AMD has launched 2 new series of its Radeon graphics cards, the R7 and R9 lines, which are both based off of of AMD’s Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. The R9 range will continue the performance line of Radeon graphics cards while the R7 will target the entry level GPU buyer with some aggressive pricing.

The R7 range starts with the 240 and 250 models which along with not requiring an extra power connector to work come in at a menacingly low $69 (R690) and $89 (R890) each. Each of them offers a choice of either 1GB of GDDR5 or 2GB of DDR3 graphics RAM and are great cards for those aspiring to add some oomph to an HTPC (Home Theater PC) setup.

The most intriguing card of the R7 bunch has to be the R7 260X which at only $139 (R1390) offers performance levels far above where its price level would suggest. According to AMD’s performance figures the 260X, which wields 2GB of GDDR5 RAM, was able to easily best the Nvidia GTX 650Ti which itself is no slouch.

The R9 series begins with the $199 (R1990) 270X which is essentially a previous generation Radeon HD 7870 card with a 50MHz clock speed boost for the same price while the R9 280X takes the previous generation’s champion card the HD 7970 and knocks $100 off of its selling price to bring it in at only $299 (R2990).

We’ve reached out to AMD South Africa to find out when the cards will be available and at what price points, but from what we can see here already AMD may have just signalled their intention to take the GPU market by the horns.