VisionTek CryoVenom R9 295X2: Two GPUs In One Slot

[cleeve]

VisionTek recently introduced its CryoVenom R9 295X2, a dual-GPU graphics card that squeezes into a single PCIe expansion slot thanks to a thin and effective water block with impressive thermal performance. But is the board worth its price premium?

VisionTek CryoVenom R9 295X2: Two GPUs In One Slot : Read more

[Oct 13/2014 addendum: Visiontek has lowered pricing across its liquid-cooled graphics card line in response to feedback from this article, and the CryoVenom R9 295X2 kits have dropped a whooping $300. We have reflected this change in our writeup below. You can check the Visiontek website for specific details.]

 

[youcanDUit]

YOU GOT ZOMBIE BLOOD ON YOUR LEG. YOU'RE INFECTED!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x87h9y_28-days-later-28-days-later-blood-i_shortfilms

 

[Nuckles_56]

I'm impressed with how cool that card runs, and damn is it sexy as well- apart from the price...

 

[AndrewJacksonZA]

I would *NOT* mind two of these in my computer!!! However, how much are 4x 980s? :-(

Although the inner geek in me STILL wants two of these cards!

 

[Nuckles_56]

I would *NOT* mind two of these in my computer!!! However, how much are 4x 980s? :-(

Although the inner geek in me STILL wants two of these cards!

4 gtx 980's will be less than two of these

 

[ta152h]

With the 390 coming out in a few months, and being moved to 20nm, this is heading towards severe obsolescence in the near future. The magnitude of the change is pretty large, since it's the first shrink in years, and is purported to be an extensive redesign as well.

It's hard to justify tossing away $1000 away with this in mind. $2000 is even more difficult.

Yes, new technology is always around the corner, but these days it's often relatively minor, compared to what the 390 will be. We don't get shrinks that often anymore. I'd wait for it, unless you have enough money you can get both with no difficulty. Then, why not?

 

[B4vB5]

This card is pretty irrelevant for normal people unless they want it out of spite.

For computation farms and HPC, it's kinda interesting as you can now stuff 6-7 of these cards on the same motherboard and use 14 GPU's for OpenCL programming before you have to pay the overhead of another node in the farm(mb, cpu,ram,psu,cooling components).
The question is though if the high price tag and the high power consumption will pay off this cost saving in the long run, or 7x 290x is the better choice?

Nvidia is irrelevant for HPC/compute farms or at least use to be as they are much slower than AMDs cards.

If physical space matters and cost not so much, this could be a grand choice for now, simply for being able to stuff 14 GPU on one motherboard. SLI/Xfire dont matter and PCI 3.0 1x is usually enough although WS mb's from Asus with PLX onboard can handle PCI 3.0 8x/16x(well 84 total lanes) for high interaction/communication capability, though this is usually not the case in my experience with HPC via gfx.

Of cause you could also pick 7x normal 295x2s with extenders to PCI-e ports but then space and adequate cooling becomes a major issue(compute farms are suppose to run the cards at 80-100% most of the time to justify their existance).

I can see a slim market for this card though. And maybe for 5K gaming for extremist rich people in 3-4x Xfire if that even works and doesn't just falter in actual gaming performance like Linus latest video on the subject showed with 3-4x SLI.

 

[WilliamChan4]

What happened to Eyefinity 6? Some time ago, having 6 mini-displayports in a single slot was supposed to be "the way of the future". Surely, if people still have legacy hardware, a simple converter cable would be a much better option than less display bandwidth.

 

[Haravikk]

$2000 for a graphics card that will probably still be lagging behind in a few years? No thanks! Hell, I'm not sure I'd even spend $2000 in total to make a strong gaming rig, this just seems like one of these things that is only suited to people who feel a crushing burden from having too much money in their bank account, as anyone with any sense can build an extremely good system with $600-700 worth of GPU(s), and even that's still a bit overkill.

 

[SessouXFX]

Not worth it. Just get 2 970's or 980's and be happy with the outcome.

 

[kamhagh]

i want one of thooosee

 

[sea monkey]

Even if this card isn't worth the price for most, especially after the release of the GTX 980, what they've accomplished in terms of heat and size reduction is certainly commendable. It's always neat to see every bit of potential performance squeezed out of a particular architecture.

 

[warezme]

Knobby kneed. Don't forget, pasty, white, knobby kneed leg.

Great review though.

 

[rubix_1011]

That is a great pump/reservoir combo from EK, by the way. I used the EK branded version for my own mITX build a few weeks ago...it's excellent for any watercooling loop. Happy to see it being used in something like this, as well.

 

[Musaab]

Intel Core i7-5820K 390$
Gigabyte GA-X99-UD5 WIFI 300$
Kingston Technology HyperX Predator 16GB Kit 2800MHz 253$
2x EVGA EVGA GTX980 ACX 2.0 4GB GDDR5 1100$
2x Water Blocks for GTX980 250$
XSPC Raystorm AX360 Extreme Universal CPU Water Cooling Kit w/ D5 Photon 265$
Total 2558$
Do your math. for extra 500$ you can get dream machine and the total pack consume power less than singel graphics card.

 

[rubix_1011]

'Dream Machine' means different things to different people. There isn't a one size fits all hardware list that corrects any retail price point without causing debate in other areas.

 

[g-unit1111]

I'm curious as to why the test PC - the CPU is air cooled but the GPU is liquid cooled? If this is running on a three fan radiator couldn't you route the tubing so it goes through a CPU water block and the GPU water block? Is the cooling system capable of that?

 

[rubix_1011]

Technically you could, although everything I'm seeing lists this dual GPU graphics card around 500w TDP. This is really almost beginning to push the thermal boundaries of an acceptable delta-T on this 360 radiator, although I don't know exactly what it is capable of in terms of cooling potential. If you had some really good fans on this, you could potentially drop this card and a stock CPU into the loop, but even then I'd question the delta with the one radiator. When you consider that a typical CPU is around 90-125w TDP at stock speeds, you're asking a single 360 rad to be able to dissipate over 600w of heat (potentially at 100% load) just at stock speeds of both CPU and this dual GPU.

That's a bit much. However, you could easily just add another radiator...that DDC pump is more than capable of that.

 

[IInuyasha74]

I do feel that everyone should give them an A for effort at the very least. Wouldn't take too much to turn that water cooler to work for the CPU also and it looks cool. Its too bad that these cards are quickly being out valued by the next generation of cards, but this is easily the best thing VisionTek has ever done so it gives me hope that they will have better designed coolers in the future for all of their cards.

 

[WyomingKnott]

I think that they did a magnificent job of meeting all the complaints of their rarified-air, highest-end gaming customers. I suspect that with development costs factored in this will be a loss for them, but it will
1) Get them a heck of a lot of "cred."
2) Pave the way for them to yell "first" in the single-slot card market for more mainstream gaming cards. And I suspect that that could gain them significant market share.

EDIT: A small nitpick. "VisionTek's card weighs a substantial 1.564 kilograms." Kilograms ain't weight. Was this an artifact of translation?

 

[Musaab]

EVGA do water cooled cards for ages with out this much fuzz in fact ASUS made hybrid air/water cooled cards

 

[rubix_1011]

EVGA doesn't supply the rest of the hardware to complete the watercooling setup, if you choose to add it to your cart. While I agree with you, this solution appears to do this, if you wan't to pay the premium for it.

 

[IInuyasha74]

I think that they did a magnificent job of meeting all the complaints of their rarified-air, highest-end gaming customers. I suspect that with development costs factored in this will be a loss for them, but it will
1) Get them a heck of a lot of "cred."
2) Pave the way for them to yell "first" in the single-slot card market for more mainstream gaming cards. And I suspect that that could gain them significant market share.

EDIT: A small nitpick. "VisionTek's card weighs a substantial 1.564 kilograms." Kilograms ain't weight. Was this an artifact of translation?

Kilograms is the unit of measurement for weight in the metric system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilogram

While technically its a measurement of "mass", almost every nation in the world uses it as a measurement for weight since the two are directly related.

 

[buzznut]

Once again showing how pitiful closed loop cooling is compared the real thing. But really the number of people opting for this is rather limited. I would run a couple of R9 290Xs with blocks and custom loop for a heckuva lot less.
Unlimited funds available though, I can see the appeal of single slot solutions.

 

[filippi]

I think that they did a magnificent job of meeting all the complaints of their rarified-air, highest-end gaming customers. I suspect that with development costs factored in this will be a loss for them, but it will
1) Get them a heck of a lot of "cred."
2) Pave the way for them to yell "first" in the single-slot card market for more mainstream gaming cards. And I suspect that that could gain them significant market share.

EDIT: A small nitpick. "VisionTek's card weighs a substantial 1.564 kilograms." Kilograms ain't weight. Was this an artifact of translation?

Ah. Blame President James “Jimmy” Carter. He started America on a path to the metric system but then just gave up. He wonders why he was a one-term president. (Sheldon Cooper)