AMD has officially unveiled the slower members of its latest GPU family, codenamed Volcanic Islands. There’s something for everyone in here, which means that if you look for a new graphics card you may grab one of these with no regrets. Let’s take a look at them.
The Radeon R9 280X sits on top of all these cards offering a Tahiti XTL GPU at 1 GHz, 2048 stream processors, 3 GB of GDDR5 memory over a 384-bit bus, support for PCI-E 3.0, DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3 and AMD Mantle. The card needs 250 watts of power and comes with two power connectors – one 6-pin and one 8-pin. Expect to find it for USD 299.
The Radeon R9 270X comes next in line. This one comes with a Curacao XT GPU that runs at 1050 MHz and sports 1280 stream processors. The card comes with 2 GB or 4 GB of GDDR5 memory over a 256-bit memory bus, two 6-pin power connectors and support for PCI-E 3.0, DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3 and AMD Mantle. The card needs 180 watts of power. The 2 GB model is expected to retail for USD 199, while the 4 GB version will cost USD 229.
The Radeon R7 260X is a more budget-oriented version. This one will have 896 stream processors packed in a Bonaire XT core that runs at 1100 MHz. The card will also have 2 GB of GDDR5 memory, accessed over a 128-bit bus, one 6-pin power connector and 115 watts of required power. The card also supports PCI-E 3.0, DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3 and AMD Mantle technologies. You will be able to find the R7 260X for USD 139.
The Radeon R7 250 will come with an Oland GPU with 384 stream processors, 1 GB of GDDR5 or 2 GB of GDDR3 memory on a 128-bit memory bus, 65 watts of required power (and no need for external power) and support for PCI-E 3.0, DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3 and AMD Mantle. This card will sell for USD 89.
The final (and slowest) member is AMD Radeon R7 240. Based on the same Oland GPU the R7 240 will sport just 320 stream processors, 1 GB of GDDR5 or 2 GB of GDDR3 memory on a 128-bit memory bus, just 30 watts of required power and no external pins for power and support for PCI-E 3.0, DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3 and AMD Mantle. This card will be available for USD 69.
Source: AMD