AMD Radeon R9 285 with Tonga GPU pictured

[Boomstick777]

AMD Radeon R9 285 smiles for camera

Radeon R9 285 is essentially R9 270X with R9 280 performance. This card is allegedly equipped with Tonga PRO, thus we shall expect R9 285X with Tonga XT sometime soon. R9 285 is a small card, so if you expect triple-fan coolers, that is not likely to happen at launch (but some AIBs will surely try it). Either way, we heard that R9 285 will even be available in mini-ITX form factor.

http://videocardz.com/51157/amd-radeon-r9-285-tonga-gpu-pictured

 

[stulid]

Boring. Too much market saturation.

 

[FoxEye]

Radeon R9 285 is essentially R9 270X with R9 280 performance.

Makes no sense. Everybody has been saying Tonga is derived from Tahiti, but with better power-saving and a couple new features.

270X is not Tahiti.

I guess as with all the previous rumours this one needs some seasoning too

 

[humbug]

It will be interesting to see how it compares to the 280 with a 256Bit Bus?

Makes no sense. Everybody has been saying Tonga is derived from Tahiti, but with better power-saving and a couple new features.

270X is not Tahiti.

I guess as with all the previous rumours this one needs some seasoning too

Thats daft speculation on thier part, they have no idea how many ROP's and Stream Processors it has, so they have no idea how fast it will be. Not a clue in truth.

 

[TheRealDeal]

Makes no sense. Everybody has been saying Tonga is derived from Tahiti, but with better power-saving and a couple new features.

270X is not Tahiti.

I guess as with all the previous rumours this one needs some seasoning too

I think the article is wrong. Tonga is supposed to GCN 1.1 or newer than so can't be Tahiti or Pitcairn which is GCN 1.0. I think the similarity with the 270x will be the 256 bus.

 

[pgi947]

My guess would be basically a 280x with the features the 260/290 has, true audio, full freesync etc...wouldn't expect much in the way of a perf jump. Also wouldn't expect to see it on 256/2-4gb, staying on 384bit would be a safer bet

 

[TheRealDeal]

My guess would be basically a 280x with the features the 260/290 has, true audio, full freesync etc...wouldn't expect much in the way of a perf jump. Also wouldn't expect to see it on 256/2-4gb, staying on 384bit would be a safer bet

Every leak thats came out suggests it will be 256bit for the Bus size. Hope it's wrong but none so far have these new cards keeping the 384bit Bus.

 

[pgi947]

I say it will stick based on what happened with the 7870xt, by all rights it was a 7900 series card but got demoted to 7800 likely due to its bus and memory size vs its bigger brothers. If this new card was 256-2/4gb I would have expected it to be branded a 275x or something.

I'm not enjoying these 256 rumours coming out of both camps, feels like a step back imo, the gtx600 series highlighted how bad a small bus performs on a high end card.

 

[humbug]

Still to much speculation going on, for all we know it could have 256Bit HBM Memory

 

[pgi947]

That's in interesting prospect, though I feel both amd and nvidia will reserve this new memory for a flagship card.

 

[TheRealDeal]

I say it will stick based on what happened with the 7870xt, by all rights it was a 7900 series card but got demoted to 7800 likely due to its bus and memory size vs its bigger brothers. If this new card was 256-2/4gb I would have expected it to be branded a 275x or something.

I'm not enjoying these 256 rumours coming out of both camps, feels like a step back imo, the gtx600 series highlighted how bad a small bus performs on a high end card.

Yea i think it's a step back but moving forward it might make sense as in the R9 3 series these cards will most likely be re-branded and move down a tier where the 256bit bus makes sense. The size of the card also makes me think it's a cut down spec.

 

[Resa69]

We need some specs!

 

[drunkenmaster]

Tonga isn't Tahiti based, you can't tack on new gen features onto an old gen core. You're talking about a ridiculous amount of work and cost in taping out when after tahiti everything moving forward will be work on newer version of the architecture.

Only a couple of websites more recently are saying rebrand and tahiti based, those articles also literally got every single piece of information wrong. Somehow when I pointed it out the person posted on here, saying they'd change it, said it was based on a bad translation(because GCN1.0 is often mistranslated by google into GCN2.0... and just made up the story again but at least getting some of the basic information right).

It's twaddle, at worst Tonga will be GCN 1.1, it will be similar architecture to Hawaii and people forget that Hawaii has significantly improved performance/watt to Tahiti. It's possible and maybe more likely that Tonga will be GCN2.0, with further performance improvements.

From the relative leaked info(aggregating it all together) you generally hear new features and better performance efficiency, neither of which come from rebrands... ever. You can't take the same core and just make it lower power. The things that make newer cores more efficient is redesigning it for newer/different processes(which happens at the same node, there is more than one 28nm process at TSMC, and Global).

If you're also getting 280 performance into a smaller card, it's an almost certain indicator that it's a smaller die that requires less power and less circuitry on the PCB, another sign it's a new more efficient architecture.

One article in which literally every single piece of information stated in it was completely inaccurate(calling 7700 2 generations old when it's GCN 1.1(the current generation), calling Tahiti GCN 1.1, saying two features were exclusive to R3xx series cards but that Tonga was a rebranded Tahiti... yet had these two new features. It was all complete nonsense.

As said, bet on at worst GCN 1.1(but still tweaked for better efficiency compared to a 7700), but more likely GCN 2.0.

 

[Resa69]

I wonder how it will be priced though

 

[humbug]

Tonga isn't Tahiti based, you can't tack on new gen features onto an old gen core. You're talking about a ridiculous amount of work and cost in taping out when after tahiti everything moving forward will be work on newer version of the architecture.

Only a couple of websites more recently are saying rebrand and tahiti based, those articles also literally got every single piece of information wrong. Somehow when I pointed it out the person posted on here, saying they'd change it, said it was based on a bad translation(because GCN1.0 is often mistranslated by google into GCN2.0... and just made up the story again but at least getting some of the basic information right).

It's twaddle, at worst Tonga will be GCN 1.1, it will be similar architecture to Hawaii and people forget that Hawaii has significantly improved performance/watt to Tahiti. It's possible and maybe more likely that Tonga will be GCN2.0, with further performance improvements.

From the relative leaked info(aggregating it all together) you generally hear new features and better performance efficiency, neither of which come from rebrands... ever. You can't take the same core and just make it lower power. The things that make newer cores more efficient is redesigning it for newer/different processes(which happens at the same node, there is more than one 28nm process at TSMC, and Global).

If you're also getting 280 performance into a smaller card, it's an almost certain indicator that it's a smaller die that requires less power and less circuitry on the PCB, another sign it's a new more efficient architecture.

One article in which literally every single piece of information stated in it was completely inaccurate(calling 7700 2 generations old when it's GCN 1.1(the current generation), calling Tahiti GCN 1.1, saying two features were exclusive to R3xx series cards but that Tonga was a rebranded Tahiti... yet had these two new features. It was all complete nonsense.

As said, bet on at worst GCN 1.1(but still tweaked for better efficiency compared to a 7700), but more likely GCN 2.0.

Yeah, i don't get the 'Based on Tahiti' speculation. i very much doubt it is, this is based on Hawaii if not even newer than that, i'll eat my socks if its not.

VideoCardz are making far too many speculations and presenting them as half truths, none of them make much sense. ignore them, we know nothing. but i think we can safely say its not another Tahiti.

 

[Boomstick777]

Still to much speculation going on, for all we know it could have 256Bit HBM Memory

HBM would be awesome, would at least make this part mildly interesting.

Like Stulid says, to much market saturation at this point.

 

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

One reason for the power reductions is so AMD can have a higher end part they can use in laptops. ATM,the current highest end parts are based on Pitcairn XT. However,for the desktop market price is going to be more important.

 

[AlamoX]

i wanted to replace my 280X with this new 285X, just for true audio and freesync, but the 2Go of ram scew it up for me.

 

[LtMatt]

i wanted to replace my 280X with this new 285X, just for true audio and freesync, but the 2Go of ram scew it up for me.

It will likely have a 4gb option too AlamoX.

 

[Freddie1980]

Tonga isn't Tahiti based, you can't tack on new gen features onto an old gen core. You're talking about a ridiculous amount of work and cost in taping out when after tahiti everything moving forward will be work on newer version of the architecture.

Only a couple of websites more recently are saying rebrand and tahiti based, those articles also literally got every single piece of information wrong. Somehow when I pointed it out the person posted on here, saying they'd change it, said it was based on a bad translation(because GCN1.0 is often mistranslated by google into GCN2.0... and just made up the story again but at least getting some of the basic information right).

It's twaddle, at worst Tonga will be GCN 1.1, it will be similar architecture to Hawaii and people forget that Hawaii has significantly improved performance/watt to Tahiti. It's possible and maybe more likely that Tonga will be GCN2.0, with further performance improvements.

From the relative leaked info(aggregating it all together) you generally hear new features and better performance efficiency, neither of which come from rebrands... ever. You can't take the same core and just make it lower power. The things that make newer cores more efficient is redesigning it for newer/different processes(which happens at the same node, there is more than one 28nm process at TSMC, and Global).

If you're also getting 280 performance into a smaller card, it's an almost certain indicator that it's a smaller die that requires less power and less circuitry on the PCB, another sign it's a new more efficient architecture.

One article in which literally every single piece of information stated in it was completely inaccurate(calling 7700 2 generations old when it's GCN 1.1(the current generation), calling Tahiti GCN 1.1, saying two features were exclusive to R3xx series cards but that Tonga was a rebranded Tahiti... yet had these two new features. It was all complete nonsense.

As said, bet on at worst GCN 1.1(but still tweaked for better efficiency compared to a 7700), but more likely GCN 2.0.

I get the impression from your post you design and manufacturer bleeding edge GPU's from your garden shed then?