Final Thoughts

Because the Radeon R9 290X'south tape for being pretty hot at its 300w TDP, I had my doubts nearly AMD placing ii Hawaii XT GPUs on a single 500w TDP card. Notwithstanding, with a closed-loop water-cooling system AMD has solved the thermal and acoustic problems that virtually dual-GPU cards face. Although we wouldn't say the R9 295X2 is quiet, it's far from loud -- nada like AMD'due south R9 290X sample.

Having pushed our Core i7-4770K system from 351w with a R9 290X to almost 600w with the R9 295X2, there's no escaping the card's ability requirements, even so information technology isn't something the Silencer Mk Three 1200w tin can't handle. Meanwhile, temperatures aren't an consequence cheers to the water libation, which kept the carte at 62 degrees or lower afterward an hour of Crysis 3 with both GPUs running at 1018MHz and nearly 100% utilization.

The R9 295X2 is as good as a graphics card gets right now, delivering 64% more performance than the GTX 780 Ti on average and 79% more than the R9 290X. Compared to the GTX 780 SLI cards, the R9 295X2 was xv% faster on average and was just slower in one of the 12 games (Tomb Raider). The R9 295X2 also topped the older dual-GPU cards, beating the HD 7990 by 36% and the GTX 690 by 50%.

Ideally, nosotros would have liked to include GTX 780 Ti SLI information as the GTX Titan-Z will be based on a pair of the GTX 780 Ti GPUs -- I simply didn't have two of them on mitt. Assuming the Titan-Z's core and retentiveness speeds match the GTX 780 Ti, it could cease upwards beingness effectually 10% faster than the R9 295X2. Even so, with the MSRP rumored to be $2,999, nosotros aren't sure if the Titan-Z volition fifty-fifty exist relevant.

It's oftentimes not worth ownership dual-GPU graphics cards such equally the Hd 7990 or GTX 690 considering there is often a cheaper road to the aforementioned place with ii unmarried-GPU cards. For instance, instead of spending $1,000 on a GTX 690, two GTX 680s at $500 each were x% faster and easier to maintain when it came to thermals. Plus, there's always the do good of having the GPUs separated in the event that i of them fails.

So, should yous buy an R9 295X2 over two separate R9 290Xs? Yes, if yous want the almost performance in the smallest, coolest and quietest parcel available. With Crossfire off, the R9 295X2 is equally as fast every bit a single R9 290X and in some cases we received i-2fps more performance. With Crossfire on the R9 295X is as fast as two 290X cards and again nosotros found in some cases i-2fps more performance.

I admit to feeling a bit silly for mocking the R9 295X2 initially every bit it's without a doubt the all-time dual-GPU card we have seen. Information technology may not be the about practical option to maxing out your games, but nosotros don't think that anyone expected two R9 290Xs on a single menu to be practical anyway. With that in mind, we're not totally shocked at AMD's MSRP of $ane,500 -- well over the $i,200 it would price for a pair of R9 290Xs.

Pros: The R9 295X2 is today's fastest graphics card with double-digit gains on the Hd 7990, GTX 690 and fifty-fifty a pair of GTX 780s in SLI.

Cons: It's as well among the priciest with an MSRP of $1,500, though we can see its arranged liquid libation being attractive to plenty of enthusiasts.