Testing methodology
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Comparison Configurations |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD |
Intel |
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A10-7850K |
Core i5-4670 |
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| Motherboard | Gigabyte G1.Sniper A88X |
Gigabyte Z87-D3HP |
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| BIOS | A9 |
F5 |
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| Chipset Driver | AMD Catalyst 14.1 beta |
Intel Inf 9.4.0.1027 and IMEI 9 |
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| DDR3 Memory | AMD Gamer Series 16GB (2x8GB) |
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| Memory Timings | 10-11-11-28-2T @ 2,133MHz |
9-10-9-27-2T @ 1,866MHz |
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| Integrated Graphics | Radeon R7 |
HD 4600 |
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| IGP driver | AMD Catalyst 14.1 beta 6 |
Intel 15.33.8.64.3379 |
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| Discrete card(s) | Sapphire Radeon R7 250 |
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| Discrete driver | AMD Catalyst 14.1 beta 6 |
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| Disk Drive | Samsung 840 Pro 250GB |
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| Chassis | Corsair Graphite 600T |
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| Power Supply | Corsair AX760i |
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| Operating System | Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit |
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Gaming Benchmarks |
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| Battlefield 4 | DX11 and Mantle, 1,920x1,080 medium quality | |||||
| Bioshock Infinite | 1,920x1,080 medium quality | |||||
| GRID 2 | 1,920x1,080 high quality | |||||
| Total War: Rome II | 1,920x1,080 medium quality | |||||
Power consumption Benchmarks |
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| Power Consumption | While idling and when running GRID 2 | |||||
Notes
The normal course of action would be to test with numerous cards, add commentary relating to its position in the graphs, and then draw a conclusion. We've decided on a different tack this time around. Appreciating this card is an obvious candidate for teaming up to facilitate Dual Graphics on an AMD Kaveri APU platform and that the much-vaunted Mantle API is now in the wild, it makes sense to understand the Sapphire's use in this kind of scenario.
We have benchmarked the Sapphire R7 250 DDR3 against AMD's R7 graphics integrated in the A10-7850K APU and the HD 4600 Graphics contained within the Core i5-4670. Doing so provides a solid foundation for understanding how this entry-level discrete GPU compares against some of the best IGPs available. We've then teamed the R7 250 with the onboard R7 IGP and run some numbers for Dual Graphics. Remember, this is only available on AMD platforms and one of the company's key selling points.
We've also run the Sapphire R7 250 on the Intel platform, primarily to see if the more-powerful CPU cores make a difference in our gaming tests. Lastly, we've also run Battlefield 4 via both DirectX11 and Mantle, to see if the new API is the performance boon it is made out to be. Got all that?
