AMD Radeon R9 285s start to appear ahead of imminent launch

[Scorpus]

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.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/57695-amd-radeon-r9-285s-start-to-appear-ahead-of-imminent-launch.html

 

[WangDangDoodle]

I've been hearing rumors about Nvidia's 800 series since Q1/Q2, yet there's hardly been a whisper about AMD's next big thing. I don't know what this 285 thing is supposed to be, but it seems rather late in the game for AMD to start releasing new R9 series cards. I hope they've got something big coming soon, or Nvidia's gonna leave'em in the dust, and that would be bad for all of us.

 

[GhostRyder]

I've been hearing rumors about Nvidia's 800 series since Q1/Q2, yet there's hardly been a whisper about AMD's next big thing. I don't know what this 285 thing is supposed to be, but it seems rather late in the game for AMD to start releasing new R9 series cards. I hope they've got something big coming soon, or Nvidia's gonna leave'em in the dust, and that would be bad for all of us.

Its similar style to Nvidias GTX 750ti which is based on the new Maxwell Architecture from Nvidia. This is the next thing from AMD coming out to test the fields with their new architecture.

Looks cool, the 2gb is a little odd because they are putting it in between the 280 and 280X with that name. But I guess the performance is what matters in the end and not so much the memory.

 

[robb213]

I've been hearing rumors about Nvidia's 800 series since Q1/Q2, yet there's hardly been a whisper about AMD's next big thing. I don't know what this 285 thing is supposed to be, but it seems rather late in the game for AMD to start releasing new R9 series cards. I hope they've got something big coming soon, or Nvidia's gonna leave'em in the dust, and that would be bad for all of us.

I think it just depends on the features coming with release that generate buzz. The R series' got a lot of coverage before release, mainly due to the TrueAudio DSP onboard, CFX without an external bridge, and freesync, not to mention the new GCN. Not to mention it contained a new architecture in certain GPUs.

Maxwell is getting it now, mainly due to the amazing power efficiency we saw with the 750 Ti, and the onboard ARM CPU, as well as being a new architecture, which the R9 290X also had going for it generating buzz.

The 285 is more like a relaunch, like the 700 series, or the HD 6000 series; so I would be surprised to see as much coverage as a new architecture.

 

[veLa]

With only 2GB of RAM I'd assume it would be between the 270X and 280 but the name sure doesn't imply that.

 

[PC nerd]

I'm confused. It's named as if it should perform between a 280 and a 280X, but it's only got 2GB VRAM on a 256-bit bus.