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

[96Firebird]

I think his point was that he finds it odd AT doesn't have a review up yet but everyone else does.

I could be wrong, but it seems pretty self explanatory.

 

[gamervivek]

Yeah, I`d gladly choose R9 280X for $269 over R9 285 for 249.
Sure you may save a couple of watts, but you are trading away 384bit for 256bit for what, 20 bucks?
That bandwidth comes in handy at higher resolution and when overclocking the cores

I wouldn't do that if I were you.

http://techreport.com/review/26997/amd-radeon-r9-285-graphics-card-reviewed/2

The 2GB frame buffer is a different matter though.

 

[monstercameron]

I think his point was that he finds it odd AT doesn't have a review up yet but everyone else does.

I could be wrong, but it seems pretty self explanatory.

hmmm but why is it odd? that isnt "...pretty self explanatory."

 

[96Firebird]

I can't speak for him, but I find it odd because they are usually one of the first sites to publish their reviews as soon as the NDA lifts.

Maybe Ryan Smith was too busy with Anand's retirement party to review the 285.

 

[Ryan Smith]

Maybe Ryan Smith was too busy with Anand's retirement party to review the 285.

It's not too far from the truth. The 285 came at a bad time for us - Anand's retirement, labor day weekend, and a business trip I'm in the middle of. We've never missed a review like this before (and we won't again), but it was exceptional circumstances.

You'll see it tomorrow.

 

[96Firebird]

Look forward to it. I am reserving judgement on the card until I read your review...

Hope you guys sent Anand off in grand fashion!

 

[Attic]

Card looks bad IMO. $250, 2gb bleh, similar performance to GTX760 bleh at $250 mega bleh, bleh bleh.

bleh was my impression basically.

Based on [H] review I was pretty let down by this from AMD. Doubt i'll ever recommend one of these cards to a gamer.

 

[FatherMurphy]

It's not too far from the truth. The 285 came at a bad time for us - Anand's retirement, labor day weekend, and a business trip I'm in the middle of. We've never missed a review like this before (and we won't again), but it was exceptional circumstances.

You'll see it tomorrow.

That's why I said it was odd... AT has never missed a review like this before.

I wasn't criticizing, and am certainly glad to have the explanation. Just making an observation, MonsterCameron.

Looking forward to the AT review because AT's reviews tend to read between the lines and provide a more in-depth analysis than other sites.

 

[monstercameron]

Card looks bad IMO. $250, 2gb bleh, similar performance to GTX760 bleh at $250 mega bleh, bleh bleh.

bleh was my impression basically.

Based on [H] review I was pretty let down by this from AMD. Doubt i'll ever recommend one of these cards to a gamer.

so a friend is looking for a card with a $250 budget what would you recommend?

 

[Borealis7]

crossfire reviews anywhere?

cut it down to 200$ and then it would be very interesting in crossfire, but that would be cannibalizing higher-end products.

 

[AtenRa]

Please...

You go ahead and spend $500 on a CF R285 setup with 2GB in late 2014. See how awesome that is.

I dont see anything wrong doing that, bellow are games at 1080p with 2x GTX-770 2GB. CF R9 285 will be extremely fast for $500.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8426/...view-core-i7-5960x-i7-5930k-i7-5820k-tested/6

4K decode is nice, but if you had a 4K monitor WTF are you doing with a R285?!

They also transcoding 40-47% faster than same price GTX760.

 

[Erenhardt]

Two of these in Xfire is quite a lot of processing power. IMHO 4GB is required if thinking about crossfire.

 

[Keysplayr]

Keep it in context AtenRa.
Wild Thing was touting 4K 264 encoding so one would assume he is talking about 4K screens. Not 1080.
Unless of course jumping your meaning around to suit an argument has any real place in a proper debate?
I think you know Silverforce11 was not referring to 1080. Amiright?

 

[Cloudfire777]

I wouldn't do that if I were you.

http://techreport.com/review/26997/amd-radeon-r9-285-graphics-card-reviewed/2

The 2GB frame buffer is a different matter though.

Looking at reviews and finding that the R9 280X goes all the way up to 25% faster in games than R9 285 for $20 more, I`d say its worth it...

 

[Keysplayr]

Two of these in Xfire is quite a lot of processing power. IMHO 4GB is required if thinking about crossfire.

At this stage and larger res monitors rapidly becoming affordable, I have to agree.

 

[ocre]

Looking at reviews and finding that the R9 280X goes all the way up to 25% faster in games than R9 285 for $20 more, I`d say its worth it...

You know its bad when all one can do is throw up a random sub chart of a synthetic benchmark.:whiste:

"Hey look how awesome score is on 3d Mark Color Fill"
Yeah never heard that one.

What about this
"Post your 3d Mark Color Fill benchmark thread, suicide runs welcome"
Yeah, haven't seen that one.......yet!

I am not saying the card is bad, it is what it is. Just highlighting how ridiculous his attempts are to counter your claims. I have never seen anything like it.

 

[AtenRa]

Keep it in context AtenRa.
Wild Thing was touting 4K 264 encoding so one would assume he is talking about 4K screens. Not 1080.
Unless of course jumping your meaning around to suit an argument has any real place in a proper debate?
I think you know Silverforce11 was not referring to 1080. Amiright?

They were talking about decoding at 4K, i simple said that Tonga can encode/trasncode 40-47% faster than same priced GTX760. There are people that decode/transcode you know and Tonga is extremely fast for today's standards.

 

[ElFenix]

techreport review, quite positive
http://techreport.com/review/26997/amd-radeon-r9-285-graphics-card-reviewed/2

wow at the noise charts. that's a seriously good cooler.

 

[FatherMurphy]

Scott Wasson at Tech Report thinks the full-blown Tonga GPU (presumably to be used in the 285x) will have a 384-bit memory interface. See http://techreport.com/review/26997/amd-radeon-r9-285-graphics-card-reviewed/9

That makes sense, I suppose, given the die size of Tonga didn't really change from Tahiti's (also, the lack of die shots/diagrams showing high level layouts of full Tonga). That could make 285x pretty potent from a performance stand point, though, again, you aren't likely looking at competitive power efficiency gains. It remains to be seen what GM204 will bring (namely, any great leaps in performance over 770/780/780ti), as well, as it doesn't appear GK104 derived-cards are going to be 285/285x's true competition over the course of the next GPU cycle.

 

[Attic]

so a friend is looking for a card with a $250 budget what would you recommend?

280x for $10-20 bux more.

Bottom line, 285 not worth $250.

Hopefully the 285 drops to $200 pretty quick. It's good for 200. Maybe when nvidia releases 870/880 we get a fix for the 285 price.

 

[Erenhardt]

Looking at reviews and finding that the R9 280X goes all the way up to 25% faster in games than R9 285 for $20 more, I`d say its worth it...

wait what? Where are you looking?
I sure hope your not nitpicking that he is cherry-picking benchmarks. And at the same time provide some performance numbers out of thin air.

Scott Wasson at Tech Report thinks the full-blown Tonga GPU (presumably to be used in the 285x) will have a 384-bit memory interface. See http://techreport.com/review/26997/amd-radeon-r9-285-graphics-card-reviewed/9

I'm not sure, but why would the part of L2 be slightly darker than the rest? If the symmetry is required, that would mean tonga have 4 memory controllers disabled. It impossible that it is 512-bit chip.

 

[Cloudfire777]

There is a ton of reviews showing the R9 280X beating the 285 by a great margin.
Forget I said up to 25%.

Here is one showing 280X beating the 285 by 45% D:

Here is 25%

20%

20%

24%

What on earth is the purpose of this chip? Give people XDMA and AudiowhateverEngine but give them less performance/$? I dont think thats what people want AMD... :whiste:

You know its bad when all one can do is throw up a random sub chart of a synthetic benchmark.:whiste:

"Hey look how awesome score is on 3d Mark Color Fill"
Yeah never heard that one.

What about this
"Post your 3d Mark Color Fill benchmark thread, suicide runs welcome"
Yeah, haven't seen that one.......yet!

I am not saying the card is bad, it is what it is. Just highlighting how ridiculous his attempts are to counter your claims. I have never seen anything like it.

hehe yeah. A little synthetic part of a synthetic test based on DX10. Probably the one with least value too.

 

[tviceman]

so. you are buying graphics cards based on power consumption?

To an extent, yes. Would you ever buy a 350 watt graphics card to save you $50 upfront when a 250 watt card gets you the same performance when you are running an SFF rig? I wouldn't. Ever. Even if you're not in an SFF rig, have fun overclocking 350 watt graphics card and dealing with the extra heat being dumped into the case. Crap is crap.

Tower desktops need to die. Everything is getting smaller, and desktop computers should generally be no different. There is no reason to have a 2 foot desktop tower these days. If AMD can't keep up with Nvidia in efficiency, Nvidia is going to blow the doors off them competitively. Nvidia will be able to scale it's performance significantly higher at the same TDP and AMD won't be able to do a thing about it except cry Mantle.

 

[Erenhardt]

There is a ton of reviews showing the R9 280X beating the 285 by a great margin.
[imgs]
What on earth is the purpose of this chip? Give people XDMA and AudiowhateverEngine but give them less performance/$? I dont think thats what people want AMD... :whiste:

There is something strange with those numbers. I think you will figure it out.
I have to agree that this card doesn't bring anything for consumers. At this price it slots above competition, just between 280 and 280x in perf/$.

Shame AMD is not competing with themselves.

 

[lopri]

Fail card. I thought perf/watt would be comfortably ahead of Tahiti. Where is progress?