The AMD Radeon R9 295X2 Review
by Ryan Smith on April 8, 2014 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- Radeon
- Radeon 200
The Test
Starting with today’s article we’ve made a small change to our suite of games. We are replacing our last 2012 game, Hitman: Absolution with another Square Enix title: the recently released Thief. Both games make use of many of the same graphical features, and both games include a built-in benchmark that is a good approximation of what a worst case rendering load in the game will behave like, making Thief a solid replacement for the older Hitman.
Meanwhile we’ve also updated all of our benchmark results to reflect the latest drivers from AMD and NVIDIA. For all AMD cards we are using AMD’s R9 295X2 launch drivers, Catalyst 14.4. Catalyst 14.4 appears to be a new branch of AMD’s drivers, given the version number 14.100, however we have found very few performance changes in our tests.
As for NVIDIA cards, we’re using the just-launched 337.50 drivers. These drivers contain a collection of performance improvements for NVIDIA cards and coincidentally come at just the right time for NVIDIA to counter AMD’s latest product launch.
We also need to quickly note that because AMD’s Radeon R9 295X2 uses an external 120mm radiator, we’ve had to modify our testbed to house the card. For our R9 295X2 tests we have pulled our testbed’s rear 140mm fan and replaced it with the R9 295X2 radiator. All other tests have the 140mm fan installed as normal.
| CPU: | Intel Core i7-4960X @ 4.2GHz |
| Motherboard: | ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Professional |
| Power Supply: | Corsair AX1200i |
| Hard Disk: | Samsung SSD 840 EVO (750GB) |
| Memory: | G.Skill RipjawZ DDR3-1866 4 x 8GB (9-10-9-26) |
| Case: | NZXT Phantom 630 Windowed Edition |
| Monitor: | Asus PQ321 |
| Video Cards: |
AMD Radeon R9 295X2 AMD Radeon R9 290X AMD Radeon R9 290 AMD Radeon HD 7990 AMD Radeon HD 6990 NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan Black NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 Ti NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 590 |
| Video Drivers: |
NVIDIA Release 337.50 Beta AMD Catalyst 14.4 Beta |
| OS: | Windows 8.1 Pro |
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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