Review and testing of video cards for laptops AMD Radeon R9 M295X :Test | Specs | CPU | Config

In mid-May, the first information appeared about AMD Tonga graphics chips for notebooks based on the improved Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. Then it was reported that the new processors will provide a significant reduction in power consumption compared to current products. For the Tonga, updated PowerTune with Boost technology, support for Mantle, TrueAudio and possibly CrossFire were mentioned.

The first Tonga-based notebook graphics card was the AMD Radeon R9 M295X, which is used as discrete graphics in the new Apple iMac with an ultra-clear Retina 5K display. The adapter itself, the Radeon R9 M295X according to available information, includes 2048 stream processors and 4 GB of GDDR5 memory with a 256-bit interface, and the GPU and VRAM frequencies are 800/1375 MHz.

According to the synthetic tests of the Cinebench benchmark, the new AMD significantly outperforms competing NVIDIA models, namely the GeForce GTX 780m and GeForce GTX 770 in terms of performance. Of course, synthetic tests (including Cinebench) are far from the most perfect and accurate measurement tool. As for gaming testing, it turns out that the AMD Radeon R9 M295X is comparable in performance to the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M graphics card.

Supported technologies

ATI PowerPlay Is a dynamic power management technology used in some graphics processing units (GPUs) manufactured by AMD (formerly ATI). The principle of operation is based on tracking the GPU load, determining the optimal parameters and correspondingly changing the clock frequency of the chip, memory and supply voltage, thereby optimizing the power consumption and heat dissipation of the video card. The technology in idle modes can disable unused GPU blocks.

ATI Eyefinity — a technology developed by the American company AMD that allows multiple displays to be connected together to a personal computer. ATI Eyefinity assumes connection from one to six displays inclusive to one graphics card. Desktop duplication and stretching modes are supported across multiple monitors, and a special new feature allows displays to be grouped into one large screen that can display a PC desktop or, for example, video, as well as windowed or full-screen 3D applications.

AMD HD3D — The technology is supported by an extended and open ecosystem that, when combined with specific AMD hardware and software technologies, enables the 3D viewing of many applications and processes on the PC.

AMD Enduro — Automatically disables AMD Radeon discrete graphics for lightweight applications and extends battery life.

AMD Zero Core — In a deep idle state, the new GPU consumes less than 5% of the power of full-fledged mode, disabling most of the functional blocks in this mode.

TrueAudio Is a built-in programmable audio engine in the AMD GPU, it provides guaranteed real-time processing of audio tasks, regardless of the installed CPU. To do this, several Tensilica HiFi EP Audio DSP DSP cores are integrated into the named AMD graphics processors, access to their capabilities is carried out using popular sound processing libraries, the developers of which can use the resources of the built-in audio engine using a special TrueAudio API. AMD has long and closely cooperated with many companies known for their developments in this area: game developers, developers of audio middleware, audio algorithms, etc., and several games with TrueAudio support have already been released.

PowerTune, designed for intelligent real-time power management. AMD PowerTune technology automatically overclocks and accelerates the system with the latest games. In addition, PowerTune also provides rich overclocking capabilities for the Tonga GPU. In the driver settings, the user can set several parameters, such as the target GPU temperature, the relative fan speed in the cooling device, as well as the maximum power consumption level, and the video card will do the rest by setting the maximum possible frequency and other parameters (GPU voltage, fan speed) in changed conditions.

API Mantle, a technology that helps make more efficient use of the hardware capabilities of AMD GPUs, as Mantle is not limited by the shortcomings of the available graphics APIs: OpenGL and DirectX. To do this, a thinner software shell is used between the game engine and the hardware resources of the GPU, similar to how it has been done for a long time on game consoles. The API was developed at AMD with the help of leading game developers from Dice, and Battlefield 4 was the first game to use Mantle, showing good performance gains from Direct3D to Mantle.

Specifications

Synthetic tests

• 3DMark (2013) – Fire Strike Standard Graphics: 6032
• 3DMark 11 – Performance GPU: 9524

Game testing

Dragon Age: Inquisition. The resolution is 1920 × 1080 pixels, the graphics settings in the game (High), the average FPS was 51. When the resolution was increased to the level of 1920 × 1080 pixels, the graphics settings in the game (Ultra, MSAA: 2x) averaged 35 FPS.

Watch Dogs. At high settings (1920×1080, High High, 2xMSAA), the average number of FPS in the game was 41. At maximum graphics settings (1920×1080, Ultra Ultra, 4xMSAA) -32 FPS.

Alien: Isolation. Resolution 1920х1080 pixels, graphics settings in the game (Hihg, Map 1536, SSAO, 2xMSAA 8xAF) the average FPS was 84. When the resolution was increased to 1920х1080 pixels, the graphics settings in the game (Ultra, Map 2048, HDAO, 4xMSAA 16xAF) the number of FPS averaged 67.