Assemblies of double coated radiographic elements exhibiting sharply curtailed crossover and front and back intensifying screen pairs are disclosed. By choosing a front screen that exceeds a stated sharpness criterion, expressed in terms of modulation transfer factors (MTF), and a back screen and adjacent emulsion layer unit combination exhibiting a photicity at least twice that of the combination of the front screen and its adjacent emulsion layer unit an enhancement in detective quantum efficiency (DQE) is realized.