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.
XFX’s R7 240 overclocked pretty well and through overclocking it manage to extend its lead further over the GT 630, which we also overclocked to its max. Compared to stock scores the overclock resulted in about 20% extra performance which is great news when it’s totally free.
After reading your review Ryan I’ve come to the conclusion I don’t like it as much as you, I would’ve taken XFX down a few more notches for having the cheek to print “The Ultimate Gaming Experience” on the box.
I agree, they definitely should have marketed it more towards the HTPC user. No one will ever buy this card for gaming because it is poor for gaming. This kind of card should come with single slot versions that have dual HDMI and single display port outputs (so it is capable of doing 4K playback). They should be sold as HTPC/Media playback cards.
What I wonder is how it fares compared to the passive Radeon 5550 I have. It’s a newer architecture and a little faster on the core clock (and a little lower power), but I wonder how this translates to performance.