AMD's Tonga - R9 285 (Specs) and R9 285X (Partial Specs)

[FatherMurphy]

http://videocardz.com/51279/amd-announces-radeon-r9-285-tonga-gpu

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/amd-radeon-r9-285-reveal,27526.html

As anticipated, AMD announced their replacement cards for Tahiti based R9 280 and 280x.

Is this the generational step we were hoping to see?

The R9 285 launches September 2 for $250.

 

[blackened23]

Seems like the performance per watt is nearly on par with GK104 but not even close to Maxwell. Honestly I thought the efficiency would be way better given some of the leaks in past months. Definitely an improvement over the 250W TDP of the 280X, though.

Anyway... other than that...its another card in between the 280X and 290, there was a pretty large price gap between them in AMD's stack. Some might find it interesting, who knows.

 

[FatherMurphy]

According to Videocardz, the R9 280 has a TDP of 200W and the R9 285 has a TDP of 190W... only a 10W difference at the same specs, except for faster memory frequency but a smaller memory bus.

We don't know the R9 285X's TDP, but surely it is lower than the R9280X at 250W.

 

[ShintaiDK]

TDP is 10W lower than 280. Its 1GB less. Its 256 vs 384bit bus. Memory is only 5.5Ghz. Clock is lower than a 280. And its priced higher.

Its really hard to see the logic behind this one.

 

[blackened23]

Eh, well. There was the 280$ 280X and a 399$ MSRP 290. Big gap in between so that's probably why AMD threw it in there.

As far as the 2GB goes, 2GB is fine IMO. But if a buyer is one of those dudes who wants 8X SSAA or wants to play the worst ubisoft console port known to man (cough watch dogs) then they have the option for 4GB. I know some will whine, argue and moan about 2GB....I think it's fine for the 99% but if anyone wants 4GB then they should get 4GB. Nobody shoves a gun down your throat forcing a 2GB purchase, know what i'm saying.

Card doesn't excite me really, thought the efficiency would be better, but it's completely understandable why AMD put it there in their stack IMO. Fairly large gap between the 280X and the 290. I'm sure AMD wanted to address that.

edit: is this card supposed to be faster than the 280X? I'm assuming it is?

 

[Kenmitch]

Isn't the 285(x) replacing the 280(x) with the bridgeless xfire feature? 2gb memory seems a little low these days.

 

[RaistlinZ]

TDP is 10W lower than 280. Its 1GB less. Its 256 vs 384bit bus. Memory is only 5.5Ghz. Clock is lower than a 280. And its priced higher.

Its really hard to see the logic behind this one.

Seriously. The street price for the R9 280 is currently about $220.00 making the 285 completely pointless with a $250 MSRP, even if it does consume less power.

 

[weevilone]

Not to mention that the 280s are cracking the sub $200 marker with rebates and such. The improved game bundle might be the most exciting part of this.

 

[tviceman]

LOLOLOLOL r9 285 confirmed by AMD to be slower than the 280x

What the hell is wrong with AMD's naming convention. Holy crap this is so stupid.

 

[tviceman]

Card doesn't excite me really, thought the efficiency would be better, but it's completely understandable why AMD put it there in their stack IMO. Fairly large gap between the 280X and the 290. I'm sure AMD wanted to address that.

The performance gap between the 290 and 280x is nearly identical as the gap between the gtx 770 and gtx 780. It's AMD's fault if prices are incredibly skewed. They should have raised MSRP during the mining craze and at least made a few dollars off the sales, while simultaneously preventing the current used market from flooding various sales channels and shaving off new card purchases.

 

[blackened23]

My assumption was that the 285 would be faster than the 280X. If it's slower..... That makes the card a little less interesting if true, I mean, the 280X is like 280$ with 3GB. I don't think 2GB of VRAM is a big deal but still. Weird.

 

[jpiniero]

My assumption was that the 285 would be faster than the 280X. If it's slower..... That makes the card a little less interesting if true, I mean, the 280X is like 280$ with 3GB. I don't think 2GB of VRAM is a big deal but still. Weird.

The 280 and 280X are on clearance though. I imagine they will be soon gone. There will also be a 285X which replaces the 280X.

The 860's probably going to draw like 100 W, so 190W looks bad. I imagine nVidia will make the price higher than 249 though.

 

[Erenhardt]

Seems like the performance per watt is nearly on par with GK104 but not even close to Maxwell. Honestly I thought the efficiency would be way better given some of the leaks in past months. Definitely an improvement over the 250W TDP of the 280X, though.

Anyway... other than that...its another card in between the 280X and 290, there was a pretty large price gap between them in AMD's stack. Some might find it interesting, who knows.

Where do you guys take performance and power consumption numbers from? I'm looking on every single review site and there is none... ;/

 

[ZGR]

Sounds like it should be called the R9 275 instead... At least this should lower the cost of the GTX 760.

 

[sontin]

I said it in another thread:
Tonga is one year to late. How is AMD thinking to compete with Maxwell when they can only catch nVidia's 2 1/2 year Kepler architecture?!

 

[Paul98]

This looks very sad, the 280 was a 7950 which was released at the end of 2011.

 

[skipsneeky2]

Looking forward to the 285x and what it can bring,the 285 honestly doesn't look like anything of a improvement over the 280 and that 2gb vram damn.Guessing this card won't be considered much for crossfire?

285x most likely a 2gb/4gb variant too?Could work for single gpu configurations but damn if anyone crossfires this thing too.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Looking forward to the 285x and what it can bring,the 285 honestly doesn't look like anything of a improvement over the 280 and that 2gb vram damn.Guessing this card won't be considered much for crossfire?

285x most likely a 2gb/4gb variant too?Could work for single gpu configurations but damn if anyone crossfires this thing too.

285X sounds like a 128 TMU, 2048SP 256bit card. So 2 and 4 GB too.

Its quite a wierd replacement for both 280 and 280X. I assume its due to cost reduction. But one also have to ask, why even bother for this.

 

[Paul98]

So does amd have anything coming out in the near future that should be an upgrade?

 

[RussianSensation]

LOLOLOLOL r9 285 confirmed by AMD to be slower than the 280X

What the hell is wrong with AMD's naming convention. Holy crap this is so stupid.

This is one of the worst launches from AMD in years. The naming is all wrong and so is the pricing. I mean 7950 had been $250 for so long, it's insane. Heck, even 1 year ago I remember recommending $300 1-1.05Ghz 7970s from Gigabyte and MSI. You can look at it as 7950/7970 have been some of the best buys in that nothing from AMD has eclipsed those cards in almost 2 years on price/performance. But the sad part is for those gamers who have not upgraded to 7950/760/7970 in the last 1.5 years, they are gaining very little given the time which has passed. If anything this card is gimped by 2GB of VRAM.

I can't even believe anyone thought Tonga would be a Maxwell competitor. Obviously not as it's only GCN 1.1, squarely aimed at 760 and nothing more. I have seen R9 280 for $180-200 many many times and R9 280X for $240-270 is not a rarity. I would pick those up before inventory is depleted. AMD needed to bring 280/280X performance to $200/250 by now, but instead they are still stuck selling us nearly 3 year old 7950/7970 performance for $250-280. Yawn. Let's hope NV's 860/860Ti does something to shake up the otherwise completely stagnant $200-325 landscape of GPUs.

I am pretty shocked at the stagnation in the GPU market right now. I clearly remember recommending after-market 7950 for $280 when 680 used to cost $450. That's 2 years ago!!! In that time there is still no card at $250 that's better than an overclocked 7950, other than the occasional 280X with a rebate.

I said it in another thread:
Tonga is one year to late. How is AMD thinking to compete with Maxwell when they can only catch nVidia's 2 1/2 year Kepler architecture?!

It's obvious that R9 200 series is from the current generation. It doesn't matter if it's 280/285/295X/280X, etc. Maxwell is a next generation product. The competitor to Maxwell is not going to be 285/285X but 300 series. The reason AMD launched these is because it's way cheaper to sell a 256-bit 2GB gimped card then a full fledged 7950/7970/280/280X. It's just going to mean if Nv launches 860/860Ti soon, AMD will be behind by 6-8 months. I mean NV was behind 5-9 months against 7770/7850/7870/7950 with their 650Ti/660/660Ti. The difference is gamers who purchase AMD cards won't be wasting 6-9 months of their life to wait specifically for AMD's response - they will just buy the 860/860Ti. Therefore, it is a lot more critical for AMD to launch on time. They can't really afford for NV's midrange Maxwell lineup to beat them by 6 months or it will be a market share slaughter.

 

[iiiankiii]

This is some weak sauce!! LOL

 

[sontin]

I am pretty shocked at the stagnation in the GPU market right now. I clearly remember recommending after-market 7950 for $280 when 680 used to cost $450. That's 2 years ago!!! In that time there is still no card at $250 that's better than an overclocked 7950, other than the occasional 280X with a rebate.

Yeah and today people with a $450 GTX680 can buy a G-Sync monitor and enjoy the biggest innovation in gaming since years.

AMD's GCN 1.0 products are outdated. I would never recommend them anymore because of the missing features like variable refresh for gaming (if Freesync does exist...)-

 

[skipsneeky2]

My freaking gtx770 feels freaking ancient,the tech is over 2 years old.Never sat on such a piece of hardware for so long with the lack of excitement for a respectable upgrade.God i hope Maxwell pans out or it might be another year or two.

 

[Bateluer]

My freaking gtx770 feels freaking ancient,the tech is over 2 years old.Never sat on such a piece of hardware for so long with the lack of excitement for a respectable upgrade.God i hope Maxwell pans out or it might be another year or two.

Shrug. Until 20nm or lower is available for GPUs, AMD and Nvidia are just going to be rehashing and tweaking their 28nm designs over and over.

 

[Paul98]

I guess that's why they called it the 285 and 285x as they are similar cards just newer arch.