The Radeon R7 240 from Asus sits roughly on a par with the MSI GT 730. Both cards cost more or less the same, and both deliver some excellent visuals considering they're classed as entry-level hardware.
The Asus R7 240 was released early last year and is based on the Oland Pro graphics processor from AMD. It uses the same GPU as the HD 8670, which itself was an unlocked version, but in this case, some of the shading units have been disabled, bringing the total to 320.
The GPU clock speed runs at 730MHz, with a boost clock speed of 780MHz and memory clock at 900MHz (1800MHz effectively). There are 20 texture mapping units, five compute units and a TDP of 30W, meaning no external power source is required.
This is a low-profile card, which is quite a surprise after using the similarly powered MSI GT 730 in the previous test. You still get HDMI, VGA and DVI video outputs, along with a low-profile backplate, and it's easy to fit into most compact HTPC type cases, thanks to its slim profile heatsink and 37mm fan.
As with the MSI card, the Asus R7 240 features some higher-quality components than you would normally find on a lower-end card. There are solid capacitors, a dust-proof fan and a GPU tweaking utility to help get the best performance from the card. All this, of course, adds up to make a decent package and one that we're happy to say doesn't suffer from the common misconception that AMD cards are far more underpowered compared to their Nvidia counterparts.
The Asus R7 240 managed a handsome 3DMark score of 2400, nearly 900 points more than the GT 730. While it may not sound like a huge step, it does mean that gaming on this card is slightly better, and you could most likely get away with playing more recent games at a medium setting and lower resolution.
Likewise, standard desktop duties, as well as photo and video editing, were a breeze for this card. Plus it's worth mentioning that thanks to the low-profile design, there's more scope for a better media centre or PC living room entertainment machine if you take into account the reasonable level of gaming you could squeeze out of the card.
There's a lot going on with the Asus R7 240 that we like. It's slim enough to be a valuable addition to a HTPC, it can handle some modern gaming, and it’s also a neat and quiet package. We also like the fact that it costs just £59.99, which is only £5 more than the GT 730.
In the end, it all boils down to whether you prefer Nvidia over AMD. On paper, they're pretty much the same, and if we haven't tested them, we would, admittedly, have thought the GT 730 would come out on top. We were wrong, however, and it just goes to prove that you can have decent graphical power from a low-profile card.