Lately there's been a lot of excitement around value video cards. Part of it is due to the simple fact that for low resolution gaming, you can generally approximate the experience of a modern game console with fairly low end hardware. 

Late last year AMD announced its Radeon R7 250, an Oland based part priced at $89 for the value discrete market. The R7 250 also serves as an interesting Dual Graphics/CrossFire option for Kaveri users looking to increase the performance of their processor graphics (we'll have a look at this later this month).

AMD wants to give a bunch of these R7 250s away to users who can really use them. This week we're giving away three Radeon R7 250s from ASUS to three lucky readers.

Here's the deal. To enter, simply post a comment below (US residents only, please only make a single post, contest requirements below) explaining your current PC setup and why you want, or need to win a Radeon R7 250. What I'm looking for here is an understanding of what your current system configuration is, why the Radeon R7 250 matters you and how you'd use it. Make your entries good as they may come in handy for some other stuff we've got planned in the future. If your entry from last time still applies, feel free to re-use it.

If you win, AMD wants your feedback on the GPU after you get it. You'll be asked to provide a short review (a paragraph or two, or video if you'd like) talking about your experience with the card. Do a good job and your feedback may even be featured on AnandTech.

AMD Radeon R7 250 Specifications
  AMD Radeon R7 250
Stream Processors 384
Texture Units 24
ROPs 8
Core Clock 1000MHz
Boost Clock 1050MHz
Memory Clock 4.6GHz GDDR5
Memory Bus Width 128-bit
VRAM 1GB
FP64 1/16
TrueAudio N
Transistor Count N/A
Typical Board Power 65W
Manufacturing Process TSMC 28nm
Architecture GCN 1.0
GPU Oland
Launch Date 10/11/13
Launch Price $89

 

Entries will be accepted from 9:00 AM ET on 2/20/2014 through 9:00 AM ET on 2/27/2014. We will draw 3 winner(s) who will be selected by 3/1/2014.

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  • campbbri - Thursday, February 20, 2014 - link

    I currently use a home-built PC with a Core i7 920 CPU, 12MB RAM, and a fanless Radeon 6450 powering a 30" ZR30W monitor at 2560x1600. I'm planning to upgrade to a lower-power PC soon.

    I use my current PC for heavy photo editing, HD video (including over-the-air TV through a TV tuner), and some older games such as Portal 2 and Starcraft 2.

    Although the 6450 is a great little card, it's sometimes inadequate for my large monitor. Besides requiring low settings in games, resizing video windows or playing Blu-Ray movies at 2560x1600 can cause the card to stutter.

    If I was given an R7 250 I would see how it improves the computing experience of my current PC. In addition, when I upgrade to an Intel (sorry) Haswell or Broadwell chip I would review it as a cheap upgrade to their integrated graphics.
  • stab244 - Thursday, February 20, 2014 - link

    I'm planning on building a system soon. Deciding on how much I want to spend, but with this, I can make a small ITX system that I can use to play games on my TV when I want or I can use as a desktop for general tasks like web browsing and some League of Legends.
  • Hubb1e - Thursday, February 20, 2014 - link

    Hello, I taught my brother in law how to build a computer from my spare parts. It's currently an Athlon X3 2.9ghz with 4ghz of RAM and a 4670 graphics card. He's been struggling in and out of school and with depression so I wanted to get him some valuable experience that he could actually apply so I gave him these parts if he would learn to build the system. He built it and enjoyed the process and now I've managed to get him into computer science classes at the junior college. This GPU would go into his rig. He enjoys some MMOs and other online games where he can interact with people online as he doesn't really have any friends in real life due to his depression.
  • zerotool - Thursday, February 20, 2014 - link

    Sign me up
  • bogusdd - Thursday, February 20, 2014 - link

    I'm currently working to get my girlfriend interested in computers and to that end have been showing her how to assemble one based on old parts my brother and I had in my mom's attic. This has left us with an 8800gt that is too big for the only case available so we have had to jerry rig it into the system by removing all the hard drive cases. Looking at this card it seems to be a more likely fit for the system and could hopefully see her actually finish the project.
  • Mazinga - Thursday, February 20, 2014 - link

    In 4 One
  • fokka - Thursday, February 20, 2014 - link

    Well, I've got an ancient system here which I just "upgraded" from the famous Pentium D 805 to a more efficient Core2Duo E4300 i got off eBay for a cool 10 bucks.

    The graphics side of this thing always sucked. At first i wanted to go with chipset graphics, which was a laughably bad VIA chip. Seeing this thing not being able to even push a cheap 900p display, i also "upgraded" this part to an insanely powerful GeForce 7100GS. Yes.
    While this card is at least able to drive my display at native resolution, watching even SD-Youtube videos fullscreen is the anti-thesis to a fluid experience. I won't even mention gaming. There is no gaming.

    I've been thinking about upgrading the graphics for years, but in the end i've always been too cheap to invest another 50 bucks for another bad GPU.

    With a new R7 250 all my Youtube worries would be solved in an instant and even light gaming would be in the realm of possibilities. For sure, this card would be a godsend for an aging system like mine.
  • esoterikos13 - Thursday, February 20, 2014 - link

    the girlfriend needs a new graphics card
  • PCR - Thursday, February 20, 2014 - link

    I just finished building a HTPC using a A10-7700K Kaveri, with a MSI A88XM-E45 motherboard and 8 GB RAM. For the most part Kaveri's GPU does a decent job for everyday HTPC use scenarios. However, I run into a bit of trouble when I use some of the advanced features in madVR. I was thinking of supplementing the system with a dedicated R7 GPU utilizing the CrossFire functionality.

    On the plus side this could turn into a HPTC/Gaming machine with CrossFire enabled, so lets hope I win this thing so I don't have to buy the GPU!
  • Kaisenn09 - Thursday, February 20, 2014 - link

    I am building a HTPC for downstairs, looking for an ITX setup with low power/heat/noise. A video card like this that I can run just off the PCIe power and no big blower works great for just watching movies and playing couch coop games off steam like Dungeon Defenders or Tomb Raider Guardian of Light. This would give me a great excuse to spend a little extra for an A10-7800 or 7850K too.

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