14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, Advanced Micro Devices teased the upcoming dual-GPU graphics card based on the latest 28nm Hawaii graphics processing units, and now we have the confirmation, even though the product still hasn't been launched.
Dutch site bouweenpc was able, over the past 24 hours, to somehow acquire some details about the product, from the name to the frequency.
We assumed, previously, that the dual-chip card would be called Radeon R9 290X2, but the new report says it will be named R9 295X2 instead.
Most of the other assumptions panned out though, or haven't been debunked yet, so we can rest more or less easy knowing that our guess was on the mark.
Not that there were many chances of AMD using crippled GPUs. When it comes to dual-processor video boards, TDP can become a concern, but it is usually moderated by downclocking the chips, not by sealing off some of their internal components.
So yes, as far as we can see, the Radeon R9 295X2 has all the 5,632 stream processors activated, as well as two 512-bit interfaces, each connected to half the memory.
The VRAM capacity could very well be of 8 GB (2 x 4 GB), but AMD might decide to go much higher, all the way to 16 GB (2 x 8 GB). To outdo the 8 GB single-GPU Sapphire Radeon R9 290X TOXIC and Vapor-X if nothing else.
If the TDP ends up at the same 375W as on the Radeon HD 7990, there will probably be two 8-pin power inputs on the PCB as well.
As for the clock, it will be of 1 GHz, which makes for 2 GHz total. Truly, this is shaping up to be a monstrously overpowered graphics controller, priced at around $999 / €999, no doubt.
However, there may be a catch here. 1 GHz is bound to cause a lot of heat, so the company could, in fact, do what we said wasn't normal to do here: use a “crippled” GPU, like the Hawaii employed in the Radeon R9 290, not R9 290X. That chip has 2,560 SPs, which suggests 5,120 SPs in total.
Any or all of these specs could be proven true at the Game Developer Conference (GDC 2014), assuming AMD really does intend to unveil it there. But they could also be proven false. Such things have happened before.
As for the cooler, AMD likely won't have a choice but to employ a triple-fan model with both air and liquid cooling, maybe with an attachable radiator that goes on the side panel or a case.