Sapphire Radeon R7 260X OC 2GB Graphics Card Review

For about as long as GPU-accelerated games have existed, an ideal performance target has been 60 frames-per-second. Owing thanks to this is the standard 60Hz monitor, which delivers its best result when the framerate matches its refresh rate. To make sure the monitor’s refresh rate and game’s framerate keep aligned, it’s a good idea to enable VSync to avoid visible tearing.

While I believe our Best Playable results will appeal to any gamer, they could especially prove useful to those intrigued by living room 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.

With all that said, let’s get to it.

	Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
1920×1080	Minimum		Average
Sapphire Radeon R7 260X OC	54		62
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	Environment:	High	Shadow:	Normal
	Texture:	High	Reflection:	Normal
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	God Rays:	Off
	Ambient Occlusion:	Off	Volumetric Fog:	On
	Motion Blur	On
AMD Radeon R7 260X	51		60
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	Environment:	High	Shadow:	Normal
	Texture:	High	Reflection:	Normal
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	God Rays:	Off
	Ambient Occlusion:	Off	Volumetric Fog:	On
	Motion Blur	On
AMD Radeon R7 260	48		58
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	Environment:	High	Shadow:	Normal
	Texture:	High	Reflection:	Normal
	Anti-aliasing:	Off	God Rays:	Off
	Ambient Occlusion:	Off	Volumetric Fog:	Off
	Motion Blur	Off

Often, the first thing to go when trying to fine-tune a game for a lower-end card is to disable the anti-aliasing, but in this particular case, FXAA could remain intact. Instead, AO was the biggest feature that had to be disabled, and compared to our regular benchmarked settings, the environment, shadow and reflection detail also had to be decreased.

	Battlefield 4
1920×1080	Minimum		Average
Sapphire Radeon R7 260X OC	48		64
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	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
AMD Radeon R7 260X	49		62
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	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
AMD Radeon R7 260	48		58
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	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

Despite its gorgeous visuals, the R7 260X is able to handle Battlefield 4 in “High” detail. Not surprisingly, AA had to go, as did AO. Drat.

	Crysis 3
1920×1080	Minimum		Average
Sapphire Radeon R7 260X OC	39		55
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	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
AMD Radeon R7 260X	36		54
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	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
AMD Radeon R7 260	36		50
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	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 is a game that can “suffer” at under 60 FPS easier than most other FPS titles on account of the fact that it makes use of motion blur. As such, the decrease in performance isn’t missed that much, so I’m quite pleased with what Sapphire’s R7 260X managed here. If  you must have 60 FPS, post-processing or object detail alterations could help with that.

	GRID 2
1920×1080	Minimum		Average
Sapphire Radeon R7 260X OC	53		60
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	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:	Ultra
	Objects:	Ultra	Vehicle Reflections:	Ultra
	Water:	High	Post Process:	High
	Skidmarks:	On	Advanced Lighting:	On
	Global Illumination:	Off	Anisotropic Filtering:	Ultra
AMD Radeon R7 260X	50		58
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	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:	Ultra
	Objects:	Ultra	Vehicle Reflections:	Ultra
	Water:	High	Post Process:	High
	Skidmarks:	On	Advanced Lighting:	On
	Global Illumination:	Off	Anisotropic Filtering:	Ultra
AMD Radeon R7 260	41		64
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	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:	Ultra
	Objects:	Ultra	Vehicle Reflections:	Ultra
	Water:	High	Post Process:	Medium
	Skidmarks:	On	Advanced Lighting:	On
	Global Illumination:	Off	Anisotropic Filtering:	Ultra

Using our benchmarked settings, we eked 49 FPS out of GRID 2. Admittedly, I’m personally fine with that kind of performance, after having played it. However, understanding that the de facto 60 FPS might be preferred, turning off global illumination and decreasing AO can make that happen in a snap.

	Sleeping Dogs
1920×1080	Minimum		Average
Sapphire Radeon R7 260X OC	63		74
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	Anti-aliasing:	Normal	High-res Textures:	On
	Shadow Resolution:	High	Shadow Filtering:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	High	Motion Blur:	High
	World Density:	Extreme
AMD Radeon R7 260X	62		71
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	Anti-aliasing:	Normal	High-res Textures:	On
	Shadow Resolution:	High	Shadow Filtering:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	High	Motion Blur:	High
	World Density:	Extreme
AMD Radeon R7 260	55		63
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	Anti-aliasing:	Normal	High-res Textures:	On
	Shadow Resolution:	High	Shadow Filtering:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	High	Motion Blur:	High
	World Density:	Extreme

As gorgeous as Sleeping Dogs is, its beefiest graphics requirement is tied to the anti-aliasing, which to me is horribly inefficient. That being the case, the only realistic change that will have to be made here versus our regular benchmarked settings is that the AA will be decreased from High to Normal. Lo and behold, that’s the change made here, which helps let the game run at an impressive 74 FPS at max detail.

	Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
1920×1080	Minimum		Average
Sapphire Radeon R7 260X OC	52		80
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	Texture Detail:	Medium	Shadow:	Medium
	Parallax:	On	Tessellation:	Off
	Texture Filtering:	2x	Ambient Occlusion:	Field AO
	Anti-aliasing:	Off
AMD Radeon R7 260X	51		77
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	Texture Detail:	Medium	Shadow:	Medium
	Parallax:	On	Tessellation:	Off
	Texture Filtering:	2x	Ambient Occlusion:	Field AO
	Anti-aliasing:	Off
AMD Radeon R7 260	48		72
Graphics Settings & Screenshot	Texture Detail:	Medium	Shadow:	Medium
	Parallax:	On	Tessellation:	Off
	Texture Filtering:	2x	Ambient Occlusion:	Field AO
	Anti-aliasing:	Off

Blacklist is an interesting game graphically because it features a bunch of different knobs that, when enabled, can individually but dramatically decrease performance. Thanks to that, we’re kind of fixed into what we can tweak, but as the above screenshot highlights, the R7 260X is one capable graphics card. Did someone mention 80 FPS?