AMD appears set to launch a new high-end graphics in the next few weeks, the Radeon R9 285, with pictures of OEM cards showing up today over on VideoCardz. There's nothing too fancy about the design of these GPUs, although a couple of things can be deduced immediately.
As the R9 285 is equipped with a 'Tonga' GPU from AMD's Volcanic Islands line, there is no CrossFire connectors on the card. Instead, the R9 285 utilizes XDMA CrossFire over PCIe, like the other Volcanic Islands-based graphics cards: the R9 290 and R9 290X. As is typical for these cards, all models come with two DVI ports, a HDMI port and a DisplayPort.
The R9 285 is a relatively small card as you can see from each manufacturer choosing a dual-fan cooler. VideoCardz managed to obtain press shots of the Sapphire Dual-X, XFX, and HIS IceQX2 Mini variants, although as always there will be others available at launch.
The full details surrounding the R9 285 and its Tonga GPU have yet to be revealed, although leaked specifications indicate it's similar to existing Tahiti chips first used in the Radeon HD 7000 series and also found on cards such as the R9 280X. A fully-unlocked Tonga GPU has 2048 processing cores, like Tahiti XT, but it's unclear how many will be enabled on the R9 285.
We'll reportedly be seeing a GPU core clock of 918 MHz with an unspecified boost clock. Memory will start at 2 GB of GDDR5 on a 256-bit bus clocked at 1375 MHz, which will provide 176 GB/s of bandwidth, less than the R9 280 and R9 280X. The cards come with two 6-pin PCIe power connectors, indicating a TDP under the R9 280X's 250W.
It's not completely clear where the R9 285 will sit in AMD's line-up. The naming suggests it'll fit snugly between the $300 R9 280X and $400 R9 290; but going just on specifications could mean it lands between the R9 280X and the R9 280, which currently retails for as low as $200.
With a proper unveiling just around the corner, it shouldn't be too long before we know for sure.