AMD officially announces Radeon R9 285 graphics card
AMD has officially launched its Radeon R9 285 graphics card. The company also announced a number of sweetener deals, in addition to this latest addition to its Radeon R9 series GPUs.
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.
Model | AMDRadeon R9 280X | AMD Radeon R9 285 | AMDRadeon 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 |
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|
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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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