14 DAY TRIAL // With every line of graphics cards, be they NVIDIA or AMD boards, there usually comes a dual-GPU model, even if it doesn't happen immediately. According to a report recently uncovered on the Internet, a Radeon R9 290X2 is in the works.
As the name implies, the board has two Hawaii graphics processing units, or will have once it finally makes its way to stores.
We're not sure when it will happen though. In fact, we are not altogether sure a dual-chip card is even being made.
Sure, the PCPerspective has provided the AMD “Two Is Better than One” teaser, and the way the “two” people in the photo look like siamese twins is a pretty big giveaway (even though it's more along the lines of a kaleidoscopic effect really).
The Tech Report was kind enough to corroborate the teaser though, and there isn't much that “Wouldn’t you agree that two is better than one?” can mean coming from a company like Advanced Micro Devices.
Besides, there was a dual-chip card in the Radeon HD 6000 series (HD 6990) and, later, in the HD 7000 line as well (HD 7990).
So, naturally, the Sunnyvale, California-based company is making a Radeon R9 200 board with two chips as well.
And while the R9 290X2 name has not been confirmed beyond all doubt, for now it will have to do just fine.
So what can the card do, you might ask? We don't know. This is a teaser after all, with barely any info at all. We can make educated guesses though, based on what previous boards could do.
So, if we have two Hawaii graphics processing units, Hawaii XT specifically, and if AMD doesn't seal off some internal features for whatever reason (like power limitations), that means the following: 5,362 cores (2x 2,816 stream processors), 352 texture mapping units (2 x 172), 128 ROPs (2 x 64) and 8 GB of GDDR5 VRAM (since the R9 290X has 4 GB).
AMD might go an extra mile and install 16 GB instead though, since we've been hearing about upcoming single-GPU AMD boards with 8 GB (Sapphire Radeon R9 290X TOXIC and Radeon R9 290X VAPOR-X).
Two 8-pin power connectors will probably be used on the R9 290X2, and the memory interface will be of 512 bits x2. No idea what coolers will be employed, maybe a totally new one. As for the price, it should be of around $999 / €999.