Radeon R9 295X2 8 GB Review: Project Hydra Gets Liquid Cooling

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“Do you have what it takes?” AMD asks, purportedly referring to the big budget and beefy power supply you need before buying its new Radeon R9 295X2. We benchmark the 500 W, dual-GPU beast against several other high-end configs before declaring a winner.

Power Consumption: Idle

Desktop Mode Without Load

As with the Radeon HD 7990, AMD's Radeon R9 295X2 features AMD’s ZeroCore Power capability, which is active in two different states. It's important to make a distinction between a powered-on display with Windows idle and a powered-down monitor triggered by Windows' profiles.

When ZeroCore Power does its job, consumption drops from 28.5 to 13.5 W at idle, as one Hawaii processor is turned off. Then, the display switches off as well, and power use drops to 6-7 W. At that point, even the card's fan stops spinning.

In case you're missing the 3.3 V rail's blue line (as we were at first), all of the Radeon R9 295X2's components pull from the +12 V rail now.

Comparing To The Radeon HD 6990 and 7990

If you take a close look at the chart below, you'll see that the +3.3 V rail was used by the Radeon HD 7990, if only just barely. Also, nearly all of the power is provided by the card's auxiliary connectors, rather than the motherboard's slot. 

The Radeon R9 2905X2's behavior is more similar to cards like the GeForce GTX 780 and 780 Ti, while AMD's older models are mainly driven by the separate power leads.

Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini
Chris Angelini is an Editor Emeritus at Tom's Hardware US. He edits hardware reviews and covers high-profile CPU and GPU launches.
115 Comments Comment from the forums
  • SVMreborn
    The pricing of this beast really impressed me.
    Reply
  • Marsian Gustrianda
    Many people doubt about Dual GPU Hawaii will be Blow Up. It seems AMD really do well job. Nice Looking Card
    Reply
  • ohim
    This card is like the Veyron of WV , show the world what you can do (R295x2) but you`ll still relay on the sales of your WV Golf for revenue (270x, 280x)
    Reply
  • ferooxidan
    Finally the review of this beast! Now continue reading
    Reply
  • outlw6669
    Impressive performance, temperatures and fairly low noise!
    I would prefer a bit lower price, but this looks like a great card for the gamer that has everything!
    Reply
  • getochkn
    Surprised you didn't do a mining hashrate test on it to see what it can push out.
    Reply
  • gunfighter zeck
    the name Dreadnaught originated from Dread Nothing or, fear nothing.
    Boss ship.
    Reply
  • Maxamus456
    Hope this price stays low and not get bloated from bit con miners like its predecessors.
    Reply
  • blubbey
    So let me get this straight. It runs pretty cool, quiet, performs well and (for the moment) is able to play a good selection of games at 4k admirably and is priced competitively. Plus if you are going to drop a bit more on watercooling your GPUs (which is a possibility if you're spending $1200+) that gives this card even greater value. Nice work AMD.
    Reply
  • marciocattini
    Wheres Tom's Hardware seal of approval? =( clearly this card diserves some love!
    Reply