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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Smartgent - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
The card is watercooled!! not aircooled like Nividia chose to do with their 500W TitanZ. Ishould run very quiet, and should not affect your internal temps much, as long as you mount the radiator externally to your case.Ian Cutress - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
It's a shame they're not making a version with a larger liquid cooler. Would like to see it with a 2x120 CLC and an overclock.jtd871 - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
This card should have just been released with a full-cover block and let the enthusiasts/3rd-parties use whatever custom cooling they like.Rambon3 - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Great article. I wish I had a spare grand and a half to replace my 7970 CF set up. BTW It looks like you have an extra GPU Load temp chart on Page 17 where the Load noise chart should be positioned.randomhkkid - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
I may have missed it in the article but I don't think you mentioned whether or not it would be possible to add an additional fan on that asutek cooler? This would surely bring down stock temperatures (albeit increase the noise) if one was thinking about overclocking further.Ryan Smith - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Yes, it's possible. You would need to come up with a matching fan and the screws to mount it, but there's nothing from a hardware perspective keeping you from mounting a second fan for push-pull. I don't know if it's easily visible in our pictures, but the fan power connector is exposed mid-way along the cable run, so you can split it there to get a second fan power header.mpdugas - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
push-pull, perhaps?Gunbuster - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
The perfect card for high resolution multi monitor rigs, oh wait frame pacing is still broken. Don't worry, just send in your $1500 and they'll fix it sometime in 2015 (maybe)JDG1980 - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Pay closer attention to the article. Frame pacing is still imperfect *on the old 7990*, not on the R9 295X2. It works fine on GCN 1.1 cards (290/290X/295X2) due to the new XDMA engine.Admittedly, it was odd for them to throw in some 7990 bashing in the review of a new card, so I can understand the confusion.
Mondozai - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Why are you asking people to pay attention to articles they are commenting on?This is the internet.