A Closer Look

AMD designed a complex heatsink base that covers all memory chips, the entire voltage regulation circuitry, and the PCI-Express bridge chip. You can also see the circular copper bases of both GPU watercooling blocks to the right and left.


Under the hood, we can clearly see the Asetek technology used. The large heatsink in the middle is used to cool the VRM circuitry.


The metal backplate cools the memory chips on the backside of the card. It comes with a cutout in its center for the VRM circuitry, which tends to get quite hot (100°C+).


Firmly attached to the blocks and without any accessible clamps or anything similar, the watercooling hoses very safe to use. It's almost impossible to rip them off the blocks or otherwise damage the thick rubber that's also quite resistant to kinking.


The card requires two 8-pin PCI-Express power connectors. This configuration would normally be good for up to 375 W of power draw. AMD, however, has chosen to trump those specifications and cites a minimum of 28A (=336 W) for each connector, which brings the total to around 750 W. I think AMD exaggerates a bit, but you had better be safe than sorry. In actual usage we see power draw peak at 650 W, which makes 25A per connector enough. Nevertheless, this configuration greatly exceeds the PCI-Express specifications, so you should not use a weak or poorly built PSU with this card.


Just like most of their other recent cards, AMD has equipped the R9 295X2 with a dual-BIOS feature that can be useful when it comes to recovering the video BIOS in case of a flashing failure. Both BIOSes are also exactly the same in their default configuration as there is no quiet/performance mode like on the R9 290X.


AMD is using two NCP81022 voltage controllers on the card, one for each GPU. This is the same controller as on Bonaire-based GPUs. Both Hawaii and Bonaire have a new capability as they can drive special voltage controllers faster than other GPUs, which means voltages can be adjusted more quickly and efficiently. Software voltage control should be possible, but is not supported by any software yet.


The PEX8747 48 lane PCI-Express Gen 3 Bridge chip is the latest in PLX's arsenal of PCIe bridge chip solutions. It is used to link the two GPUs and connects them to the rest of the system.


The GDDR5 memory chips are made by SKhynix and carry the model number H5GC2H24BFR-T2C. They are specified to run at 1250 MHz (5000 MHz GDDR5 effective).


AMD's Hawaii graphics processor uses the GCN shader architecture. It is produced on a 28 nm process at TSMC, Taiwan, with 6.2 billion transistors on a 438 mm² die.