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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extide - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Did you misread the article? They are simply comparing the frame pacing on the old stuff to the new stuff. Unfortunately, most people are too stupid to properly comprehend english, which is pretty damn sad if you ask me. Thus, a lot of people are either mistakenly thinking that this card has bad frame pacing, or that this review had anything to do with the frame pacing updates for GCN 1.0. NEITHER of those things are the case!JDG1980 - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
These two different things really shouldn't have been in the same article. It's confusing, unfocused, and comes off as taking cheap shots at AMD over an old product. Let's be honest, there weren't many 7990s sold in the first place, and anyone who bought one for gaming and was disappointed with it could have resold it during the mining craze and at least broken even, if not actually turning a profit. A review of a new product isn't the best place to say "Old product X is still not perfect".srsbsns - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Are the Battlefield 4 benchmarks using mantle or directx?Ryan Smith - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Direct3D.Blitzninjasensei - Saturday, July 12, 2014 - link
Ryan, would you be able to do a comparison with Mantle as well as D3D? I would like to see how much the benefit is.iamkyle - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
So...they're taking the Prescott approach to performance?"Bigger!!! Faster!!! Hotter!!!"
Sounds like some Core2 Duo-type innovation is needed by AMD here to get temps and power down to a reasonable level here.
Mondozai - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Temperatures are out of control?Can you even read a basic chart or is that too much for your tiny little head to handle?
Da W - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Great EVGA GTX 780 superclocked to sell!Reason: bought too soon, i want this dual GPU bitch!
TheinsanegamerN - Friday, April 11, 2014 - link
I'll buy it. my 550ti is getting a little long in the toothMondozai - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Basically, for a few hundred dollars you are paying a premium on noise and GPU load compared to 2 R9-290X in Crossfire.While this card has a frame pacing improvement that is massive compared to 7990, it still trails 780 Ti in SLI. Although the 780 Ti is painfully gimped on 4K resolutions due to VRAM bottlenecks.
Maxwell's high-end cards in SLI is going to be beastly, since Nvidia is finally going to resolve the VRAM issue.