The AMD Radeon R9 295X2 Review
by Ryan Smith on April 8, 2014 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- GPUs
- AMD
- Radeon
- Radeon 200
Thief
Our newest addition to our benchmark suite is Eidos Monreal’s stealth action game, Thief. Set amidst a Victorian-era fantasy environment, Thief is an Unreal Engine 3 based title which makes use of a number of supplementary Direct3D 11 effects, including tessellation and advanced lighting. Adding further quality to the game on its highest settings is support for SSAA, which can eliminate most forms of aliasing while bringing even the most powerful video cards to their knees.
Our first major review with Thief finds AMD taking a small lead at 2160p, with NVIDIA returning the favor at 1440p. In the case of 1440p both the AMD and NVIDIA setups are able to deliver well over 60fps (despite the heavy use of SSAA at this setting), while at 2160p even the 295X2 falls just a hair short of cracking 60fps even with the slightly lower quality settings.
Meanwhile when it comes to minimum framerates, while AMD and NVIDIA are close together at 1440p and 2160p with Low quality settings, moving to 2160p with High quality settings pretty much busts the NVIDIA SLI setup. It’s difficult to say for sure on the basis of a single SLI setup, but it looks like the memory requirements at these settings may be overwhelming the 3GB NVIDIA cards, especially in light of the GTX Titan Black’s unusual performance lead over the GTX 780 Ti. The additional buffer handling for SLI further eats into the pool of memory available for these cards, which in turn further hamstrings performance.
On the other hand, other than the GTX 780 SLI’s initial bottoming out in this benchmark, NVIDIA does deliver stronger frame pacing performance. In both cases the 295X2 delivers acceptable consistency, staying under 20% variance, but it’s still a wider degree of variance than what we’re seeing with the GTX 780 Ti SLI setup.
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CiccioB - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Well, not, not exactly. One thing is not being PCI compliant, and that's a thing I can understand. Another thing is going beyond connectors electrical power specifications. If they put 3 connectors I would have not had any problem. But as it is they are forcing components specifications, not simple indications rules on maximum size and power draw.meowmanjack - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
If you look at the datasheet for the power connector (I'm guessing on the part number but the Molex part linked below should at least be similar enough), each pin is rated for 23 A and the housing can support a full load on each pin. Even if only 3 pairs are passing current, the connector can deliver over 800W at 12V.The limiting factor for how much power can be drawn from that connector is going to be the copper width and thickness on the PCB. If AMD designed the board to carry ~20 A (which the presumably have) off each connector it won't cause a problem.
meowmanjack - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Oops, forgot the datasheethttp://www.molex.com/molex/products/datasheet.jsp?...
behrouz - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Thanks For Link,Finally My Doubts were Resolved.Ian Cutress - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Most of the power will be coming from the PCIe power connectors, not the lane itself. If you have 5/6/7 in a single system, then yes you might start to see issues without the appropriate motherboard power connectors.dishayu - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
I'm yet to read the review but FIVE HUNDRED WATTS? WOW!Pbryanw - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
I'd be more impressed if it drew 1.21 Jigawatts!! :)krazyfrog - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
On the second last page, the second last chart is of load GPU temperature when it should be load load noise levels.piroroadkill - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
Reasonable load noise and temps, high performance. Nice.You'll want to get the most efficient PSU you can get your mitts on, though.
Also, I would seriously consider a system that is kicking out 600 Watts of heat to be something you wouldn't want in the same room as you. Your AC will work overtime, or you'll be sweating your ass off.
A GPU for Siberia! But then, that's not really a downside as such, just a side effect of having a ridiculous amount of power pushing at the edges of this process node.
Mondozai - Tuesday, April 8, 2014 - link
"Reasonable noise and temps"? It is shockingly quiet during load for a dual GPU card. And it has incredibly low GPU temps, too.As for heat, not really, only if you have a badly ventilated room in general or live in a warm climate.