Just a short while ago, the Radeon Pro Duo was launched. We have been anticipating this GPU (as the Fury X2) for quite a while now because of the power efficiency that Fiji provides compared to the Hawaii. The Fury line of GPUs have been super successful also to thermal efficiencies. Heat has never been an issue at all, as far as the Furies go, even when just air cooled. The Fury Nano is a good example of good heat control and power envelope, being similarly specced to the Fury X. Though it's a little bit of a power lock on stock, OC-ing it will bring it super close to the Fury X.
Don't expect it to come cheap, at 1500 USD. Now for 1500 American Greenbacks, it better damn well be fast. It's geared towards VR, but also Prosumers and VR developers so it's not for the meek of wallet. As a general gaming card though, one card will be enough to ensure your gaming system will last for years to come.
The pricing is a lot more than putting 2 Fury Xs in Crossfire. But I understand that cramping everything into a single PCB will definitely take the headaches out from fitting in 2 rads into the system if you're using 2 Fury Xs rather than Nanos. And it'll be the most powerful fit in an ITX system (in a small and long case like the Coolermaster Elite 130).
Having that said, what do you get for extra 400-500 bucks instead of 2 Fury Xs / Nanos put together?
- A Full Dual Slot card
- Double the VRAM on a Single PCB.
- 350W TDP instead of 550W TDP for 2 cards.
- VR Capable.
Now the card's raw power is totally ready for max scores in VR-gaming, with 8192 Stream Processors and 8 Gigs of HBM. This raw power will render itself way too powerful / overkill for standard 1080p gaming. 2 GTX 970s that I have is still tipping overkill already, let alone the Pro Duo. Good Hi-Resolutions like 1440p or 4K or Eyefinity is the way to go with this card.
Having said that, I would wait till they jack the pricing down because spending extra instead of going 2 cards is questionable. But this is not the first time they jack the launch prices so high. Because they did the same with the Radeon 7990, and the R9 295X2 also at the same launch price, only to later jack the costs down once nVidia Flagships enter the market. It's the same thing that nVidia did with their Titan Z. And now the Fiji based Pro Duo / Fury X2 kinda makes the old GK110 Z like a dwarf, don't it? Then they jacked the pricing down also in light of Maxwell. Jacking off huh? See the trend?
A Single 980Ti can beat a Fury X but No Doubt the Pro Duo gonna be way more powerful than a single 980 Ti. But no question otherwise that 2 980 Tis will still be cheaper and more powerful than a Pro Duo and with the overclocking dream too. Who knows? Maybe even 2 regular 980s when overclocked can even go head to head or at least come extremely close? I don't know!
At this tier of GPUs / configurations that are similarly powerful or similarly priced that are so many Single or Dual Flagship options available. So It'll be plenty interesting to see how the reviews will go head-to-head between these options:
R9 Pro Duo
2 R9 Fury Xs
2 R9 Fury Nanos
2 R9 Fury
R9 295X2
Single R9 Fury
Single R9 390X
2 R9 390Xs
2 GTX 980 Tis / Titan Xs
2 GTX 980 OC
Single 980 Ti / Titan X
I wouldn't be surprised that AMD will surely jack the pricing down later. However all that will depend on how good Pascal will eventually turn out as well as the reviews for this GPU.
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