First Overclocked R9 295X2 Surfaces Courtesy of Sapphire

News
By Niels Broekhuijsen
published

Sapphire has revealed a new graphics card, the R9 295X2 OC. As you've probably already guessed, the GPUs aboard this graphics card are overclocked for greater performance. This is the first overclocked Radeon R9 295X2 graphics card from any manufacturer. The overclock makes it very clear to us that there is really no reason for this except to put the letters O and C on the card's box.

Are you ready for it? The R9 295X2 from Sapphire is clocked at a staggering 1030 MHz. It's very fast for a dual GPU card but when you consider that the reference frequency of the card is set at 1018 MHz, and you suddenly realize that Sapphire has only overclocked the card by a mind-boggling 12 MHz, you're probably not as impressed.

Nonetheless, this is a great attempt from Sapphire, and note it still comes in the pretty packaging that Sapphire's card is said to come in.

No word on pricing yet, though we don't expect a very large premium over the standard price.

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Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

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

20 Comments Comment from the forums
  • someguynamedmatt
    *sigh*
    Oh, marketing. I guess if nothing else, it puts a bit of 'competition' out there with another card, if you can even call it that. Can't wait to see what they do with the price on this... might end up being interesting. (:
    Reply
  • XxXGunXxXGraveXxX
    I love the sarcasmXD What ive always wondered why do companies even put out factory over clocked when you can just use MSI Afterburner to oc way higher anyway.
    Reply
  • oczdude8
    It would be cool if they sold a real OC edition with a 240 rad
    Reply
  • thechief73
    One morning.. not to long ago... in a cubical. A engineer changed two digits and hit save.
    Reply
  • John Wittenberg
    The speed, I can't handle the speeeeed! Oh wait, that's it? (Giggles)
    Reply
  • John Wittenberg
    On that note, I have stably over clocked my sli 780M's +180 MHz. Not apple to apples, but seriously - the thermal boundary of a laptop GPU is more constrained than a darned desktop card, dual GPU or otherwise.
    Reply
  • ragenalien
    I love the sarcasmXD What ive always wondered why do companies even put out factory over clocked when you can just use MSI Afterburner to oc way higher anyway.

    The number one reason is that overclocking voids your warranty on the card. So a factory overclocked card is faster than the standard card and still has a warranty. The second reason people buy they is because the GPU's are usually binned for overclocking. There's no guarantee that a card sold at stock clock speed can reach an overclocked card and many of them cannot. It's like buying an MSI lightning or EVGA classified. Those cards are binned to be the best possible overclockers. Not all GPU's are equal.
    Reply
  • Optimus_Toaster
    The number one reason is that overclocking voids your warranty on the card. So a factory overclocked card is faster than the standard card and still has a warranty.

    I'm not sure what cards/manufacturers/retailers you are using but I have first hand experience at returning a personally overclocked card. They simply didn't care - in fact when the retailer is called overclockers it's expected of you.

    Also they have no way of finding out whether you have overclocked or not. Flashing the BIOS and be unable to flash back or physically altering your card will cause a refused rma, but anything you do in MSI afterburner will be undetectable.
    Reply
  • falchard
    It comes in that case because it doubles as a means for transporting the large sums of money it will take to purchase one.
    Reply
  • jase240
    The number one reason is that overclocking voids your warranty on the card. So a factory overclocked card is faster than the standard card and still has a warranty.

    I'm not sure what cards/manufacturers/retailers you are using but I have first hand experience at returning a personally overclocked card. They simply didn't care - in fact when the retailer is called overclockers it's expected of you.

    Also they have no way of finding out whether you have overclocked or not. Flashing the BIOS and be unable to flash back or physically altering your card will cause a refused rma, but anything you do in MSI afterburner will be undetectable.

    Let's specify, overvolting from overclocking WILL void your warranty and they CAN check to see that a card has been overvolted.

    Although many cards do have their voltages locked down, if you increase your voltage past max boost voltages(most cards will allow some minor headroom) it will void your warranty.
    Reply