AMD Radeon R9 295X2 8 GB

[W1zzard]

Today, AMD is launching their Radeon R9 295X2, a dual-GPU card based on two fully unlocked, fully clocked Hawaii graphics processors. As a result, the card delivers impressive numbers in 4K and EyeFinity. But with a price of $1500, it is certainly not cheap, no matter how you look at it.

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[Fluffmeister]

Impressive performance, but I just couldn't entertain that sort of power consumption.

 

[Xzibit]

The AMD Radeon™ R9 295X2 graphics card. It's too fast.

 

[W1zzard]

the real video you should watch instead of amd propaganda

 

[Ed_1]

what was used for load in the vid, the core clocks and voltage are all over the place , like 920 to 1000 .
Man those VRM are getting hot an I agree should of been 3x 8pin's .

 

[sweet]

Impressive performance, but I just couldn't entertain that sort of power consumption.

That power consumption is needed to power a pair of HawaiiXT at 1018 MHz, and it worth. This card beats SLI 780Ti, which are on the newest "wonder driver", that means it will destroy TitanZ to be the fastest single card.

 

[Sasqui]

What a monster! W1zzard, when you have the time (lol), it would be more than interesting to compare 290x in CF with newer drivers against this (and at higher resolutions) than the original review: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/R9_290X_CrossFire/

 

[msamelis]

^ lol at that video Xzibit, I haven't seen something so cheesy for a while.

Considering the card, I find it curious and interesting on one had on how the stock cooler is implemented but at the same, I find it a little ridiculous to have to go such lengths to keep the temperatures down. Let's not even talk about the price, I don't see the point at all. Then again, it has always been like this for over-the-top cards.

Edit: Thanks for the second video W1zzard, so the card/s doesn't run as hot but the VRMs are glowing hot while the whole thing is very loud.. That's a little disappointing.

 

[W1zzard]

what was used for load in the vid, the core clocks and voltage are all over the place , like 920 to 1000 .

not furmark, but something that mimics the peak load of the most demanding games

 

[sweet]

What a monster! W1zzard, when you have the time (lol), it would be more than interesting to compare 290x in CF with newer drivers against this (and at higher resolutions) than the original review: http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/AMD/R9_290X_CrossFire/

You can find it here. 295x2 is faster than CF 290x
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-295x2-review-benchmark-performance,3799-17.html

 

[darkangel0504]

a monster card

 

[Fluffmeister]

That power consumption is needed to power a pair of HawaiiXT at 1018 MHz, and it worth. This card beats SLI 780Ti, which are on the newest "wonder driver", that means it will destroy TitanZ to be the fastest single card.

I don't disagree, but that doesn't change the fact it's far too juicy for me.

As for the 337.50 driver update:

http://www.guru3d.com/articles_pages/amd_radeon_r9_295x2_review,29.html

 

[Overclocker_2001]

vrm and pci-e plug will die in less than 3 years
sure who will buy this card have no money problem to rebuy another powerfull card next year.. but.. if i get 25°C room temperature (35°C inside case) that vrm will throttle for sure.. or die in too little time
remind me x1950xtx and 8800ultra vrm skyhigh temperature (with tons of rma)

 

[Xzibit]

vrm and pci-e plug will die in less than 3 years
sure who will buy this card have no money problem to rebuy another powerfull card next year.. but.. if i get 25°C room temperature (35°C inside case) that vrm will throttle for sure.. or die in too little time
remind me x1950xtx and 8800ultra vrm skyhigh temperature (with tons of rma)

Who cares about the card.

I want that Haswell processor he was using that never hit 20C to even register in the FLIR

 

[W1zzard]

I want that Haswell processor he was using that never hit 20C to even register in the FLIR

and the fan was on the CPU heatsink was disconnected, too.

 

[LeonVolcove]

I dont know what else to say UNLESS that price seems too high

 

[Sasqui]

You can find it here. 295x2 is faster than CF 290x
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-295x2-review-benchmark-performance,3799-17.html

Eww, I feel violated! I just clicked on a TH link. Ick.

Seriously though, the few gaming benchmarks I see show them about neck and neck.

 

[THE_EGG]

omnomnom. This looks like a tasty video card. Too bad it is WAY out of budget for me haha. Nice thermal imaging part of the review too.

Although I will say that the lack of fan control is a little lame.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

That power consumption is needed to power a pair of HawaiiXT at 1018 MHz, and it worth. This card beats SLI 780Ti, which are on the newest "wonder driver", that means it will destroy TitanZ to be the fastest single card.

Do you have a source for this? "This card beats SLI 780Ti"
TPU does not have a review of Ti's in SLI and looking at anandtech's review, I see the 780Ti SLI and 295x2 trading places everywhere, game and resolution dependent.

 

[btarunr]

Do you have a source for this? "This card beats SLI 780Ti"
TPU does not have a review of Ti's in SLI and looking at anandtech's review, I see the 780Ti SLI and 295x2 trading places everywhere, game and resolution dependent.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7930/the-amd-radeon-r9-295x2-review

They also used 337.50 for NVIDIA. So even with the best driver, 780Ti SLI is slower than 295X2. Which means TITAN-Z will suck, especially at its $3000 price.

 

[ShurikN]

Do you have a source for this? "This card beats SLI 780Ti"
TPU does not have a review of Ti's in SLI and looking at anandtech's review, I see the 780Ti SLI and 295x2 trading places everywhere, game and resolution dependent.

If you bothered to open the guru3d link you would see that the 295 is faster than 780ti sli (with new driver) in 6 out of 8 games. Taking 4k res into consideration ofc.
Tom's showed it as well.

 

[Durvelle27]

omnomnom. This looks like a tasty video card. Too bad it is WAY out of budget for me haha. Nice thermal imaging part of the review too.

Although I will say that the lack of fan control is a little lame.

There will be soon as it's a driver limitation

 

[birdie]

An excellent review, thanks!

Finally with 4k.

I'm kinda confused that 780(ti) SLI and 290(x) crossfire results are missing in the charts. Hopefully you'll include them when reviewing titan z.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Uncompromised Philosophy
Uncompromised Power
Uncompromised Performance

Compromised Crossfire Performance - for lack of a better permanent fix (and better driver dev team)

---

They keep promising permanent fixes but the current one is still temporary, It still works though but its still like using a band aid in the place of stitches. you cant seal the wound without the proper tools/materials

 

[Xzibit]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7930/the-amd-radeon-r9-295x2-review

They also used 337.50 for NVIDIA. So even with the best driver, 780Ti SLI is slower than 295X2. Which means TITAN-Z will suck, especially at its $3000 price.

Over at [H]ardocp - AMD Radeon R9 295X2 Video Card Review they also tested with 337 and noticed this.

With the GeForce GTX 780 Ti we found the peak consistent clock speed on both GPUs went up to 1019MHz while gaming. This is higher than the boost clock on a GTX 780 Ti which is 928MHz. As we posted on the previous page, this seems slightly higher than we've tested in the past. Normally we've seen the GPU hit 1006MHz while gaming, but now it is at 1019MHz with this newest driver. We also noticed the temperature of the GPU was higher, at 87c, versus 84c on previous drivers. This higher temperature threshold has allowed the frequency to go higher, hence the 1019MHz. In any case, this means the GTX 780 Ti SLI configuration was providing us higher performance for this round of testing, so it definitely got to give us its best shot at stock performance without overclocking.

Seams the new 337 drivers might be uping the thermal threshold of Nvidia cards to run faster.