AMD Radeon R9 295X2 8GB Graphics Card Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

AMD’s R9 295X2 has an MSRP of $1500 (excluding VAT and sales tax) which is going to be about £1100~ or €1400 in the UK and Europe (including VAT and sales tax @ 20%). The warranty of the R9 295X2 will vary between graphics card vendors.

Overview 

AMD’s R9 295X2 is certainly a product with something special added. Out of the box this is easily the fastest graphics card currently available on the market and heck, it ought to be, because you pay a hefty premium for it. Currently R9 290X CrossFireX would cost you about $1100-1200, this performs roughly the same and holds a $300-400 premium. So what do you get for that extra $300-400? Well I suppose you’re paying for the exclusivity of what it is. The Radeon R9 295X2 will no doubt be a limited edition product and I can’t imagine AMD are expecting demand to be significant, especially given the rapidly falling demand for AMD GPUs from miners as we edge ever closer to scrypt ASIC miners making graphics cards redundant for cryptocurrency. In addition to exclusivity you’re getting a rather unique but also incredibly effective cooling solution. The water cooling design is a smart move by AMD and for the first time ever we have a reference dual GPU solution from AMD that you would be proud to own and happy to live with: It isn’t noisy, it doesn’t run uncontrollably hot and it isn’t impractical in any way. I know a lot of people will criticise the radiator as making it a bit more clunky, but at the end of the day anyone with a remote interest in buying this will have a case that has many 120mm fan mounts. From an ease-of-use standpoint I can easily see why someone might want to opt for the AMD Radeon R9 295X2.

I think it’s also worth pointing out the progress AMD have made. Over the past few generations of ultra high-end graphics cards I’ve looked at what AMD and Nvidia have offered and I’ve always come to the same conclusions: Nvidia offer refined, classy and expensive products (GTX Titan, GTX 780 Ti, etc.) while AMD offer rough-around-the-edges, solid value for money and performance orientated products (R9 290X, HD 7970 GHz Edition, etc.). The Radeon R9 295X2 spins that ethos around because this is a refined product by both AMD and Nvidia standards. I think in part this is a direct result of the cooling solution – it makes the product’s heat and power consumption manageable. It appears as if AMD have finally listened to customer feedback – no longer do we want crappy blower style fans ruining high end products. AMD deserves kudos for what is a well rounded enthusiast grade product.

Yet this certainly isn’t a white wash – AMD haven’t made it through this entire process without leaving a few dirty marks, the R9 295X2 still has areas for improvement. Firstly, coil whine! I say this time and time again – if you’re making a high-end product you need to use high quality components. AMD clearly “cheaped out” a bit on their selection of chokes and capacitors and this is something I’m hoping board partners will fix when they release non-reference solutions (that’s on the assumption AMD won’t “do an Nvidia” and not let its partners modify the design). Secondly, the fan profiles are not as quiet as they should be. Sure this card is still quiet by the standards of other cards of this performance-calibre, but the water cooling was a missed opportunity by AMD – they could have made a totally silent graphics card. Instead they have quite aggressive profiles on the VRM and radiator fans and from my short time with this graphics card there is no easy way to modify that – they seem to be temperature controlled but software like AMD OverDrive and MSI Afterburner isn’t able to change the fan speeds. Thirdly, it feels like driver performance is a bit lacking. Despite using the latest Catalyst 14.4 beta driver AMD provided us with scaling in some games was low – especially at lower resolutions. This makes the R9 295X2 a sensible solution only if you’re targeting those high resolutions like 4K, 2560 x 1440 or using multiple monitors (5760 x 1080, 7560 x 1600, etc.). Another point worth picking up on is the power delivery system. The first major issue with this is the choice of just two 8 pins – I wanted to see three because with just two we’re now outside of ATX specifications which will place undue pressure on your power supply and lower the overall efficiency of the power delivery. I hope AMD board partners will offer three 8 pins. The second part is the VRM implementation, it gets hot. We weren’t able to test the VRM temperatures per sé but I definitely noticed the hot temperatures and having read some other reviews I’ve seen them pick up on a similar issue. The VRM components are rated for 120 degrees celsius and easily get to 100-105 degrees celsius under sustained load, if you live in a hot climate then you could easily run into VRM overheating issues if you use this card for extended periods of time. Given how well AMD did cooling the GPUs it is such a shame they skimped on the VRM. It just seems like the GPU cooling was well thought out, but the memory and VRM cooling is something of an after-thought.

My final point is pricing and this is something that has really bugged me. Just why did AMD think $1500 was a good price? It is not fair, it is not good value. AMD have clearly sat down and decided because Nvidia is going to charge $3000 for their GTX Titan Z that somehow makes $1500 for the R9 295X2 good value, this is just a flawed logic where no one wins. Consumers don’t buy the product because it’s too expensive and AMD do not sell many because consumers can’t afford to buy it. Let’s take the case of the HD 7970 and the HD 7990. The HD 7970 was released to market with a $550 MSRP, the R9 290X was also released to market with a $550 MSRP. AMD released the HD 7990 to market for $1000 which is a hair under the cost of the HD 7970 CrossFireX. The R9 295X2 costs $1500 which is nearly 50% more than the cost of R9 290X CrossFireX. I just don’t think that is acceptable. I think if we assume a bog-standard air-cooled R9 295X2 would be fairly priced at $1100 then the water cooling solution is maybe worth an extra $100, $150 tops. I just can’t comprehend that an extra $400 over MSRP is needed. I think the price needs to fall into the $1000-1200 bracket before this is a truly competitive offering.

Pros

• Incredible cooling performance
• Better value than GTX Titan Z
• Offers a huge amount of performance – 4K 60Hz ready!
• Convenient all in one CrossFireX solution
• Represents a huge improvement over past AMD Dual GPU solutions

Cons

• Coil whine
• High power consumption
• Power delivery outside ATX spec, a risky game to play – lowers efficiency and strains PSUs
• Loud fans even though temperatures are low
• Eye-wateringly expensive
• Needs some fine tuning

“If money is no issue and you’re looking for the world’s fastest graphics card then AMD have delivered it with the R9 295X2. This beast of a graphics card blasts through 4K gaming like a hot knife in butter and barely even breaks a sweat. The AMD Radeon R9 295X2 may not be perfect, but it’s hard to not be impressed by what AMD have created.”

Thank you to AMD for providing this review sample.