Radeon R9 295x2: Down the Rabbit Hole I Go

[Shortbread]

Time to replace my Asus GTX 690 with my new “BEAST”…

 

[Grall]

Wow, grats. Hope you enjoy your new purchase.

Btw, dual CPUs... Pretty hardcore. What have you got hiding under those tower coolers...?

 

[Shortbread]

Thanks! :smile:

I'm enjoying the Beast now ....gaming framerates and benchmarking scores are insane on this card. Just amazing....

My CPUs are Xeon X5675 6-core models.

 

[pjbliverpool]

Thanks! :smile:

I'm enjoying the Beast now ....gaming framerates and benchmarking scores are insane on this card. Just amazing....

My CPUs are Xeon X5675 6-core models.

Yikes, 24 threads! That's 4 for every available Jaguar core in the new consoles! That machine is definately a monster.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

That is a huge motherboard! Nice card, should have oomph for a long time.

 

[Deleted member 13524]

That is a huge motherboard! Nice card, should have oomph for a long time.

He just replaced a friggin' GTX 690, so I doubt this card will be there for a "long time".

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Well time is relative isn't it? 690 might feel a bit claustrophobic with that 2GB and 256bit busses.

 

[Grall]

My CPUs are Xeon X5675 6-core models.

Nice rig that for protein folding if nothing else...! What do you do normally with all those threads? Btw, what's the price for a 2-socket windows license these days? (Ripoff btw charging extra for additional CPUs when there are no additional CPUs included in the packaging! )

 

[Lightman]

Wow! Nice rig!

So, which games/applications you see improvement in and at what resolution?

I had 2xR9 290X in CF when I was still mining coins, but sold 2nd card as CF was overkill for any game in 1920x1200 bar maybe Crysis 3.

 

[homerdog]

Did the mining provide a return on your investment?

 

[Shortbread]

That is a huge motherboard! Nice card, should have oomph for a long time.

My old (now defunct) Tyan motherboard that housed four (4) AMD Opteron CPUs is large! This one is a kitten compared to that MONSTER...

Yikes, 24 threads! That's 4 for every available Jaguar core in the new consoles! That machine is definately a monster.

Yes it is. I will put together some performance numbers (with pics), later during the week.

He just replaced a friggin' GTX 690, so I doubt this card will be there for a "long time".

Usually, I update (upgrade) to the next dual GPU card when they're available. I'm looking at the Nvidia Titan Z (when it becomes available), for another high-spec'd rig that I'm in the process of building. But that is a month or so down the line...

Nice rig that for protein folding if nothing else...! What do you do normally with all those threads? Btw, what's the price for a 2-socket windows license these days? (Ripoff btw charging extra for additional CPUs when there are no additional CPUs included in the packaging! )

Way back in my Rage3D days, I use to fold (folding@home) my ass off with other rigs. Now, its mostly for video rendering/editing CS6 projects for clients, and of course gaming needs.

Wow! Nice rig!

So, which games/applications you see improvement in and at what resolution?

I had 2xR9 290X in CF when I was still mining coins, but sold 2nd card as CF was overkill for any game in 1920x1200 bar maybe Crysis 3.

See above. Gaming wise, mostly all the latest 1st person shooters that support multithreading and SLI/Crossfire setups. But I'm looking forward to playing Watch Dogs later this month, at 4k.

Pic's of the card installed (10 minute install).

 

[Blazkowicz]

Nice rig that for protein folding if nothing else...! What do you do normally with all those threads? Btw, what's the price for a 2-socket windows license these days? (Ripoff btw charging extra for additional CPUs when there are no additional CPUs included in the packaging! )

Should be Windows 8 Pro (or 7) which is just a little bit more expensive than Standard.

Had a weird thought.. Socket 1366, that's old school!
At least the CPUs are 32nm.

I wonder what's that sound card?

 

[Grall]

Oh yeah, I missed there being 6 DIMMs per socket. Hey 'Bread, you've not populated all memory channels! Bad kitty!

By the way, I have 2 packs of Walker's Shortbread Highlanders sitting on my kitchen table. They're quite delicious with tea...

By the way 2, I would not mind a 6-core CPU for my ole S1366 backup rig, but they're quite hard to find these days, AND EXPENSIVE, if you want top of line. Ugh! Anyone know which chip was the most cost effective for that generation of CPUs, for overclocking purposes...?

 

[Shortbread]

Should be Windows 8 Pro (or 7) which is just a little bit more expensive than Standard.

Had a weird thought.. Socket 1366, that's old school!
At least the CPUs are 32nm.

I wonder what's that sound card?

Forgot to answer that part of Grall question. But yes, I'm using Windows 8 and Windows 7 Ultimate on another. If I'm not mistaken (haven't checked in awhile), I believe MS charges by the socket (once you're above two sockets and using their server side Operating Systems), not by logical core.

Yes they're 1366 proc's. I really don't upgrade CPU's unless I'm CPU bound by some odd reason. Plus, my proc's aren't breaking a sweat (yet), especially with 12MB of cache on hand - each.

 

[Shortbread]

Oh yeah, I missed there being 6 DIMMs per socket. Hey 'Bread, you've not populated all memory channels! Bad kitty!

By the way, I have 2 packs of Walker's Shortbread Highlanders sitting on my kitchen table. They're quite delicious with tea...

By the way 2, I would not mind a 6-core CPU for my ole S1366 backup rig, but they're quite hard to find these days, AND EXPENSIVE, if you want top of line. Ugh! Anyone know which chip was the most cost effective for that generation of CPUs, for overclocking purposes...?

I'm getting around to that. Right now I'm sitting on 24GB (two are hidden under the hulking CPU coolers) ...but yes, I need to get off my ass and fill the other 4 slots.

Cookies... :drool smilie: lol

Hum, can't say. Maybe something within the IVY-Bridge family, probably the upcoming Haswell family. I haven't done any major research lately on CPUs, since I'm not bound yet. Mostly eyeballing GPU stuff for awhile...

 

[Grall]

Ivy and Haswell don't fit S1366 though... Only nehalem and westmere IIRC. I've got a core i7 920 nehalem, and it doesn't overclock very well (C0 revision; runs super hot, hits 80C+ easily already around 3.4GHz with good air cooler.)

Btw, your handle... You brit by any chance, or just like shortbread a whole lot?

 

[Blazkowicz]

By the way 2, I would not mind a 6-core CPU for my ole S1366 backup rig, but they're quite hard to find these days, AND EXPENSIVE, if you want top of line. Ugh! Anyone know which chip was the most cost effective for that generation of CPUs, for overclocking purposes...?

If you have one on the motherboard, don't look further.
Rare used 6-core i7 (Westmere) or fast Xeon i7 will be more available when some of their owners upgrade to Haswell-E I think.

BTW there's socket 1356
It's just the same : dual CPU, triple channel, 6 + 3 DIMMs or 6 + 6 DIMMs, with Ivy Bridge instead (but lower clocked "server-grade" CPU, one is at 2.5GHz base / 3GHz turbo)
I looked at it the other day to see what crazy rig was doable. For ~10K euros you can get dual CPU, 384GB RAM , a couple 1TB SSDs, a ton of hard drives, dual Maxwell GPUs - I was trying to make a cheap rig also with the concept of hypervisor with Vt-d enabled VMs - and all of that can run from a 650W Gold PSU that costs only 100 euros.

To fill it with 16GB sticks (registered, ddr3 1600) instead of 32GB sticks would make it a lot cheaper.
Going bonkers on the DRAM is thus affordable.

 

[Blazkowicz]

I'm getting around to that. Right now I'm sitting on 24GB (two are hidden under the hulking CPU coolers) ...but yes, I need to get off my ass and fill the other 4 slots.

BTW the platform officially supports 4GB DIMMs and unofficially support 8GBs ones (speaking of regular, non registered memory)
I suffer from PTSD from one day running both Firefox and Chrome under 2GB.

 

[Grall]

If you have one on the motherboard, don't look further.
Rare used 6-core i7 (Westmere) or fast Xeon i7 will be more available when some of their owners upgrade to Haswell-E I think.

Hmm... Perhaps, yes. Found only a couple high-end chips on ebay when I looked a couple weeks ago (while dreaming, lol), and they cost quite a bit. Hate ebay btw. Is there any other service that deals in 2nd hand/older/obsolete computer hardware that I could use that isn't quite so fking evil...?

BTW there's socket 1356

Ah, yes. Xeon-only, yes? There are xeons for 1366 also? I'm fairly uninformed here. I suppose I could just hit up wikipedia and inform myself, but where's the sport in that!

I looked at it the other day to see what crazy rig was doable. For ~10K euros you can get dual CPU

You know, for that kind of cash (if I'd had it!), I'd rather just pick up a new, fully loaded MacPro. Or rather, I'd do it when haswell-e is out. Maybe there'd be a full, 15-core CPU option to choose from.

 

[Shortbread]

Ivy and Haswell don't fit S1366 though... Only nehalem and westmere IIRC. I've got a core i7 920 nehalem, and it doesn't overclock very well (C0 revision; runs super hot, hits 80C+ easily already around 3.4GHz with good air cooler.)

Btw, your handle... You brit by any chance, or just like shortbread a whole lot?

I'm sorry, I misunderstood your question. I thought you were looking into the latest generation of processors. But yes, a good Gulftown/Westmere processor is the route to go. Great overclocking capabilities ...with proper cooling of course.

Just Shortbread...

BTW the platform officially supports 4GB DIMMs and unofficially support 8GBs ones (speaking of regular, non registered memory)
I suffer from PTSD from one day running both Firefox and Chrome under 2GB.

Yup. I'm currently using 4GB modules across six dims (24GB) at the moment. Probably fill the rest by Monday.