The AMD Radeon R9 285 Thread

Kaapstad · 25 Aug 2014 at 06:09

The Radeon R9 285 Thread.

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AMDMatt goes rallying with Dirt Rally.

GPU 285 @1125/1500, Content Dirt Rally - Ultra Preset + MSAA x4, CPU 5960X @4.0, AMDMatt, Drivers 15.4

AMDMatt Benching Tomb Raider.

GPU 285 @1175/1500, Content Tomb Raider - Ultimate Preset - FXAA, CPU 5960X @4.0, AMDMatt, Drivers 15.4

AMDMatt Benching Hitman.

GPU 285 @1175/1500, Content Hitman Absolution - Ultra Preset MSAA x2, CPU 5960X @4.0, AMDMatt, Drivers 15.4

AMDMatt Benching Thief.

GPU 285 @1175/1500, Content Thief - Custom Very High Preset SSAA High, CPU 5960X @4.0, AMDMatt, Drivers 15.4

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Kaapstad · 25 Aug 2014 at 06:31

Tonga VRAM Memory Management Explained.

http://techreport.com/review/26997/amd-radeon-r9-285-graphics-card-reviewed/2

pgi947 · 25 Aug 2014 at 06:39

Cheers kaap! What's pricing supposed to be like on these?

Unless they're £100 why would you even consider it over a 280?

Doogles · 25 Aug 2014 at 06:44

AMD and Nvidia keep wasting our time with rebrands, at this rate my R9 290 is going to last a thousand years! Looking wise the Powercolor and MSI look the best.

I also like how they keep using Buggyfield 4 to advertise, it really says everything.

_Alatar_ · 25 Aug 2014 at 07:56

Doogles said:
AMD and Nvidia keep wasting our time with rebrands, at this rate my R9 290 is going to last a thousand years! Looking wise the Powercolor and MSI look the best.

I also like how they keep using Buggyfield 4 to advertise, it really says everything.

This isn't a rebrand. However it is extremely disappointing for a card that was supposed to rival maxwell efficiency wise. Now it looks like it's going to just about match GK104 both power and perf wise.

Welcome to early 2012 AMD.

tommybhoy · 25 Aug 2014 at 08:34

Sapphire launched its first performance-segment "compact" graphics card to take on the likes of GeForce GTX 760 ITX cards by ASUS and MSI, even if it isn't the first AMD AIB partner to do so. Sapphire's card is based on AMD's swanky new Radeon R9 285 graphics chip, which is slated for September 2nd, 2014. Called the R9 285 ITX Compact Edition, the card is a little over 17 cm long, 11 cm tall, and 2-slot thick. It features a dense aluminium fin-stack heatsink, which is ventilated by a single 100 mm fan. The card draws power from two 6-pin PCIe connectors. A single 8-pin to two 6-pin adapter is included.

This is also likely the first/only R9 285 card to feature dual-BIOS, with a push-type BIOS toggle switch. This switch lets you select between a UEFI-ready BIOS that features a UEFI GOP driver, and a "legacy" BIOS. Both run the card at the same clock speeds - 918 MHz core, with 5.50 GHz (GDDR5-effective) memory. Sapphire is also readying an OC Edition variant of this card, which comes with a puny 10 MHz overclock (928 MHz core), and untouched memory clocks. Based on the 28 nm "Tonga" silicon, the R9 285 offers 1,792 GCN 1.1 stream processors, 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide memory interface, which holds 2 GB of memory

http://www.techpowerup.com/204507/sapphire-radeon-r9-285-itx-compact-edition-pictured.html

LtMatt · 25 Aug 2014 at 09:03

Thanks Kaap, good idea.

Marine-RX179 · 25 Aug 2014 at 09:51

Just when we though we've seen the last of the GK104, now we are seeing AMD's version as well

Doogles said:
AMD and Nvidia keep wasting our time with rebrands, at this rate my R9 290 is going to last a thousand years! Looking wise the Powercolor and MSI look the best.

Had they managed to improve efficiency while keeping the same bus-size and adding the new features such as TrueAudio, then there MIGHT at least be something attractive about it provided it's priced low enough; but dropping from 384-bit down to 256-bit for the sake of lower power-consumption!? Wake up AMD! Had people want cards such as that, they'd bought the GTX670/680/770 already :rolleyes:

oweneades · 25 Aug 2014 at 10:47

Be interesting to see the reviews on these. The only real advantage the 280/280X had over the 760/770 was the wider memory bus (even then they were basically interchangeable performance wise), without that advantage what is there?

Hopefully pricing on the 4GB models will be aggressive (unlike Nvidia) so that will be something.

Pleiades · 25 Aug 2014 at 11:10

Have to say these are a bit of a disappointment, memory & bus width wise

May have been expecting too much from the '285' moniker I guess...

Davedree · 25 Aug 2014 at 11:11

Marine-RX179 said:
Just when we though we've seen the last of the GK104, now we are seeing AMD's version as well

Had they managed to improve efficiency while keeping the same bus-size and adding the new features such as TrueAudio, then there MIGHT at least be something attractive about it provided it's priced low enough; but dropping from 384-bit down to 256-bit for the sake of lower power-consumption!? Wake up AMD! Had people want cards such as that, they'd bought the GTX670/680/770 already

Really is a strange release by Amd, although very similar to 5870 vs 6970 in that the all important die shrink wasn't there at the time.
I can see the 285 is mid rnage, maybe it would have provided -/+ 7950/7970 performance
with gcn 1.1 goodies but with a power envelope of maybe 110-130 watts,
if the die shrink was there.

Still it will be interesting for someone to bench one of these cards against a non 1.25v boosted 7950 for a measily 800-900 clock.
Then to test hawaii front end performance vs tahiti, vs power consumption. with a finale on the 384 bit vs 256 bus fight.

biuro74 · 25 Aug 2014 at 11:13

It's another Radeon 8500->9x00, 9500Pro->9600Pro or 5850->6850 roundup here I think.

Reviews will be 2nd Sep due to NDA lift date.

Kaapstad · 25 Aug 2014 at 11:25

Radeon R9 285 Clock Speeds and Pricing Revealed

It's confirmed the GeForce GTX 760 really is on AMD's crosshair's with the Radeon R9 285. Based on the 28 nm "Tonga" silicon, which is designed to offer "Tahiti" like performance at the energy-efficiency levels comparable to NVIDIA's GK104, the R9 285 features 1,792 Graphics CoreNext stream processors, 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 2 GB or 4 GB of memory. The card will feature clock speeds of 918 MHz core, 5.50 GHz memory. AMD claims the R9 285 will be up to 15 percent faster than the GeForce GTX 760. It will start at US $249, with partners coming out with custom-designs on day-one (September 2nd, 2014).

http://www.techpowerup.com/204464/amd-radeon-r9-285-clock-speeds-and-pricing-revealed.html

Radeon R9 285 Features 1,792 Stream Processors

AMD disclosed the first details of its upcoming Radeon R9 285 graphics card, designed to compete with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 760. Based on the 28 nm "Tonga" silicon, the card features 1,792 of the chip's 2,048 Graphics Core Next 1.1 stream processors, 112 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. AMD AIBs will have variants with 2 GB and 4 GB of memory. The company didn't disclose clock speeds, but the card will be designed to offer performance rivaling (or outperforming) the R9 280, at energy-efficiency levels rivaling NVIDIA's GK104 silicon. Below are some of the first custom-design graphics cards.

http://www.techpowerup.com/204462/amd-radeon-r9-285-features-1-792-stream-processors.html

Radeon R9 285 3DMark FireStrike Performance Revealed

AMD put out its own 3DMark FireStrike performance numbers for its soon-to-launch Radeon R9 285 performance-segment graphics card. Running on a test-bed powered by a Core i7-4960X six-core processor and 16 GB of DDR3-1866 memory, the R9 285 scored P7066 (performance preset) and X3513 (extreme preset); compared to an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 (337.88 WHQL driver) scoring P5650 and X2774, on the same test-bed. For a card that's in the same price-range (the R9 285 will start at $249) as the GTX 760 (currently going for as low as $239), that's an impressive performance uplift. The R9 285 will start selling on the 2nd of September, 2014.

http://www.techpowerup.com/204467/radeon-r9-285-3dmark-firestrike-performance-revealed.html

New Never Settle: Space Edition Rewards Announced

AMD announced the latest round of free games with its upcoming graphics cards, the Never Settle: Space Edition. The bundle adds several new space-themed games to the 27 free games you can choose, as a reward for going AMD Radeon. These games include Star Citizen, Alien: Isolation, Space Run, and Habitat. Buyers of all AMD graphics cards with unused Never Settle coupons can choose from these four titles.

http://www.techpowerup.com/204465/amd-announces-never-settle-space-edition-rewards.html

humbug · 25 Aug 2014 at 14:57

Core i7-4960X six-core processor and 16 GB of DDR3-1866 memory, the R9 285 scored P7066 (performance preset) and X3513 (extreme preset);

I don't understand why reviewers measure a GPU's performance only to the overall (+CPU) score, its almost useless to measure a GPU's performance when you add in the infinite variation of the CPU.

Why don't they just use the actual GPU score????????? is it just me or is that too much like common sense?

Its clearly significantly faster than a GTX 760, but how it compares to the 280 it replaces is impossible to know as you would have to disentangle it from the CPU score they included.

Its so simple.

This is the combined score, this includes my CPU.
Score: 25600. it says nothing about how the GPU performs.

This is my GPU score, this is the bit that tells you how fast the GPU is, the GPU alone.
Graphics Score: 42177.

That ^^^^^ not the first, is the measurement that should be used to measure the GPU's performance.

Simple.

http://www.3dmark.com/sd/2144655

humbug · 25 Aug 2014 at 15:15

I like those new impeller fans from Powercolor.

thefogo · 25 Aug 2014 at 15:16

Yeah they look pretty nice. Good looking cooler.

bru · 25 Aug 2014 at 16:37

Got to agree with everybody about this card, I just don't get it.

Also why put it up against the 760, when it is the 860 that it will have to battle with. They should have put it up against the 770, even though I expect it would look anywhere near as good against that card. As that is the level of performance that the 860 should have.

TheRealDeal · 25 Aug 2014 at 16:47

bru said:
Got to agree with everybody about this card, I just don't get it.

Also why put it up against the 760, when it is the 860 that it will have to battle with. They should have put it up against the 770, even though I expect it would look anywhere near as good against that card. As that is the level of performance that the 860 should have.

The 285x will be pitted against the gtx770.

humbug · 25 Aug 2014 at 16:55

bru said:
Got to agree with everybody about this card, I just don't get it.

Also why put it up against the 760, when it is the 860 that it will have to battle with. They should have put it up against the 770, even though I expect it would look anywhere near as good against that card. As that is the level of performance that the 860 should have.

Its targeting is based on cost, it will cost around the same as a GTX 760.

The rumour is it scores 25% higher in Fire Strike than the GTX 760 (P5650 vs P7066 on a 6 core i7)

~P7100 on a 3960X is the same as a 280X / GTX 770

http://www.legitreviews.com/amd-radeon-r9-280x-video-card-review-asus-xfx-msi_126195/9

So if that rumour is true then in terms of performance it is actually the same as a GTX 770.

For AMD, the DIE will be much smaller so it will be much cheaper to produce.

bru · 25 Aug 2014 at 17:26

I really do not understand what AMD are thinking, this new card that they have just announced they have pitted it against the 760 in all their launch material, a cards which is just about to be replaced with the 860, which will have much better performance (770 levels), so just what are they pitting this against. It makes no sense.