Low FPS despite meeting recommended specs?

The only way to know if the performance is out of the ordinary is if you post what settings the game runs on (including resolution), what framerate you have exactly, and what the exact model of that GPU is. The slowest R9 200 card is the R9 270, which does meet the recommended requirements, but I know from experience that recommended doesn't mean highest settings at 60fps in this game. I used to run the game on a Radeon R9 270X and couldn't handle the highest settings at an acceptable framerate. Even now that I have an R9 390 I get framedrops now and then (mostly it's 60fps though).

To improve performance, disable all overlay programs. For instance: Raptr, Fraps, and even Origin's in-game overlay (which you can disable in the Origin preferences). I also advise disabling unnecessary startup processes and restarting the PC.

I'm running a R9 290X and an AMD FX-8320. I'd love to tell you what settings the game are set to/what frames I get, but now it's moved on to crashing to desktop during loading into the game. I've reinstalled it twice, restarted my computer, checked (again) that my drivers are up to date. Installed the DirectX version included with the game. Fiddled with the in-game audio settings. Reduced quality settings. Origin in-game is off. No overlays. No background processes.  Nothing fixed it. I start the game, click continue, it loads for a bit, and crashes.  Just CTD after CTD.

Never had to jump through so many hoops to play a game.

Was your last graphics driver installation a clean install? If not, install DDU and make sure all graphics drivers are wiped before you install the latest version.

Also, make sure Mantle is disabled.

Reinstalling the game should never be necessary because Origin has a repair function. This sometimes fixes problems that even a reinstall can't fix, so right click the game and select 'repair game' just in case.

Finally, in the AMD control panel, change your shader cache setting.