MSI R7 370 Gaming 4G

MSI R7 370 Gaming 4G Review – Welcome to AMD’s latest budget graphics card, the R7 370. It might sound like a new product thanks to the flashy new title, but in reality it’s actually a rebadged version of an older graphics card that was a rebadged version of an older graphics card!

The Pitcairn processor used in this product was originally released as the Radeon HD 7850, and then re-released as the R90 265, with a few minor adjustments along the way. It now has 1280 Stream Processors compared to the prior two products’ 1024, while the Texture Units have also slightly increased, from 64 up to 80. It comes with just 2GB of onboard GDDR5 memory over a 256-bit memory bus, while the GPU itself is stuck using AMD’s old GCN 1.0 design. This means it doesn’t support hardware video acceleration over 1080p, nor AMD’s FreeSync technology.

The default base speed of this card is 900MHz, but MSI has increased it to 1020MHz in OC mode, while the Boost clock increases from the default of 925 MHz up to 1070MHz. Don’t expect to get much more out of it, as this old GPU design has been pushed pretty far already. The one benefit of using such an old GPU design is that it’s got a low TDP, and when combined with MSI’s excellent cooler delivered the quietest experience of all of our graphics cards.

Unfortunately the performance simply isn’t up to snuff considering the price. At just $30 more the Gainward GTX 960 offers a much better budget buy.

Pros

• Very quiet
• Cheap price ($269)

Cons

• Resoundingly beat by the GTX 960

MSI R7 370 Gaming 4G Specifications

• Graphics Processing Unit AMD Radeon™ R7 370
• Interface PCI Express x16 3.0
• Boost / Base Core Clock
  1070 MHz / 1020 MHz (OC Mode)
  1030 MHz / 980 MHz (Gaming Mode)
  975 MHz / 925 MHz (Silent Mode)
• Memory Size (MB) 4096
• Memory Type GDDR5
• Memory Interface 256 bits
• Memory Clock Speed (MHz) 5700 (OC Mode) / 5600
• DVI Connectors
  2 (Dual-link DVI-I x 1, Dual-link DVI-D x 1), Max Resolution: 2560 x 1600 @60 Hz.
• HDMI Connectors 1 (version 1.4a)
  Max Resolution: 4096×2160 @24 Hz (1.4a)
• DisplayPort 1 (version 1.2)
  Max Resolution: 4096×2160 @60 Hz
• Maximum Displays 3
• HDCP Support Y
• RAMDAC speed (MHz) 400
• DirectX Version Support 12
• OpenGL Version Support 4.4
• Multi-GPU Technology CrossFire™
• Card Dimension(mm) 258x 132 x 37
• Card Weight (g) 632
• Power consumption (W) 110
• Power Connectors 6-pin x1
• Accessories
  DVI to VGA Dongle x 1
• Product page : http://www.msi.com/product/vga/R7-370-GAMING-4G.html#hero-overview