Rumor: Radeon R9-290X-X2 to Bring Double the Hawaii?

This is madness, almost on a level we haven't seen before, though that wouldn't be entirely accurate. Now, before I let myself write anything more, I do want to warn you: This is a rumor, from a sometimes questionable site, who in turn claims to have gotten the information from a non-disclosed source. That said, we do hope that there is some truth to this.

Here it goes: According to the Chinese section of VR-Zone, a reliable source has told them that AMD is planning to make a dual-Hawaii XT graphics card. Now, for those of you who don't know, the Hawaii XT GPU is the same one that is used in AMD's current flagship Radeon R9-290X. If this is true, we might be looking at a card with up to 5632 stream processors, 128 ROPs, and 8 GB of GDDR5 memory (4 per GPU), along with a dual 512-bit memory interface, which will be marketed as a 1024-bit memory interface.

While it remains uncertain what the real name will be, it is rumored that the AIBs are going with Vesuvius, named after the only active volcano in Europe. The model number is rumored to be 'Radeon R9-290X2,' though this could be interpreted as either a dual-290X, or a dual 290.

Unfortunately, that is where the rumor ends. Little more is known so far, and we have no idea when more information will surface, if at all.

Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

  • s3anister
    I'm just seriously wondering how they'll handle the card's thermal envelope with two GPUs on the same board. I'd imagine to get good results it's going to need a water block.
    Reply
  • China Syndrome edition! :P
    Reply
  • Parsian
    It uses lasers to cool it down.
    Reply
  • kenyee
    turns your PC into Lava :-)
    Reply
  • shadow_city
    This might be the first time a reference design comes with a water block
    Reply
  • Gam3r01
    If this is remotely true, they better work on their reference coolers first! The ones on the 290 will obviously not work, and the 3 fan reference not so much either.
    If this is true and they can deal with the thermal issues that should end the era of dual gpu cards form AMD being sub par.
    Reply
  • A10K
    Such an ungainly name... shouldn't it be called an R9-290XX ? R9-580X? R18-290X?
    Reply
  • sbudbud
    I think people are forgetting that the 290 series are made to run at 95 degrees, I dont think AMD will push the thermal anymore than that so this is a non issue.
    What I want to know is the price, make it $699 (same as 780 Ti) and I'll sell a kidney for it in a heart beat.
    Reply
  • itzsnypah
    This has to be fake. Even if you have binned god chips laying around somewhere you are still going to have a 400w+ card.
    Reply
  • pjmelect
    Quote "Vesuvius, named after the only active volcano in Europe. This is not true, there are many active volcanoes in Europe such as mount Etna for example. .http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/europe.html
    Reply