HIS R7 250 iCooler Boost Clock 1GB Review

Overclocking & Overclocked Performance

The overclocking ability of a graphics card is an important buying consideration irrespective of whether the graphics card is low end or enthusiast level. I’m sure everyone will agree that the more extra performance from overclocking – the better. In our overclocking we push each graphics card to its maximum stable core and memory frequencies. Typically we also raise the power limit to the maximum and where possible raise the voltages if this results in higher overclocks being achieved. We always aim for “24/7” stable overclocks that DO NOT result in potential heat on longevity issues so if we do raise the voltage it is still kept within safe parameters. The latest beta version of MSI’s Afterburner software is the overclocking utility of choice: this is because MSI Afterburner Beta versions typically allows you to circumvent overclocking restrictions – particularly those set by AMD.

HIS Digital really push overclocking as one of the main features of this card and we can see why. Compared to the XFX version we tested that topped out at 1165 MHz core and 1300 MHz memory, this unit managed to go an extra 70 MHz further on the core and 100 MHz further on the memory. The end result was that we saw a 15-20% gain in performance depending on the application – this makes the overclocked HIS R7 250 iCooler Boost clock roughly the same as the KFA2 GTX 650 EX OC at stock speeds.