{"id":63170,"date":"2014-04-09T10:12:51","date_gmt":"2014-04-09T08:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=63170"},"modified":"2014-04-09T10:19:45","modified_gmt":"2014-04-09T08:19:45","slug":"amd-radeon-r9-295x2-the-worlds-fastest-graphics-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/63170-amd-radeon-r9-295x2-the-worlds-fastest-graphics-card","title":{"rendered":"AMD Radeon R9 295X2: the world’s fastest graphics card"},"content":{"rendered":"

Say hello to my little friend – the\u00a0AMD Radeon R9 295X2. According to AMD, this will be the world’s fastest and most powerful graphics card when it is launched later this month.<\/p>\n

Before you say, “but what about the\u00a0GTX Titan Z?<\/a>“, AMD have benchmarked this card against competing cards already available to consumers, and the Titan Z is only expected to hit the market at the end April 2014, too.<\/p>\n

Before we get into all the magical numbers and stats, we need to discuss the most important figure first; the price. Local pricing is yet to be confirmed, but it will sell for $1499 (around R15,500)<\/strong>\u00a0 in the states.<\/p>\n

Price aside, the\u00a0R9 295X2 is a dual-GPU card that boasts some impressive stats and performance figures.<\/p>\n

In a\u00a0a 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark test in 1080p – conducted by AMD – \u00a0the\u00a0R9 295X\u00a0outperformed the Titan Black (Nvidia\u2019s highest performing graphics card as of 12 March 2014) by a score of 15,862 to 9,878 in the performance preset, and 8,764 to 4,725 using the Extreme preset. The tests was conducted using an Intel i7 4960X CPU, 16GB RAM, Nvidia driver 334.89, AMD Catalyst driver 14.10, and Windows 8.1 system.<\/p>\n

The air and liquid cooling combo is another standout feature of the card, with\u00a0Asetek working with AMD on the project to get the set up just right. AMD promises “cool temperatures, quiet operation and consistently high performance, right out of the box” thanks to this dual-cooling solution.<\/p>\n

Here are the\u00a0R9 295X2’s basic specs.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Stream Processors<\/td>\n2 x 2816<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Texture Units<\/td>\n2 x 176<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ROPs<\/td>\n2 x 64<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Core Clock<\/td>\nn\/a<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Memory Clock<\/td>\n5GHz GDDR5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Memory Bus Width<\/td>\n2 x 512 bit<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
VRAM<\/td>\n2 x 4GB<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
FP64<\/td>\n(1\/8)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Transistor Count<\/td>\n2 x 6.2b<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Typical Board Power<\/td>\n500w<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Manufacturing Process<\/td>\nTSMC 28nm<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Direct X Support<\/td>\n11.2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Launch Date<\/td>\n21\/4\/2014<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Price<\/td>\n$1499 (R15 500)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

The card will also allow gamers to run “ultra settings” in 4k resolution, or combine 5 HD screens using\u00a0AMD Eyefinity.<\/p>\n

To get an idea of the card’s power,\u00a0Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry<\/a> put the card through its paces with the following frame rate tests. (2560 x 1440 resolution)<\/p>\n