http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Graphi...-295X2-8GB-Graphics-Card-Review/Battlefield-4
The most interesting part of this article is the 290x vs 780ti single cards. 14.4 super driver anyone? The 780ti doesn't look much better than the 290x in this review. Am I crazy and reading the graphs wrong?
While I understand the reviewer saw bad performance, it is almost entirely due to the fact that his test suite is so tiny and dependant on titles nobody else tests like Guild Wars. Just seems like a very weird suite that leads to a conclusion like that..
Awww come on, I did all that research and I could have just read the article!
Yes, if you look at the comment section of TR's articles, 95% of those comments are either NV/intel trolls, fanboys, or seem to be affected financialy in some way regarding AMD's peformance on the stock market. TR is catering to it's readership, and those shills are now paying subscribed members of TR. If they don't get their anti-AMD and negative articles, they stop paying. Just read comments on literally any article involving AMD, it's very telling. Birds of a feather flock together.
Wtf?"Wouldn't you agree that two is better than one?" I assume the question wasn't truly focused on unflattering photographs or, say, tumors.
Wtf?A week or so after that, another package arrived at my door. Inside were two small cans of Pringles, the chips reduced to powder form in shipping, and a bottle of "Hawaiian volcanic water." Also included were instructions for a clandestine meeting. Given what had happened to the chips, I feared someone was sending me a rather forceful signal. I figured I'd better comply with the sender's demands.
So, some days later, I stood at a curbside in San Jose, California, awaiting the arrival of my contactsor would-be captors or whatever.
Wot's this? Maybe one of the worst-kept secrets anywhere, but then I'm fairly certain the game played out precisely as the agents in black wanted. Something about dark colors and mirrored sunglasses imparts unusual competence, it seems.
Whilst I agree it's high, it's a higher spec'd card then even the best single GPU card they have. Show me two titan blacks + core clock running at 300w or whatever he has deemed acceptable.The 295 X2's peak power rating is a jaw-dropping 500W.
While I understand the reviewer saw bad performance, it is almost entirely due to the fact that his test suite is so tiny and dependant on titles nobody else tests like Guild Wars. Just seems like a very weird suite that leads to a conclusion like that..
Yes, if you look at the comment section of TR's articles, 95% of those comments are either NV/intel trolls, fanboys, or seem to be affected financialy in some way regarding AMD's peformance on the stock market. TR is catering to it's readership, and those shills are now paying subscribed members of TR. If they don't get their anti-AMD and negative articles, they stop paying. Just read comments on literally any article involving AMD, it's very telling. Birds of a feather flock together.
PS, this 295X2 is a beast.
While I understand the reviewer saw bad performance, it is almost entirely due to the fact that his test suite is so tiny and dependant on titles nobody else tests like Guild Wars. Just seems like a very weird suite that leads to a conclusion like that..
It would be awesome if they would bundle 2 of these for $2500. I doubt that would ever happen tho.
Interesting, according to Tom's, the card never breaks PCI-E spec for power draw. Instead, it draws almost its entire power through the 2x8 pin configuration.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-r9-295x2-review-benchmark-performance,3799-14.html
On the temps, we have noticed with these latest drivers the 780 Ti is able to go up to 87c now, versus 84c with previous drivers. . . This new 337.50 driver may have changed the thermal profile slightly to allow slightly higher clock speeds.
PCI-E spec includes power draw from the external connectors...
PCI-E spec includes power draw from the external connectors...
Some cards are using two 8-pin connectors, but this has not been standardized yet, therefore such cards must not carry the official PCI-Express logo. This configuration would allow 375 W total (1×75 W + 2×150 W) and will likely be standardized by PCI-SIG with the PCI-Express 4.0 standard.
The only crime would be calling that a deal!
Only a matter of time till we start seeing the dual 295 reviews.
Yes and who cares. You can feed this card 939 watts and still be within the actual real practical specs. Is that sufficient? I think its time to put this part to rest. It is a much a non issue as anything can be.
Karlitos is a member here with 4x 290s already......did the drivers get fixed so they work correctly?
Will the next version of windows support Octo-Fire GPUs? I wonder why they can't just patch it to allow 4x 295x2 crossfire.
So no card with 2x8 pin configuration is within official spec anyway? Seems to make more sense now, AMD wouldn't have been able to be PCIe certified anyway, even if they stayed below 375 W. Unless the wiki is wrong.
I pulled the HCS connector rating from memory. IIRC, STD was 8A and HCS was 11A. I didn't realize that they now have a Mini-Fit Plus terminal that is rated for 13A using 16 AWG wire.Where did you find the amp rating for the connector? The best I could find was this (sheet 3), which says max current rating of 9A per pin, lower depending on wire gauge. On the graphics card side of things, since they use right-angle connectors, the max current draw is 8A per pin (scroll down).
I'm assuming the same for 6 and 8-pin connectors. Since 8-pin has 3 +12V pins, that is a total of 24A. 288W for one 8-pin.
This is still a large safety buffer for the spec, but not even a safety factor of 2.
It's fairly simple. Poor scaling in COD Ghosts , Batman: AO + AC IV and no crossfire profile for Guild Wars 2. Stating that those games are "weird", well I dunno. I don't like COD ghosts all that much but GW2 was a massively popular game. It doesn't seem too weird to me. I mean other websites still test hitman absolution which is a fairly incredibly old game. Or Dirt 3, Dirt showdown, I could name more that are old games but for whatever reason are still tested by some sites. Then you have Hexus testing Just Cause 2. I'd say those are weird and old games. Do you think those are "weird" games? But the testing suite is what it is, and AMD saw fit to send a review card to techreport. That means AMD more or less knew what was going to be tested, so there's nothing weird about it. If AMD knows, then AMD can't say it's "weird". They have perfect working knowledge of the test suite to be used prior to sending their review cards out, i'd assume. They have to.
I mean, do you think they should do a test suite of nothing but AMD GE games and call it a day? Please. To say it's "weird" strikes me in a strange way.
Honestly, not having crossfire available for Guild Wars 2 is somewhat surprising. It was a major MMO game which sold a ton of copies. I'm sure it would do fine given a crossfire profile, but alas, it is what it is. Whether that's excusable for AMD or not excusable I have no opinion, but there's nothing weird about that. It was a good MMO which sold very well, although i'm sure to be bombarded with messages about how horrible GW2 was.
Basically, I don't see a reason to resort to excuses. Clearly the 295X2 performs very well where crossfire is working and scaling well, and cools better than I thought it would. Kudos to AMD on that. It seems to be a great card. But this scaling stuff. It is what it is and doesn't warrant excuses, really. For this, we need to look at what i've mentioned numerous times in the past. AMD's software team. They just need to step it up. Now they're definitely better than they were a year or two ago, that's for sure. But not where they need to be. If they were where they "needed" to be, you wouldn't have these major games which don't scale properly in crossfire. Or completely lacking a profile as in GW2's case. These are popular games, so you can't say that these games are unknown indie titles. Again. Place blame where blame lies = AMD's software team. Don't blame the review website. Period. If AMD wants to blame the review website, then we have to ask why AMD sent the card to them in the first place when they had PRIOR KNOWLEDGE of what would be tested. Now that's a question worth asking. If the review website is to blame, and AMD sends them a card anyway while knowing what is to be tested. What is up with that.
Of course, this is one of the things that happens with mGPU in general. Some games don't scale to the same extent and some don't scale. That's why you see some on this forum with a clear preference for single GPU. Despite the issues mentioned above with those games, AMD has improved in software over the past year for SURE (not enough though). That's the main thing to look towards with these types of dual GPU cards. Hardware seems to be sound. But I still think the AMD software team needs to step it up way more.