Tuesday, December 17th 2013
AMD Radeon R7 260 Launched
AMD launched the Radeon R7 260 graphics cards, positioned in between the $139 Radeon R7 260X, and the $89 Radeon R7 250, which makes for a fairly big gap. It is expected to be priced no more than $110. Based on the same 28 nm "Bonaire" silicon as the R7 260X and the HD 7790 from the previous generation, the R7 260 is a mildly de-tuned variant of the R7 260X.
The Radeon R7 260 features just 768 of the 896 stream processors physically present on the "Bonaire" silicon. The GPU is clocked at 1000 MHz, compared to the 1100 MHz of the R7 260X; and the memory is clocked at 6.00 GHz (GDDR5-effective), compared to the 6.50 GHz of its sibling, which churns out a memory bandwidth of 96 GB/s on the chip's 128-bit wide memory bus. 1 GB, and not 2 GB is the standard memory amount. The maximum power draw is reduced to 95-Watt from 115-Watt on the R7 260X, and the card makes do with a single 6-pin PCIe power connector to draw power from. API support is consistent - DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3, and Mantle. AMD TrueAudio appears to be supported.
The Radeon R7 260 features just 768 of the 896 stream processors physically present on the "Bonaire" silicon. The GPU is clocked at 1000 MHz, compared to the 1100 MHz of the R7 260X; and the memory is clocked at 6.00 GHz (GDDR5-effective), compared to the 6.50 GHz of its sibling, which churns out a memory bandwidth of 96 GB/s on the chip's 128-bit wide memory bus. 1 GB, and not 2 GB is the standard memory amount. The maximum power draw is reduced to 95-Watt from 115-Watt on the R7 260X, and the card makes do with a single 6-pin PCIe power connector to draw power from. API support is consistent - DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3, and Mantle. AMD TrueAudio appears to be supported.
8 Comments on AMD Radeon R7 260 Launched
I’d really like to see a direct comparison of the of this to the 7770 and 7790, because they stack in terms of TDP 80W, 85W, while now the R7 260 is at 95W? Wow I’ve had always been underwhelmed with Bonaire, and this cap’s that notion.
Look at it like this, less shaders, no dynamic clock compared to the 7790 and can’t beat it, while now it's at 95W? Even the cost is wacky; Bonaire being 30% larger the Cape Verde, other than True Audio, for general use discrete upgrade get a 7770.
Am I missing something?
Isn't Curacao just the new name of the Pitcairn (78XX) for the R9 270 and 270X? At least that what the TPU data base has it as. It must be others who are confused...
But reading Guru3D's review he says, "AMD has now also fully implemented a 'Turbo' feature... This means that there is no longer a fixed clock on these cards", indicating Powertune Architecture is on all R Series cards?
Also, next up R7 250X maybe? For a 1:1 dual graphics crossfire with Kaveri flagship maybe? :D