The AMD Radeon R9 295X2 Review
by Ryan Smith on April 8, 2014 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- Radeon
- Radeon 200
Total War: Rome 2
The second strategy game in our benchmark suite, Total War: Rome 2 is the latest game in the Total War franchise. Total War games have traditionally been a mix of CPU and GPU bottlenecks, so it takes a good system on both ends of the equation to do well here. In this case the game comes with a built-in benchmark that plays out over a forested area with a large number of units, definitely stressing the GPU in particular.
For this game in particular we’ve also gone and turned down the shadows to medium. Rome’s shadows are extremely CPU intensive (as opposed to GPU intensive), so this keeps us from CPU bottlenecking nearly as easily.
For the moment we are including Total War: Rome II as a “freebie” in this review, as neither AMD nor NVIDIA is able to properly render this game. A recent patch for the game made it AFR friendly, unlocking multi-GPU scaling that hasn’t been available for the several months prior. However due to what’s presumably an outstanding bug in the game, when using CF/SLI we’re seeing different rendering artifacts on both AMD and NVIDIA cards.
Given the nature of the artifacting we suspect that performance will remain roughly the same once the problem is resolved, in which case the 295X2 will hold a small but significant lead, but there is no way to know for sure until the rendering issue is corrected. In the meantime this is progress for all multi-GPU cards, even if the game’s developers don’t have it perfected quite yet.
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Gizmosis350k - Sunday, May 4, 2014 - link
A CPU block you mean?C4$hFlo - Monday, May 12, 2014 - link
Emphasis on "moderately good". Years of operation will require maintenance on any LC solution. Moderately priced solutions such as Thermaltake don't hold up as well, the liquid gets discolored, tubing cooks and becomes brittle, pumps fail etc... Liquid cooling isn't something to do on the cheap.Saifur - Monday, December 8, 2014 - link
Hello , can someone please advice , i have 4930 K , OC to 4.3 Ghz , 16 gig ram also OC ( slightly ) and i am planning on getting the r9 295x2 . Will the power supply i have be sufficient for this card ? This is my PSU - Cooler Master V850 - 850W . THanksC4$hFlo - Monday, May 12, 2014 - link
A pump, a reservoir, two waterblocks, a fan/pump controller and a plethora of connectors and tubing will probably end up costing the difference between an R9295X2 and two R290X water cooled. Remember, with the R9195X2 you get a free closed loop that requires no maintenance. After succesfully running dual HD6970s in a koolance loop for 3 years, I can say a free closed loop is a great selling point for me.RoboJ1M - Friday, May 2, 2014 - link
It'll be interesting when a card like this does not have 2xGPU + 2x4GB but 2xGPU + 8GBEventually I guess we'll see the results of the HSA push trickle down (up?) to performance parts like this.
Hey, maybe we'll see a 4xGPU + 16GB...
AMDisDead - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Almost faster than 780 Ti SLI and draws hundrets more W. AMD lunatics in full glory.willis936 - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
A dual GPU is arguably worth the extra 100W compared to the drawbacks of SLI in pretty much every use case. The deciding factor is upfront cost.Guspaz - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Dual GPU (from either company) has all the same limitations/drawbacks of SLI/Crossfire. It's literally the same thing.lehtv - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
No, they don't have the same limitations. Since you don't have to populate two PCIe slots, you can install the 295X2 onto a microATX or ITX motherboard and case, or just use it in a regular ATX board that doesn't support x8/x8. For some, it could also matter to not have to populate a second PCIe slot and use additional PSU cables, even if their motherboard and PSU fully supported crossfire 290X. The ability to use only one PCIe slot has always been the primary selling point of any dual GPU card, ever.Musaab - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
If you want to pay 1500 $ for video card and 2000+ for 4K monitor and 200+ for power supply then you are the one who pay 1500$ on core i 7 4960x with ROG X79. why should you think about 8x/8x motherboard lanes don't forget 32 GB 2400+ DDR 3 and two extra fast ssd . friend you needn't a case you need a cabinet