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AMD officially announces Radeon R9 285 graphics card

By Wong Chung Wee - on 2 Sep 2014, 8:00pm

AMD officially announces Radeon R9 285 graphics card

The AMD Radeon R9 285 graphics card fills the SKU gap between the R9 280X and the R9 270X. Priced at US$249 during launch, the R9 285X also takes aim at the rival NVIDIA GTX 760.

AMD R9 285 (Image source: AMD)

According to its specifications, the R9 285 GPU appears to be based on a new GPU that is code named "Tonga". It supports both improved AMD CrossFire (without the need for an external bridge), and the AMD TrueAudio technologies.

AMD Radeon R9 GPUs Compared
Model AMD Radeon R9 280X AMD Radeon R9 285 AMD Radeon R9 270X AMD Radeon R9 270
Core Code Tahiti XT variant Tonga Curacao XT
(a.k.a. Pitcairn XT variant)
Curacao Pro
(a.k.a. Pitcairn XT variant)
Transistor Count 4.3 billion N.A. 2.8 billion 2.8 billion
Manufacturing Process 28nm 28nm 28nm 28nm
Core Clock Up to 1000MHz Up to 918MHz Up to 1050MHz Up to 925MHz
Compute Performance 4.1 TFLOPS 3.29 TFLOPS 2.69 TFLOPS 2.37 TFLOPS
Stream Processors 2048 1792 1280 1280
Texture Mapping Units (TMUs) 128 112 80 80
Raster Operator units (ROP) 32 32 32 32
Onboard Memory 3GB GDDR5 2GB GDDR5 2GB / 4GB GDDR5 2GB GDDR5
Memory Clock 6000MHz 5500MHz 5600MHz 5600MHz
DDR Memory Bus 384-bit 256-bit 256-bit 256-bit
Memory Bandwidth 288GB/s 176GB/s 179.2GB/s 179.2GB/s
PCI Express Interface PCIe ver 3.0 x16 PCIe ver 3.0 x16 PCIe ver 3.0 x16 PCIe ver 3.0 x16
Molex Power Connectors 1 x 6-pin, 1 x 6-pin 2 x 6-pin 2 x 6-pin  1 x 6-pin
Typical Board Power 250W  190W  180W  150W
Multi GPU Technology AMD CrossFire; up to four GPUs  Improved AMD CrossFire, up to four GPUs AMD CrossFire; up to two GPUs
Display Connectivity
  • 2 x Dual-Link DVI
  • 1 x HDMI
  • 1 x DisplayPort
  • 2 x Dual-Link DVI
  • 1 x HDMI
  • 1 x DisplayPort
  • 2 x Dual-Link DVI
  • 1 x HDMI
  • 1 x DisplayPort
  • 1 x Dual-Link DVI
  • 1 x HDMI
  • 1 x DisplayPort
AMD TrueAudio Technology No Yes No No
API Support     DirectX 12.0, OpenGL 4.3, AMD Mantle
Launch Price US$299 US$249 US$199 US$179

The R9 285 GPU has 1,792 stream processors, and a maximum clock speed of 918MHz. Its 2GB video buffer has a 256-bit interface; however, AMD has confirmed that add-in card partners have the company’s blessings to bump up the video memory to 4GB for variant SKUs.

In addition, AMD has announced its Never Settle: Space Edition game bundle program. Like its previous campaign, there are three tiers of rewards for new owners of AMD Radeon R9 and R7 series graphics cards.

  • Gold reward tier: All R9 series graphics cards, and upon redemption of this offer, you can choose three game titles from a selection of 29 games.
  • Silver reward tier: R7 260 series graphics cards, and there is a choice to pick up to two games from 28 titles.
  • Bronze reward tier: R7 240 and 250 series cards, you can choose 1 free game from a selection of 18 titles.

For more information, you can visit this link for the deep space edition of AMD's Never Settle giveaway! In addition, there are already add-in card partners who have announced their R9 285 wares, and you can check them out here.

(Source: AMD, techPowerup)

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