AMD today announced a brand new high-performance dual-processor graphics card designed for enthusiast PC owners.
AMD claims that the Radeon R9 295X2 is the first dual-processor graphics card that manages to more than double the performance of a single processor card.
Up until now a dual-processor graphics card has not performed as well as two separate GPUs with the same core running in SLI or Crossfire configuration. While the R9 290X manages 5.6 TFLOPS of compute performance the 295X2 reaches 11.5 TFLOPS.
The processors are paired with 8GB of GDDR5 that have a dual 512-Bit memory bus. An active cooling fan in the centre of the card keeps the temperature down for the RAM and regulators but AMD has opted to add a water cooler with an integrated pump for the processors. The pump and card will come assembled out of the box and will only require mounting to the case.
The R9 295X2 is made of metal and has an aluminium backplate to further help cool the powerhouse GPU.
While it is extremely powerful the Radeon R9 295X2 is also extremely thirsty. Running at 500 WATTS AMD has opted to ignore efficiency in favour of performance in what it calls “Uncompromised performance”. “We didn’t want to artificially limit it. There will be power suppliers that can’t power this” AMD explained.
AMD’s announcement comes just two weeks after Nvidia showcased its new enthusiast card the GeForce GTX Titan Z. Nvidia’s GPU comes with 12GB of GDDR5 RAM, however it was announced that it would achieve 8 TFLOPs of computer power – 43% less than the Radeon R9 295X2. Official specs and benchmarks have not been provided so the two cards cannot, yet, be accurately compared in terms of real-world performance.
We do know that the GTX Titan Z will cost a huge $3000 while the Radeon R9 295X2 will have an RRP of $1500 or around £1000.
The AMD Radeon R9 295X2 will be available from AMD’s retail partners on April 21st.
Next read: AMD Radeon R9 280X vs Nvidia GeForce GTX 770
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.