**Unboxing and Overview of the XFX R9 295x2 Hydra Edition**
The video is an unboxing and overview of the XFX R9 295x2 Hydra Edition, one of the first custom-designed graphics cards on the market that utilizes AMD's Hawaii-based GPU. The card has been delayed again, which may impact its release schedule. However, NCIX plans to test it in a 4K shootout against other high-end graphics cards, including NVIDIA's Titan Z.
The XFX R9 295x2 Hydra Edition is based on the reference design of AMD's 295x2 graphics card. Most 295x2s on the market are reference designs, but this custom-designed version stands out from the crowd. The power color Devil 13 is the only other custom-designed 295x2 available in the market, according to the reviewer.
The XFX R9 295x2 Hydra Edition has a unique design that sets it apart from other graphics cards. It has a metal shroud instead of plastic, which gives it a more premium feel. The card also features a metal base plate and two pumps that cover the two Hawaii GPUs, which are connected to rubber tubing that extends up to the 120 millimeter radiator with a fan. This design allows for efficient cooling and reduces noise levels.
The card itself has several key features, including two eight-pin power connectors that require at least 500 watts of power to operate. The XFX R9 295x2 Hydra Edition also comes with four mini display ports, one DV ID port, and an HDMI to DVI adapter. The reviewer notes that these adapters are unnecessary, as DisplayPort is the preferred connection for UHD content.
The card features two 28-nanometer Hawaii GPUs, which have a combined 5632 stream processors, 352 texture units, and 128 ROPs. It also has eight gigabytes of GDDR5 VRAM with a 1024-bit memory bus, which is twice that of the reference design. The core clock of the card is 1018 MHz, which is lower than the 290x's core clock of 1000 MHz.
Despite its impressive specs, the XFX R9 295x2 Hydra Edition may not be suitable for overclocking due to its pre-overclocked state and liquid cooling system. However, this also means that it can provide consistent performance without requiring user intervention. The card has already been tested by benchmarkers, who found that it provides comparable or better performance than two 290x's in crossfire.
The reviewer notes that the XFX R9 295x2 Hydra Edition offers several advantages over using two 290x's in crossfire, including reduced latency from the PCIe connection and the ability to use four GPUs for improved performance. This makes it an attractive option for gamers who want high-performance graphics without the hassle of overclocking.
For users in the US, NCIX is offering free shipping on the XFX R9 295x2 Hydra Edition if they order it within a limited time frame. In Canada, this offer is also available to a limited audience, provided that they use the code mentioned in the video description.
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: entwo gpus one card it's been done before but not like this never like this so this is the XFX Radeon R9 295 X2 Hydra Edition there's a name AMD teased this card like mad they had secret agent videos and stuff viral videos to build up the hype and build it up they did for good reason because this monster has two fully enabled Hawaii cores that are each clocked higher than the single core in an R9 290x and thus this guy has built in liquid cooling because it runs hot so without further Ado let's take it out of the box so actually in the Box we've got a quick install guide a hardware a limited warranty card a power supply specifications card a that's another safety thing driver CD install guide because it does actually come with a nice coaster and uh advertisement for other XFX products as well as a HDMI to DVI adapter and a mini Thunderbolts to HDMI adapter as well and you got mounting screws so guys this video is just an unboxing and overview we haven't really had a chance to do anything really cool with it yet but keep an eye out because we're planning on doing a 4K shootout or something maybe with Titan Z's which has been delayed again which sucks but keep an eye out for that so most 295 x2s on the market are reference designs and at the time of filming only one Custom Design is out there that I know of the power color devil 13 but uh not sure when that's coming this is the XFX version of the 295x2 and they haven't done a whole lot to the reference design I thought that they have replaced the stock fans at first it says fxfx graphics on there but turns out it's a sticker so the stock AMD fans are there on the central blower and the attached 120 millimeter blower on the radiator so this card is a double pcie slot card and it's impressive that AMD could fit all this power into a double high card two gpus taking a cue from nvidia's Titans the entire shroud is made of metal rather than plastic and that gives a lot more heft on the back of the card we have a metal base plate uh attached to the PCB and under the front shroud two pumps uh cover the two Hawaii gpus which are connected to rubber tubing that extends up to the 120 millimeter radiator with a fan and a push configuration now in the card itself it has a DV ID port and four mini display ports although it does also come with that Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter as well as the HDMI to DVI adapter if you need those but you really should be using DisplayPort if you're going UHD guys just use DisplayPort if you can I mean come on on top we have the two eight pin power connectors now this card requires at least 500 watts by itself so you'll definitely need a beefy power supply for this and you know not 500 watts not including the rest of your components in your PC on the bottom we have the standard pcie connector now as I said this card has two 28 nanometer Hawaii gpus compared to the single chip on the 290x and most of the other specs are doubled from that card as well so it's pretty much exactly the equivalent of two 290x's so that means a combined 5632 stream processors 352 texture units 128 rops eight gigabytes of five gigahertz ddr5 vram 1024-bit memory bus so that's two 512-bit memory buses and a combined 12.4 billion transistors as well as a core clock of 1018 megahertz I think 290x's was a thousand megahertz so since that clock is higher than the core clock on the 290x already this card is not really meant for overclocking it's it's got the liquid cooling on there so I mean they've already boosted it now as I said we didn't really get a chance to Benchmark this ourselves but in Benchmark scene around the web the 295x2's performance is consistently comparable or better than two 290x's in crossfire and the difference in average frame rate between those two is not usually larger than one or two frames the performance of the 295x2 versus nvidia's GTX 780 Ti in SLI varies uh based on a number of factors including whether the game is mantle enabled at one in some it didn't win in others but Keys why would I want to get this card over two 290x's in crossfire why did you ask me that in a weird voice that's a good question too well with the 295x2 you'd be saving yourself work overclocking your 290x's so those numbers that the benchmarkers got those are actually from two overclocked 290x's in crossfire so uh with this one it's already overclocked for you um you'd also be reducing latency from the pcie connection so to have two AMD cards in crossfire they have to connect through the pcie bridge and so these ones are on the same card so you would be reducing latency from that and I mean you could potentially Crossfire two of these and you got four gpus and two cards I mean it's pretty cool we should do that so guess what in the U.S this card already has free shipping but in Canada for a limited time if you order the XFX R9 295x2 Hydra Edition use the code this code right here I don't know what code it's going to be yet and get free shipping so that's cool all right guys thanks for watching this unboxing and overview like the video if you feel like it and don't forget to subscribe for more videos like this from NCIX thank you so keystwo gpus one card it's been done before but not like this never like this so this is the XFX Radeon R9 295 X2 Hydra Edition there's a name AMD teased this card like mad they had secret agent videos and stuff viral videos to build up the hype and build it up they did for good reason because this monster has two fully enabled Hawaii cores that are each clocked higher than the single core in an R9 290x and thus this guy has built in liquid cooling because it runs hot so without further Ado let's take it out of the box so actually in the Box we've got a quick install guide a hardware a limited warranty card a power supply specifications card a that's another safety thing driver CD install guide because it does actually come with a nice coaster and uh advertisement for other XFX products as well as a HDMI to DVI adapter and a mini Thunderbolts to HDMI adapter as well and you got mounting screws so guys this video is just an unboxing and overview we haven't really had a chance to do anything really cool with it yet but keep an eye out because we're planning on doing a 4K shootout or something maybe with Titan Z's which has been delayed again which sucks but keep an eye out for that so most 295 x2s on the market are reference designs and at the time of filming only one Custom Design is out there that I know of the power color devil 13 but uh not sure when that's coming this is the XFX version of the 295x2 and they haven't done a whole lot to the reference design I thought that they have replaced the stock fans at first it says fxfx graphics on there but turns out it's a sticker so the stock AMD fans are there on the central blower and the attached 120 millimeter blower on the radiator so this card is a double pcie slot card and it's impressive that AMD could fit all this power into a double high card two gpus taking a cue from nvidia's Titans the entire shroud is made of metal rather than plastic and that gives a lot more heft on the back of the card we have a metal base plate uh attached to the PCB and under the front shroud two pumps uh cover the two Hawaii gpus which are connected to rubber tubing that extends up to the 120 millimeter radiator with a fan and a push configuration now in the card itself it has a DV ID port and four mini display ports although it does also come with that Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter as well as the HDMI to DVI adapter if you need those but you really should be using DisplayPort if you're going UHD guys just use DisplayPort if you can I mean come on on top we have the two eight pin power connectors now this card requires at least 500 watts by itself so you'll definitely need a beefy power supply for this and you know not 500 watts not including the rest of your components in your PC on the bottom we have the standard pcie connector now as I said this card has two 28 nanometer Hawaii gpus compared to the single chip on the 290x and most of the other specs are doubled from that card as well so it's pretty much exactly the equivalent of two 290x's so that means a combined 5632 stream processors 352 texture units 128 rops eight gigabytes of five gigahertz ddr5 vram 1024-bit memory bus so that's two 512-bit memory buses and a combined 12.4 billion transistors as well as a core clock of 1018 megahertz I think 290x's was a thousand megahertz so since that clock is higher than the core clock on the 290x already this card is not really meant for overclocking it's it's got the liquid cooling on there so I mean they've already boosted it now as I said we didn't really get a chance to Benchmark this ourselves but in Benchmark scene around the web the 295x2's performance is consistently comparable or better than two 290x's in crossfire and the difference in average frame rate between those two is not usually larger than one or two frames the performance of the 295x2 versus nvidia's GTX 780 Ti in SLI varies uh based on a number of factors including whether the game is mantle enabled at one in some it didn't win in others but Keys why would I want to get this card over two 290x's in crossfire why did you ask me that in a weird voice that's a good question too well with the 295x2 you'd be saving yourself work overclocking your 290x's so those numbers that the benchmarkers got those are actually from two overclocked 290x's in crossfire so uh with this one it's already overclocked for you um you'd also be reducing latency from the pcie connection so to have two AMD cards in crossfire they have to connect through the pcie bridge and so these ones are on the same card so you would be reducing latency from that and I mean you could potentially Crossfire two of these and you got four gpus and two cards I mean it's pretty cool we should do that so guess what in the U.S this card already has free shipping but in Canada for a limited time if you order the XFX R9 295x2 Hydra Edition use the code this code right here I don't know what code it's going to be yet and get free shipping so that's cool all right guys thanks for watching this unboxing and overview like the video if you feel like it and don't forget to subscribe for more videos like this from NCIX thank you so keys\n"
