Maybe you’re thinking about upgrading an old computer by adding a budget graphics card and you’re wondering if the AMD Radeon R7 is a good choice.
The AMD Radeon R7 240 is a little dated, but very budget-friendly, and it can be a cheap upgrade to older systems. Let’s take a closer look at the card, see if it’s good for modern games, or if there are any other alternatives for a budget gaming PC.
Is AMD Radeon R7 Good for Gaming?
When it comes to gaming, the AMD Radeon R7 240 is good for older and less demanding titles, but it won’t be able to run modern AAA games. Most games can be tweaked to run on the card by lowering the resolution and graphical settings, but even modern games, such as games released in the last year or two, will struggle to run at an acceptable framerate.
What you need to know is the AMD Radeon R7 240 is a mobile, low-profile, and low-performance graphics card. Most of the people who buy this card are either looking to upgrade old PCs or need something for basic video editing and watching high-resolution movies, it’s not generally used for games.
The AMD Radeon R7 240 specs are:
- 730 MHz clock speed
- 2GB of VRAM
- 7010 MHz memory speed.
The good news is the card uses a passive cooling method, which may mean higher temperatures, but it’s also quieter.
AMD Radeon R7 Benchmarks:
Having said that, if you’re thinking about buying one, and you’re wondering what benchmark to expect on certain games, here’s a quick list:
Note: The specific card that I’m using for benchmarks is the R7 240, there are newer models in the same family that perform much better, such as the R7 270X. For AAA gaming I would recommend an AMD card in the RX series with at least 6 GB of VRAM.
Can AMD Radeon R7 Run Fortnite?
The AMD Radeon R7 can run Fortnite on the lowest settings, at 1080P, with an average of 35 frames a second. At 720P, the frames are higher, around 40 a second. Overall, a frame rate of below 60 is not recommended for competitive games like Fortnite and other shooters.
Can AMD Radeon R7 Run GTA V?
The AMD Radeon R7 240 can run GTA V in low settings, at 720P with an average of 40 frames a second. Certain graphical settings can be adjusted to give or take a few frames, but it’s usually in the 30-50 territory.
Radeon R7 vs Vega 8:
The main difference between the Radeon R7 240 and the Radeon Vega 8 is that Vega 8 is an integrated graphics processor, which means it’s built into certain AMD CPUs. The Radeon R7 cards are dedicated, meaning they’re separate from the CPU.
When comparing these two, neither of them offer good performance for modern games, but the dedicated R7 240 delivers much more than the Vega 8. For example, the Vega 8 integrated can only reach a maximum of 25 frames on Fortnite at 720P.
However, there is another card in the Vega series that’s mostly used in laptops called the RX Vega 8 (Ryzen iGPU) which is much better than the PC’s R7 240. You can’t buy an RX Vega 8 because it’s a laptop card that is soldered on to the motherboard.
Generally, most laptops that include the RX Vega 8 can run Fortnite at 1080P on medium settings at around 45 frames a second.
AMD Radeon R7 240 vs 430
These are two extreme budget cards, and while they both have the exact same clock rate and VRAM (730 MHz and 2GB) the R7 430 performs slightly better on certain tests. On technical tests, such as floating-point performance, the R7 430 achieves 599 g-flops while the 240 reached 499 g-flops.
Overall, these two cards are almost the same, but the 430 is a tiny bit faster in some tests. In games, the difference might be one or two more frames per second, nothing very noticeable.
As I mentioned earlier, I wouldn’t recommend these cards for gaming but you can invest a bit more into an RX card or at least a Radeon card that has a minimum of 4GB of VRAM. The R7 family is pretty dated and only really necessary for very cheap upgrades.
Is Nvidia Better Than AMD?
Nvidia and AMD have a competing for many years, and it’s hard to say which company is better than the other because they shine in certain areas.
For example, Nvidia is known for creating high-end GPUs with excellent drivers and software, while AMD makes more budget-friendly GPUS that still offer great performance. There are also unique features with either company, such as G-sync, Ray Tracing, and whatnot.
Generally speaking AMD cards, as of today, deliver the most bang for your buck, and are considered to be the best value cards. When comparing modern AMD cards to modern Nvidia cards, the benchmark scores usually favor AMD, and they tend to be able to push out more raw frames.
On the other hand, Nvidia cards are more powerful, capable of pushing out 4K or higher resolutions at reasonable frame rates, with added features. The downside is that Nvidia cards tend to be more expensive.
So there’s still a lot of debate about which graphics manufacturer to go with. My advice is to pick a card that has the performance and features that you need for your games or work. Most modern graphics cards with at least 6 GB of VRAM released in the last few years should handle most AAA games at 1080P with over 60 frames a second.
Conclusion:
So if you’re looking for a super-budget AMD graphics card for gaming I don’t recommend the R7 series because there are much better cards out there. You could throw in a few more dollars to get a graphics card that can run most games at 60 frames a second, so you won’t get a headache from the low frame rates.
