14 DAY TRIAL // The Radeon R9 295 X2 video card from Advanced Micro Devices has finally been released to the public.
We've already covered the technical details and possible shortcomings of the new dual-GPU Vesuvius Radeon R9 295 X2 graphics card from AMD, so we'll check out something else instead.
Like the fact that the product really does have a hybrid cooler, with both air-based and water blocks (two, one for each GPU).
It turns out that the cooler was invented by Asetek. It's the first liquid cooling system to be used on a reference graphics card actually.
AMD's board is, for that matter, the first reference board with a closed-loop water cooling system (water cooler that doesn't depend on an existing, external reservoir and pumps).
Water cooling has the advantage of low noise and, of course, better heat dissipation. It'll be interesting to see if any of AMD's OEMs can top the design. More likely they'll factory overclock the thing and call it a day, although with a TDP of already 500W you have to wonder if there's any room for that. The newcomer runs at 1,018 MHz after all.
One of the best things about the cooler is that it is maintenance-free, but you can still take it apart, as long as you don't try to dismount the pumps or anything. The shroud can be taken down, along with the fan, revealing the full cover with two water blocks and a copper heatsink in the middle.
