Radeon R9 295X2 8 GB Review: Project Hydra Gets Liquid Cooling

[cangelini]

“Do you have what it takes?” AMD asks, purportedly referring to the big budget and beefy power supply you need before buying its new Radeon R9 295X2. We benchmark the 500 W, dual-GPU beast against several other high-end configs before declaring a winner.

Radeon R9 295X2 8 GB Review: Project Hydra Gets Liquid Cooling : Read more

 

[SVMreborn]

The pricing of this beast really impressed me.

 

[Marsian Gustrianda]

Many people doubt about Dual GPU Hawaii will be Blow Up. It seems AMD really do well job. Nice Looking Card

 

[ohim]

This card is like the Veyron of WV , show the world what you can do (R295x2) but you`ll still relay on the sales of your WV Golf for revenue (270x, 280x)

 

[ferooxidan]

Finally the review of this beast! Now continue reading

 

[outlw6669]

Impressive performance, temperatures and fairly low noise!
I would prefer a bit lower price, but this looks like a great card for the gamer that has everything!

 

[getochkn]

Surprised you didn't do a mining hashrate test on it to see what it can push out.

 

[gunfighter zeck]

the name Dreadnaught originated from Dread Nothing or, fear nothing.
Boss ship.

 

[Maxamus456]

Hope this price stays low and not get bloated from bit con miners like its predecessors.

 

[blubbey]

So let me get this straight. It runs pretty cool, quiet, performs well and (for the moment) is able to play a good selection of games at 4k admirably and is priced competitively. Plus if you are going to drop a bit more on watercooling your GPUs (which is a possibility if you're spending $1200+) that gives this card even greater value. Nice work AMD.

 

[marciocattini]

Wheres Tom's Hardware seal of approval? =( clearly this card diserves some love!

 

[spp85]

Sheeeer muscle power

 

[Plusthinking Iq]

this is what i want for all my high end gaming, but i would rather like to see aio water cooling only and a 140mm version that could go silent if needed, full cover water block like the tundra series is some of the best. but single card is the best like a 780ti cooled with a 140mm aio at 500rpm and quiet pump. MAKE IT HAPPEN!

 

[ferooxidan]

After reading the article my conclusion is: we need a beefier GPU next year for a truly comfortable 4K gaming experience. OMG games this day really take tolls on our rig. Some games only hit around 40-ish and some even down to 30-ish fps on 4K. Imagine next year AAA titles, even this beast will be tamed.

 

[Wisecracker]

Vesuvius erupts !! ... nice job, Toms.

Conspicuous by their absence are power, temp and noise numbers from the Green Team -- which likely means they got smoked (in a really good way) across the board by dual Hawaii.

 

[AMD Radeon]

good guy AMD

 

[tristangl]

ok that just prove that 4k gaming for the average joe is still not around the corner

 

[chuckydb]

I hope some OEM make the cooler with a double radiator. That card can be cooler and completely silent.

 

[JoeArchitect]

@marciocattini

"Wheres Tom's Hardware seal of approval..."

This is addressed in the conclusion of the article:

"We have an estimated price and an estimated date for availability. The past several launches were peppered by misses on both fronts, and we’ve learned our lesson about recommending gear before you can buy it."

 

[St0rm_KILL3r]

Well, at 1440p r9 295x2 = gtx 780ti sli. But at 3840x2160 it totally dominates every gpu. Wondering if gtx 790 will be able to keep up with it.

 

[ekagori]

I like what AMD has done, it's good to know they are making a better effort with high end parts. Hopefully all this goodness trickles down to the next generation 20nm consumer friendly products.

 

[Steveymoo]

I'm gonna get flamed for this, but AMD still have crossfire issues. A high framerate is cool and all, but micro stutter is still more annoying than a slightly lower fps. I tried Xfire on two r9 290s in BF4, and frankly, you get a less lumpy experience with just one. Granted, Nvidia has their share of SLI issues (like a lack of support for new releases,) but throughout all the years of owning a gtx 460 SLI rig, I'm still convinced Nvidia provides a smoother, more refined overall experience.

 

[patrick47018]

It seems like a really good card, good job AMD

 

[de5_Roy]

great read, very informative. the card itself looks good, which is a major departure from amd's previous ultra high end cards.

i didn't quite understand if gpu performance and vram capacity was holding back the nvidia cards or vram size and bus-width both, in 4K gaming benches. imo, this might be worth exlporing in a different article.

 

[vertexx]

What GPU are the temperature measurements coming from? Given they are connected in series, I would expect one to be hotter than the other.

Edit: After some additional research on the web, it looks like there is only a 2 degree difference between the two GPUs under load - somewhat surprising.