crysis 3 follows in AC IV: Black Flag‘s steps: I absolutely had to put everything to Low in order to achieve decent framerates at 1080p. If you’re running a 1440×900 display, I am sure the game would deliver the same sort of framerates with the Medium preset used. This truly is a monster of a game.

GRID 2
Minimum Average
AMD Radeon R7 260X 50 58
Graphics Settings
& Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080
Multisampling: 4x MSAA Night Lighting: High
Shadows: Ultra Advanced Fog: On
Particles: Ultra Crowd: Ultra
Cloth: High Ambient Occlusion: Low
Soft Ambient Occlusion: Off Ground Cover: High
Vehicle Details: High Trees: High
Objects: Ultra Vehicle Reflections: Ultra
Water: High Post Process: High
Skidmarks: On Advanced Lighting: On
Global Illumination: Off Anisotropic Filtering: Ultra
GRID 2 - Best Playable - AMD Radeon R7 260X
AMD Radeon R7 260 41 64
Graphics Settings
& Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080
Multisampling: 4x MSAA Night Lighting: High
Shadows: High Advanced Fog: On
Particles: Ultra Crowd: Ultra
Cloth: High Ambient Occlusion: Low
Soft Ambient Occlusion: Off Ground Cover: High
Vehicle Details: High Trees: High
Objects: Ultra Vehicle Reflections: Ultra
Water: High Post Process: Medium
Skidmarks: On Advanced Lighting: On
Global Illumination: Off Anisotropic Filtering: Ultra
GRID 2 - Best Playable - AMD Radeon R7 260
ASUS Radeon R7 250X 37 60
Graphics Settings
& Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080
Multisampling: Off Night Lighting: High
Shadows: High Advanced Fog: On
Particles: Ultra Crowd: Ultra
Cloth: High Ambient Occlusion: Low
Soft Ambient Occlusion: Off Ground Cover: High
Vehicle Details: High Trees: Ultra
Objects: Ultra Vehicle Reflections: Ultra
Water: High Post Process: Medium
Skidmarks: On Advanced Lighting: On
Global Illumination: Off Anisotropic Filtering: Ultra
GRID 2 - Best Playable - ASUS Radeon R7 250X

A lot had to be tweaked to hit 60 FPS here, and admittedly, you could have gone in a different direction than me. You could have left anti-aliasing enabled and decreased some of the Ultras to High or Medium, but the point has been made: You can still have a great-looking GRID 2 along with 60 FPS @ 1080p.

Sleeping Dogs
Minimum Average
AMD Radeon R7 260X 62 71
Graphics Settings
& Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080
Anti-aliasing: Normal High-res Textures: On
Shadow Resolution: High Shadow Filtering: High
Ambient Occlusion: High Motion Blur: High
World Density: Extreme
Sleeping Dogs - Best Playable - AMD Radeon R7 260X
AMD Radeon R7 260 55 63
Graphics Settings
& Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080
Anti-aliasing: Normal High-res Textures: On
Shadow Resolution: High Shadow Filtering: High
Ambient Occlusion: High Motion Blur: High
World Density: Extreme
Sleeping Dogs - Best Playable - AMD Radeon R7 260
ASUS Radeon R7 250X 45 52
Graphics Settings
& Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080
Anti-aliasing: Normal High-res Textures: On
Shadow Resolution: High Shadow Filtering: High
Ambient Occlusion: High Motion Blur: High
World Density: Extreme
Sleeping Dogs - Best Playable - ASUS Radeon R7 250X

For every single GPU I’ve benchmarked since I’ve begun benchmarking Sleeping Dogs, I’ve just had to decrease the anti-aliasing to the smallest level in order to get great framerates. With the R7 250X, I had worried that I’d have to decrease even more than that, but not so. If you really do crave that 60 FPS though, you should decrease the ambient occlusion, and possibly drop the shadow resolution as well.

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Minimum Average
AMD Radeon R7 260X 51 77
Graphics Settings
& Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080
Texture Detail: Medium Shadow: Medium
Parallax: On Tessellation: Off
Texture Filtering: 2x Ambient Occlusion: Field AO
Anti-aliasing: Off
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist - Best Playable - AMD Radeon R7 260X
AMD Radeon R7 260 48 72
Graphics Settings
& Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080
Texture Detail: Medium Shadow: Medium
Parallax: On Tessellation: Off
Texture Filtering: 2x Ambient Occlusion: Field AO
Anti-aliasing: Off
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist - Best Playable - AMD Radeon R7 260
ASUS Radeon R7 250X 48 62
Graphics Settings
& Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080
Texture Detail: Medium Shadow: Medium
Parallax: On Tessellation: Off
Texture Filtering: 16x Ambient Occlusion: Off
Anti-aliasing: Off
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Blacklist - Best Playable - ASUS Radeon R7 250X

With medium detail levels all-around, and the dropping of AA and AO, Splinter Cell: Blacklist can surpass 60 FPS at 1080p with the R7 250X.

Now, let’s tackle some quick synthetic benchmarks, and then move onto the conclusion.

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Rob Williams

Rob founded Techgage in 2005 to be an 'Advocate of the consumer', focusing on fair reviews and keeping people apprised of news in the tech world. Catering to both enthusiasts and businesses alike; from desktop gaming to professional workstations, and all the supporting software.

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