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The AMD Radeon R9 285 Thread

humbug said:
Not impressed if those reviews are anything to go by, it has same performance and power consumption as the 280, it costs the same despite having 1GB less vRam.

Basically, they haven't improved efficiency at all, removed a third of the vRam and then slapped the same price on it it as the better GPU its replaced.

Its a backward step. even saying it has the same performance as the 280 is a little generous. its a 200 Watt GPU with similar performance of the old low clocked 7970; 200 Watt GPU.
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And you had such high hopes for it ; 780 performance.

On a serious note, I actually have a more positive response to it than you (Beside price) :p.
 
Darujhistan said:
I have slammed NV for VRAM ripoffs, this is AMD pulling exactly the same trick.

I clicked on the thread expecting to see a improved 280x with 3GB VRAM, what I got was a downgraded 280 with less 1GB VRAM.

Epic fail.

No-one previously looking 280x or 280 would buy one of these.
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I'm a fan of AMD, forget about True Auido, 40% increased memory bandwidth and all that... all that masters is does it improve on the GPU it replaced?

By the looks of it the reality is (other than having True Audio) it has no improvement on the GPU it replaced.
It is not any faster, it does not use any less power, from a users perspective the only real difference is the vRam, this one has less.

IMO, to be blunt, this is Crap!, its a failure as a new for old replacement.

This is exactly why AMD lost a massive amount of their CPU enthusiasts, they replaced one CPU with another that was not any better (Bulldozer) From that moment on AMD's CPU market fell hard on its face.

They need to do better than this, a lot better, Nvidia will not stand still, if AMD do they will get over taken in the blink of an eye and never recover.
 
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humbug said:
I'm a fan of AMD, forget about True Auido, 40% increased memory bandwidth and all that... all that masters is does it improve on the GPU it replaced?

By the looks of it the reality is (other than having True Audio) it has no improvement on the GPU it replaced.
It is not any faster, it does not use any less power, from a users perspective the only real difference is the vRam, this one has less.

IMO, to be blunt, this is Crap!, its a failure as a new for old replacement.

This is exactly why AMD lost a massive amount of their CPU enthusiasts, they replaced one CPU with another that was not any better (Bulldozer) From that moment on AMD's CPU market fell hard on its face.

They need to do better than this, a lot better, Nvidia will not stand still, if AMD do they will get over taken in the blink of an eye and never recover.
Click to expand...

The point is it is not supposed to be any faster than the card it replaces, it's job is to occupy a price point.

When the GTX 970/980 show up then it will be very reasonable to throw all the negative comments going at it. These cards will become NVidia's top of the range products but are unlikely to offer much in performance gain. This puts them in an entirely different position to the R9 285 which is filling a gap in the market.:)
 
humbug said:
I'm a fan of AMD, forget about True Auido, 40% increased memory bandwidth and all that... all that masters is does it improve on the GPU it replaced?

By the looks of it the reality is (other than having True Audio) it has no improvement on the GPU it replaced.
It is not any faster, it does not use any less power, from a users perspective the only real difference is the vRam, this one has less.

IMO, to be blunt, this is Crap!, its a failure as a new for old replacement.

This is exactly why AMD lost a massive amount of their CPU enthusiasts, they replaced one CPU with another that was not any better (Bulldozer) From that moment on AMD's CPU market fell hard on its face.

They need to do better than this, a lot better, Nvidia will not stand still, if AMD do they will get over taken in the blink of an eye and never recover.
Click to expand...

Well I'm in neither camp, I buy what makes sense whatever colour. This release is absolutely hopeless, i'm stunned. I had applauded AMD for winning the price/performance battle as I saw it, but this is a massive step back for them.

Mugs who know no better will buy them, but any enthusiast worth his salt will see this garbage card for what it is, a down scaled farce.

Any new or 2nd hand 280/280x is preferable and better value than this rubbish.
 
Geeman1979 said:
Are you on commission for these cards :p
Click to expand...

Darujhistan said:
He must be, it's the GPU equivalent of selling doors door to door!

:D
Click to expand...

No commission but I do think these cards are better than some posters are giving them credit for.:)

I think after a few weeks their price will reflect their worth and people will look at them in a better light when all the 280s and 280Xs are gone.

Does anyone know if these 285s can do quadfire.:D
 
Kaapstad said:
The point is it is not supposed to be any faster than the card it replaces, it's job is to occupy a price point.

When the GTX 970/980 show up then it will be very reasonable to throw all the negative comments going at it. These cards will become NVidia's top of the range products but are unlikely to offer much in performance gain. This puts them in an entirely different position to the R9 285 which is filling a gap in the market.:)
Click to expand...

I don't mind it not being any faster, or even that it only has 2GB of Vram, the main thing for me is the fact that it has exactly the same power consumption.

If Maxwell is anything to go by the GTX 960 will be faster than the 285, use about half the power and be a lot smaller, costing less to make, the 285 is bigger than the 7970. Christ...

If AMD think this card will compete with the GTX 960 they are living in Land Cuckoo.

I have a prediction for you, GTX 960 at least as fast as the GTX 770, use 30% less power, (40% less power than the R9 285) £200, AMD's market share falls off a cliff.
 
Kaapstad said:
No commission but I do think these cards are better than some posters are giving them credit for.:)

I think after a few weeks their price will reflect their worth and people will look at them in a better light when all the 280s and 280Xs are gone.

Does anyone know if these 285s can do quadfire.:D
Click to expand...

I can't see it myself. They are what they are in comparison to 280/280x whether they're gone or not. There will still be plenty floating about 2nd hand.

A real letdown with only 2GB of VRAM and a stand pat at best performance wise.

Quadding 285???

Maybe not!

:)
 
Kaapstad said:
The point is it is not supposed to be any faster than the card it replaces, it's job is to occupy a price point.

When the GTX 970/980 show up then it will be very reasonable to throw all the negative comments going at it. These cards will become NVidia's top of the range products but are unlikely to offer much in performance gain. This puts them in an entirely different position to the R9 285 which is filling a gap in the market.:)
Click to expand...

I'm surprised how much trouble people have understanding this. If 'cheaping out' on the RAM means people can enjoy good performance at a lower price point then I'm all for it. I'm still not impressed by the advertising suggesting these cards for 4k gaming, but that doesn't make the card bad in the slightest, most people are still on 1080p for which it looks fine.
 
Regarding power consumption in a number of reviews it is noticeably lower than the R9 280 yet in others around the same. Really not sure what to take from that TBH!

I was looking at the TR review and it seems tessellation performance is better than the R9 290X:

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

Still not sure why its 5 billion transistors though(bigger than the Tahiti chip in the R9 280X),so I wonder if there is an R9 285X being released??
 
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