HIS R7 260X iPower IceQ X² 2GB Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

As we mentioned at the beginning the HIS R7 260X iPower IceQ X² holds a $20 premium over base R7 260X models at $139.99. The worrying part is that the $20 premium is just for the 1GB model, we wonder if the 2GB model might fetch more. In the UK we find the card selling for around £95~100 which is again for the 1GB version. 1GB versions from other vendors can be had for as low £80-85 so I am not really impressed by the pricing of this card at all. The HIS R7 260X iPower IceQ X² comes with a 2 year warranty in the UK, Europe and North America.

Overview

This HIS card isn’t really anything special given current pricing. It doesn’t offer a particularly good value proposition, it doesn’t offer anything amazing in the way of features and it isn’t even overclocked. This card is better than a reference R7 260X in terms of cooling and noise output, but for $20 more it should be so that’s not much of an achievement. I see non-reference R7 260Xs, both 1GB and 2GB variants, that are cheaper and probably equally as good so from my perspective it is hard to recommend this card unless HIS lowers the price. HIS are a solid brand so this certainly isn’t me bashing this card or HIS in general – typically HIS produce incredibly cost-effective cards that overclock really well and offer excellent bang for your buck. However, this card only seems to have only the overclocking part. It is worth mentioning HIS have done an excellent job on temperatures – they are down 10-15 degrees celsius over the reference design. Furthermore, noise is also down 4-8 dBA depending on the type of load. So you get dramatically lower temperatures, significantly less noise and great overclocking potential. Yet none of those things really compensate for the fact you can get an R7 265 for just a fraction more, and the R7 265 is an immensely more powerful graphics card. This is a great R7 260X, it’s just too expensive.

Pros

• Very effective cooler
• Runs silently
• 1GB and 2GB options available
• Overclocks really well 

Cons

• Priced uncompetitively
• Not overclocked out of the box
• Availability is sparse 

“If you’re in the market for an R7 260x with an effective cooling solution, low noise and great overclocking potential then the HIS R7 260X iPower IceQ X² offers exactly that. This is a really nice card but it is priced too close to the R7 265 for my liking. When the price drops a bit I’d definitely consider buying.“

Thank you to HIS Digital for providing this review sample.