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Temperatures And Noise

Radeon R9 295X2 8 GB Review: Project Hydra Gets Liquid Cooling
By , Igor Wallossek

Thermals

The Asetek closed-loop liquid cooler does a fairly good job, though it's only equipped with a 120 mm radiator. A peak GPU temperature of 65 °C is admirable, particularly considering that we couldn't push a single Radeon R9 290X below 50 °C in our aftermarket cooling project.

Acoustics

We're using a calibrated studio-quality microphone for all sound level measurements. It's positioned at a 90° orientation 50 cm away from each graphics card. Results are collected after each card hits its peak operating temperature in our gaming benchmark.

Although 45 dB(A) is clearly audible, the Radeon R9 295X2 is significantly quieter than any competing setup, while the Radeon HD 6990 and R9 290X in CrossFire blow you right out of the room. AMD clearly put effort into improving the experience it conveys, and we appreciate that.

Sound Level Videos

Lastly, let's compare three generations of dual-GPU graphics cards from AMD in videos.

Radeon R9 295X2

R9 295X2 - Gaming Loop - 100% Load

Radeon HD 7990

HD 7990 - Gaming Loop - 100% Load

Radeon HD 6990

HD 6990 - Gaming Loop - 100% Load

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  • 0 Hide
    Paolo Cardinale , 8 April 2014 14:13
    Mantle's bench???
  • 1 Hide
    AMD Radeon , 8 April 2014 15:07
    good guy AMD
  • 0 Hide
    Motoxyogi , 9 April 2014 08:58
    Good writeup.Just a heads up, the 100 microsec gaming power consumption graph for the 295X seems to have the wrong peak total value
  • 0 Hide
    olafgarten , 18 April 2014 08:35
    IT USES ASETEK. KILL IT WITH FIRE!
  • 0 Hide
    PlanetCreation , 20 April 2014 11:36
    Would this be a overkill for 1080p gaming?