The AMD Radeon R9 295X2 Review
by Ryan Smith on April 8, 2014 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- Radeon
- Radeon 200
Battlefield 4
Our current major multiplayer action game of our benchmark suite is Battlefield 4, DICE’s 2013 multiplayer military shooter. After a rocky start, Battlefield 4 has finally reached a point where it’s stable enough for benchmark use, giving us the ability to profile one of the most popular and strenuous shooters out there. As these benchmarks are from single player mode, based on our experiences our rule of thumb here is that multiplayer framerates will dip to half our single player framerates, which means a card needs to be able to average at least 60fps if it’s to be able to hold up in multiplayer.
As is the case in a few of our other games, whether it’s AMD who’s winning or NVIDIA who’s winning depends on the resolution. At 2160p with Ultra settings (and no MSAA) it’s AMD on top, with the 295X2 capable of delivering 68fps. This is safely past the 60fps threshold needed to ensure that minimum framerates don’t drop below 30fps in multiplayer. Otherwise at 1440p the NVIDIA GTX 780 Ti SLI setup pulls ahead, however the 295X2 is right on its tail.
In the meantime this game is also a good example of just how much faster than the 7990 the 295X2 is, despite the fact that both products are based on high-end (for their time) 28nm GPUs. The 295X2 ends up being over 40% faster at both 2160p and 1440p, showing just how far AMD has come in single card dual-GPU performance in the last year.
Shifting to our delta percentage benchmarks, we once more find that the 295X2 has no problem staying within the 20% threshold needed for smooth frame pacing. Though overall NVIDIA does hold an edge, especially at 1440p.
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Samus - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Very pretty cooler.slickr - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Is it me or is pricing on graphic cards INSANE? $1500 for this and then $3000 for Titan Z? I mean give me a break, I'd buy a freaking car with that money.stefpats - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
my question is: is there going to be a GTX 790 or that plan is gone? i would like to compare similar things,and then decide what i m replacing 690 with.I ve waited long enough it's time for an upgrade.TheinsanegamerN - Friday, April 11, 2014 - link
My guess, no. They will have the 890, skipping over the 790 completely. 20nm and maxwell will make for a much more interesting dual GPUekagori - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
I like what AMD has done here, paying more attention to the high end packaging is good to see. Hopefully this trickles down to the next generation on 20nm. Considering how far AMD has been behind NVidia in terms of power consumption, seeing this card average under 500W at full load is pretty good. That's under 250W per chip, pretty close to what a 780ti does. You pay a slight premium for the better case and clc and still better than what NVidia wants for the Z.HammerStrike - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Shame there is still no HDMI 2.0 support on any consumer GPU's, including this one. Given that this is arround $250 more then two custom cooled 290X's with similar noise profiles it doesn't make much sense (at least to me) in standard or full size cases, but would be an interesting choice for a HTPC. Card is overkill for 1080p, but with new 4K TV's coming out that support HDMI 2.0 this would have made sense for that. As it is, while I can appreciate the design and performance, I don't see the value prop vs a couple of individual 290x's in CF.TinHat - Friday, April 11, 2014 - link
Can you not just use Displayport like everyone else? I believe its got far superior resolution support and because its loyalty free to produce, its cheaper too!Camel51 - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
What is the static pressure of the 120mm fan? Is it easily replaceable? I'm wondering if it would make sense to replace it with an SP120 HP edition, a Noctua, or any other high static pressure/low noise fan (even if it would require modding it in by cutting wires).The review was excellent. Very informative and interesting. Took me a whole hour to read. Haha. I just wish the card was short enough to fit in the Obsidian 250D. Now for the Ares III!
Ryan Smith - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
I don't have any information on the static pressure, but the fan is easily replaceable. It's just a standard 120mm fan; so any other 2pin/3pin 120mm fan should work.henrikfm - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
Does it make coffee?