AMD Transforms its Radeon HD 7770 GHz Edition into the Radeon R7 250X

Back in December, I took a look at AMD’s rather impressive Radeon R7 260 – a card I touted as being a “console-killer”. In perusing some comments around the Web, people seemed to be pleased with what the card offered, but a lot said that a 7770 GHz Edition would be worth considering as well. However, that’d be a smart move only if that particular GPU cost much less than the R7 260, which as of the time of writing was not the case (average prices were about the same if I recall).

Well, with its just-released Radeon R7 250X, AMD supersedes the 7770 GHz Edition and secures it at a price-point of $99. That makes it about $10 cheaper than the R7 260, and that being the case, I’d say that the 260 is well-worth the upgrade cost. However, as of the time of writing, that card seems impossible to get in stock, so that about solves your decision-making problem.

As far as I can tell, the R7 250X is 1:1 specs-wise with the 7770 GHz Edition. On the surface, the card just happens to sport an updated shroud. This could be considered a cheap move by AMD – and it is – but it’s typical of how AMD and NVIDIA like to roll-out their product lines. Sometimes, it just makes sense to port a card from one gen to the next, and as foolish as it might seem, few people like the idea of buying a card with an older name.

While the card supports the important things like DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3 and PCIe 3.0, it also supports Mantle, which will help boost gaming performance in titles that support it (as it is, Battlefield 4 is the only released game that does).

So there we have it. If you’re in the market for a great HTPC card or need to keep very cost-conscious for a new gaming card, the R7 250X will offer some nice bang for the buck.