AMD Radeon R9 295X2 Review

Conclusion

We've not always been too impressed by dual GPU offerings, often finding them to be underwhelming experiences due to driver issues and performance bugs. We know this isn't representative of everyone's experience, and that plenty of people still use and love CrossFire and SLI, but it's still the impression we've been left with more often than not. However, in nearly every way, the R9 295X2 is dual GPU technology done right. In every situation, it simply works, and it works damn well too, as its scaling is seriously impressive. Not only that, but it looks amazing and is quieter and cooler than a single stock R9 290X by some margin, despite still only being a dual slot model. Sure, you need to find space for the radiator, but this shouldn't be an issue in most cases, and it's even feasible to use it in a mini-ITX build.

Of course, the elephant in the room is price, currently set to be over £1,000. The R9 295X2 may be a premium product from top to bottom, but there's no escaping the fact that this is absurd amount of money to drop on a dual GPU set-up, even one as powerful as this (though with Titan Z set to launch at $3,000, the dual GPU market is soon to get even crazier).

A pair of overclocked and custom cooled R9 290X or GTX 780 cards would bring similar if not better performance, and still leave you with plenty of cash to spare, so if you're looking to game at 4K then that would be our recommendation. Admittedly, water-cooling such a set-up would bring you much closer to the asking price here, so the value proposition isn't entirely off target, but a custom loop would be even more effective than AMD's solution. Plus, it's always better to do these things yourself in our humble opinion.

It's very easy to look at this card and think it's ridiculous, as that's exactly what it is but in a rather drool-worthy way too. We can't remember the last time we had so much fun benchmarking a graphics card. Seeing a product crunch through whatever you throw at it and make light work of benchmarks that have previously crippled everything else is awesome, and the sort of stuff we love to see as enthusiasts. AMD's engineering and driver teams have a delivered a beautifully crafted product and should be commended for it. Unless you want to play at ultra high resolutions and only have space for one card (in which case there's really no other option), we won't be recommending that you go out and buy one any time soon. However, to those who can afford to and do anyway, you're not going to regret it.