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

[AtenRa]

Market price is as low as $185 with rebates.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...D=3938566&SID=

This is not moving forward.

Most 280s are below $250

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/video-card/#c=167&sort=a8

And a few months ago with miners they where higher than MRSP, you know very well that current prices are to clear the stock.

Also, at the same MRSP you get more features and lower TDP (we just wait to see the performance)

 

[Enigmoid]

And a few months ago with miners they where higher than MRSP, you know very well that current prices are to clear the stock.

Also, at the same MRSP you get more features and lower TDP (we just wait to see the performance)

I don't care about MSRP. I only care about street price. I think most agree with me.

 

[Silverforce11]

It is what it is, a margin filler, these things are cheaper than Tahiti to make and if they sell at similar prices, more money to them. It's a very stale launch for those already on decent hardware.

It says a lot about the next gen to launch these, ie. delayed.

 

[MathMan]

It is what it is, a margin filler, these things are cheaper than Tahiti to make and if they sell at similar prices, more money to them. It's a very stale launch for those already on decent hardware.

It says a lot about the next gen to launch these, ie. delayed.

Yeah, this card is great to reduce, not stop, the bleeding that will happen when gm204 and gm206 are introduced.

If Nvidia is smart, they'll price their low enough to really hurt AMD. One can always hope.

 

[el etro]

Do you remember HD6870 ???

It seems that R9 285 is much less of an effort than the 6870. But more or less the analogy is right(IMO).

 

[el etro]

It is what it is, a margin filler, these things are cheaper than Tahiti to make and if they sell at similar prices, more money to them. It's a very stale launch for those already on decent hardware.

A thing that i want to see is how the Bonaire tech can improve in the power efficiency of the first of all GCN products launched back in 2012.



So, the chip order will be Tahiti XT -> Tahiti XTL(the revision) -> And then Tonga(Tahiti config at Bonaire Arch).

 

[Shmee]

I wonder how they will OC. Still, pitty about the naming convention and lesser bus/memory size.

 

[RussianSensation]

It says a lot about the next gen to launch these, ie. delayed.

From AMD side it seems R9 300 mid-range won't be out for at least 6 months then. It would be an interesting strategy if NV's first wave of Maxwell is 28nm but AMD waits to launch R300 on 20nm since they know they can't deliver 2x perf/watt of Maxwell on 28n. Essentially we would have NV competing on far superior architecture from perf/watt but AMD will compensate with 20nm. This time it's really hard to get any read on 300 series since there have been no leaks at all. The question is why didn't AMD just lower 280/280X prices by $50 and added the same game bundle? For gamers a 3GB 280X for $249 MSRP would have probably been more preferable than a 285X 2GB for $279. Maybe AMD can reposition the 285X as a $279 4GB card.

 

[Silverforce11]

Sorry, I don't believe that for a second.

If AMD needs a new node to compete, they've lost and are doomed. Because NV will also switch to the new node ASAP. It's not an Intel monopoly on new node, this is open source from TSMC where AMD doesn't get special treatment or first dibs.

All it suggest to me is AMD's new gen (GCN2.0) architecture is just not ready and they know it for a long time, so this launch is to stem the bleeding they will get when GM204 arrives, because these cards are going to have to compete on price (much lower) to compensate for major disadvantages (perf/w & new features).

 

[DarkKnightDude]

They've giving away Star Citizen ship variant and Alien isolation apparently with this card. Nice.

 

[Borealis7]

it's a card for the uninformed. anyone who knows anything about GPUs will just get a used 290 or 280X for less than that card costs. the 2nd hand market is flooded with cards.

 

[xpea]

AMD R&D expense reduction really starts to show off.
They can't continue like that because they will be soon irrelevant in dGPU business. AMD needs high margin market to pay their R&D.
On the other side, Nvidia is doing so much now in the HPC, cloud and big data fields that AMD will never catch up (see http://scent.gist.ac.kr/downloads/2014hpcss_14.pdf )
sade time for competition and end users

 

[Flapdrol1337]

The question is why didn't AMD just lower 280/280X prices by $50 and added the same game bundle? For gamers a 3GB 280X for $249 MSRP would have probably been more preferable than a 285X 2GB for $279. Maybe AMD can reposition the 285X as a $279 4GB card.

Maybe these are cheaper to produce for the performance delivered? Can always lower prices after launch right?

 

[3DVagabond]

The question is why didn't AMD just lower 280/280X prices by $50 and added the same game bundle? For gamers a 3GB 280X for $249 MSRP would have probably been more preferable than a 285X 2GB for $279. Maybe AMD can reposition the 285X as a $279 4GB card.

It does offer GCN1.1 feature set. Still underwhelming though. If this slotted into the 270 price slot, that would be much better.

 

[Borealis7]

it could be that AMD is testing the waters and a price cut is coming as it was with other products in the last round of releases.

 

[jpiniero]

It does offer GCN1.1 feature set. Still underwhelming though. If this slotted into the 270 price slot, that would be much better.

I don't see the reason, unless the 860 ends up being faster than the 285.

 

[Cloudfire777]

Have you seen the performance in games and power consumption already ??

No but the board power is there, black on white.
Compared to R9 280 (which surely is lower than 250W) its a dissappointment.

This is GCN 1.1 like Hawaii (R9 290X) architecture launched just 10 months ago.

Hawaii isnt a new architecture. Its the codename of the R9 290x card.
GCN is the architecture. Hawaii and Tonga (which is the codename for 285) is just a tiny bit improved version of first GCN card.

Maxwell is an entirely different architecture vs Kepler. Which you also see on the power consumption AND efficiency scale vs the two architectures.

GM107 is a low-end cheaper chip and GM204 havent launched yet and we dont even know at what price.

I`m not interested in price. I`m interested in progress. Cooler and more powerful architecture.
GM107 was that.
GM204 will be that.
R9 285 is not that. Not by a long shot.

Tonga is a brand new card, there is no rebrands here.

Well fine, its a new chip with new elements such as XDMA and Audio crap engine and such. But it have the same amount of shaders as R9 280, the board power have barely gone down, it features the same shaders/CU etc.
Its more or less the same chip, in a different package.

What NVIDIA has at 249 to combat AMDs Tango ???? yes nothing nada.

I think its really sad that you are embracing AMDs inability to innovate by pushing out a 3 year old architecture that most people own, just a little bit cheaper, instead of pushing forward a more efficient architecture like Nvidia have done for 6 months now.

Wait for the reviews first and then make a conclusion

Yes, but I`m not holding my breath. We have seen Firestrike benchmarks and compared them to exisiting R9 28x cards. We have the power. We have the specs. We have the architecture.

Its a huge dissappointment

 

[blackened23]

Maybe these are cheaper to produce for the performance delivered? Can always lower prices after launch right?

That's my guess as well. Cheaper to produce, therefore better positioned to deal with 2nd gen Maxwell when its released. They can adjust prices as needed to react to the performance of the lower 800 series boards (ie GTX 860).

By itself it's pretty underwhelming, because indications are that it performs like the R9-280 at a 10W lower TDP. I was really thinking that AMD would improve performance per watt more than that, since it was rumored to be highly efficient...

But as is like you said, probably cheaper to produce. Therefore it's going to replace the R9-280 and R9-280X altogether.

 

[Erenhardt]

Going by the Firestrike scores, it should be 4th fastest amd card. Slightly faster than 280X.

I would expect it to be slightly slower in games. Do we have reviewers NDA lift date?

 

[Noctifer616]

Do we have reviewers NDA lift date?

2nd September most likely. So a little over a week.

 

[Termie]

Huge disappointment. Ever since the 7970, AMD has found a way to take fantastic products and make them land like a lead balloon due to nonsensical pricing.

The only bright spot was the R9 290 launch at $400, but that was clouded by price spikes due to mining.

The R9 285 at $180 would have been a nice deal (matching closeout prices a year ago on the faster HD 7950 Boost, I might add).

At $250, it's a joke. Matching GTX 760 price/performance and performance/watt a year after its introduction? That's not AMD's A-game.

 

[blastingcap]

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.

But the number is more higher (285 vs 280) so it must be more better. And 285X must be bestest because of magic letter X.

 

[Cloudfire777]

I can see the writings on the wall already.

2014
Sorted by performance:
GTX 750 Ti
R9 280
R9 285
R9 280X
R9 285X
R9 290X/GTX 870
GTX 780Ti
GTX 880

R9 285 was made to introduce a cheaper R9 280 and to add XDMA support for the midrange chips.
R9 285X was made to fill in the holes between R9 280X and R9 290X
GTX 870 was made to combat R9 290X in price and will feature greatly increased efficiency.
GTX 880 was made to offer the best performance while still being very efficient.

AMD will combat that card in early 2015 so thats why Nvidia is rushing out with GM204 GTX 880 in September/October so they get a 3-4 month window alone on top before AMD is ready with their 300 series. Pretty sure we will get a R9 370X/380X/390X in Q1, maybe already in January
I`m also very certain that Nvidia will price the card as if it is alone on the market. "Got to pay to have the best".

 

[monstercameron]

I can see the writings on the wall already.

2014
Sorted by performance:
GTX 750 Ti
R9 280
R9 285
R9 280X
R9 285X
R9 290X/GTX 870
GTX 780Ti
GTX 880

R9 285 was made to introduce a cheaper R9 280 and to add XDMA support for the midrange chips.
R9 285X was made to fill in the holes between R9 280X and R9 290X
GTX 870 was made to combat R9 290X in price and will feature greatly increased efficiency.
GTX 880 was made to offer the best performance while still being very efficient.

AMD will combat that card in early 2015 so thats why Nvidia is rushing out with GM204 GTX 880 in September/October so they get a 3-4 month window alone on top before AMD is ready with their 300 series. Pretty sure we will get a R9 370X/380X/390X in Q1, maybe already in January
I`m also very certain that Nvidia will price the card as if it is alone on the market. "Got to pay to have the best".

mmm,so you mean business as usual?

 

[alcoholbob]

Hopefully Nvidia doesn't get too cocky and end up raising their prices because of this. Hate to see a $1500 Titan II and a $650-700 GTX 880 lol.