AMD Radeon R9 295X2 8GB Graphics Card Review

Overclocking & Overclocked Performance

The overclocking ability of a graphics card is an important buying consideration irrespective of whether the graphics card is low end or enthusiast level. I’m sure everyone will agree that the more extra performance from overclocking – the better. In our overclocking we push each graphics card to its maximum stable core and memory frequencies. Typically we also raise the power limit to the maximum and where possible raise the voltages if this results in higher overclocks being achieved. We always aim for “24/7” stable overclocks that DO NOT result in potential heat on longevity issues so if we do raise the voltage it is still kept within safe parameters. The latest beta version of MSI’s Afterburner software is the overclocking utility of choice: this is because MSI Afterburner Beta versions typically allows you to circumvent overclocking restrictions – particularly those set by AMD.

Overclocking on the Radeon R9 295X2 was pretty rubbish by anyone’s standards. Starting at 1018MHz we could only reach 1070 MHz which is just 52MHz more, the memory was similarly poor at overclocking reaching just an additional 50/200MHz (actual/effective). This gave a modest jump in performance but ultimately the Radeon R9 295X2 is a limited card for overclocking – this is from a combination of the fact you’re running two GPUs and that there is such a power delivery restriction because of the limiting use of two 8 pins.