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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Dupl3xxx - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
$2k+ for a 4k screen? where are you wasing your money? In norway, you can get a 4k screen for just about 5kNOK, or just about 850USD, including tax! also, why would you need a $1500 CPU, whene the 4930k is 200MHz slower, for half the price?Also, WHY would you want 32GB of 2400MHz ram!?!?!?! There is next to no improvement over 1600MHz!
As far as SSD's goes, a single samsung 250/500GB should be plenty, you got 32GB of ram to use as buffer!
And if you want a "tight" system with insane preformance, the 295x2 is the best choice ATM. Double the 290x preformance, "half" the size.
lehtv - Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - link
Another difference is the way this card handles heat compared to any 290X CF setup apart from custom water cooling. The CLLC combines the benefits of reference GPUs - the ability to exhaust hot air externally rather than into the case - with the benefits of third party cooling - the ability to keep temperatures and noise levels lower than those of reference blower cards. A 290X crossfire setup using reference cooling is not even worth considering for anyone who cares about noise output, while third party 290X crossfire is restricted to cases with enough cooling capacity to handle the heat.Supersonic494 - Friday, April 11, 2014 - link
You are right, but keep in mind on big limitation with normal crossfire/SLI is the space taken up by 2 big dual slot GPUs, with this it is only one slot; however other than that you might as well get 2 290x'sbj_murphy - Friday, April 11, 2014 - link
Dual GPU doesn't have the requirement for 2 PCI-E slots; you can't do SLI/Crossfire in a Mini-ITX system for example.HalloweenJack - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
muppet - 20w more in furmark , and 160 in games - not hundreds more. keep drinking the ananadtech koolaid.WaltC - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Interesting. [H] seems to have done some pretty thorough testing, and the AMD card blows by 780Ti SLI in every single case. Of course, [H] is testing @ 4k resolutions/3-way Eyefinity exclusively--but that's where anyone who shells out this kind of money is going to be. 1080P? Don't make me laugh...;)WaltC - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Can't edit, so I'll just say I don't know where "1080P" came from...;)lwooood - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Apologies for going slightly OT. Is there any indication when AMD fills in the middle of their product stack with GCN 1.1 parts?sascha - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
I like to know that, too!MrSpadge - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
I would say that indication is 20 nm chips, at the end of the year the earliest.