14 DAY TRIAL // Low-profile graphics cards don't necessarily have to be weak, since tech companies have become quite good at miniaturization. Still, the Sapphire R7 240 Low Profile is definitely among the weakest out there.
Only because the R7 series is supposed to be such, though. In truth, even the low-end graphics adapters of today are a bit too powerful by normal standards.
But true low-end cards can't really exist anymore, or they could but nothing would come of them because they would not sell.
After all, all central processing units from Intel (CPUs) and accelerated processing units from AMD (APUs) have their own integrated GPUs.
So the Radeon R7 240 graphics card is a low-end only in name. Had this been like ten years ago, it would have been a mid-range card. Barely, but still mid-range.
That said, the card is still made for HTPCs (home-theater personal computers) and has a half-size PCB, since it's a low-profile design.
That means that the GPU, with its 320 GCN stream processors (graphics core next) and 730 MHz clock fits (780 MHz in dynamic overclock mode), along with the 2 GB of DDR3 VRAM (1.8 GHz), on a very narrow strip of metal.
AMD image enhancement technology, AMD HD Media Accelerator, and AMD HD3D are all supported. All GCN-based GPUs support them after all.
Also, the adapter has two HDMI outputs both with support for HDMI 1.4a streaming, including high speed transfer and full 4K display resolution of 4096 x 2160.
Since normal monitors and TVs with 4K support have 3840 x 2160 pixels resolution, that's more than enough. Other features include AMD CrossFire and APP acceleration support.
Don't expect to be able to play high-graphics games though. They're not the same as running a film. You'll need a stronger video board for those, from the AMD R9 series of NVIDIA's GeForce GTX line.
As for cooling, the Sapphire Radeon R7 240 Low Profile has a single-slot, fan-assisted heatsink, which means it's also half as thick as normal.
The newcomer should do well in entertainment tasks, as well as mild video encoding and decoding, compression and multiplexing for media distribution, video conferencing, etc.
The price shouldn't be much higher than the standard $90 / €90, although the sleek cooler and the rest of the finishing touches might add a few bucks on top of the final sum. It still shouldn't reach a hundred though, which is essential for a low-end PC part.
