Minor Gains and a Compromise

At $249, the R9 285 doesn't exactly redefine the landscape with only 4% more operation on average than the card information technology will be replacing, the R9 280. Even if yous discount the big loss in Tomb Raider, which could mayhap exist driver related, the R9 285 is still just half dozen% faster than the R9 280. Bringing a 4-half-dozen% boost for the same price obviously isn't bad, but we're not sure if the R9 285 was completely necessary either.

Proceed in listen once more that the Sapphire card we tested was overclocked by 5% and so our results are likely inflated by ii-3%, making the margin between the R9 285 and R9 280 even thinner. We couldn't underclock the Sapphire card and this has been an outcome since the Radeon 200 series popped up. If anyone knows a workaround delight permit the states know (other than flashing the BIOS, which nosotros couldn't practise in time).

On the subject of overclocking, we imagine gamers would benefit more from the R9 280'south superior memory subsystem than the R9 285's tweaks. As far every bit nosotros could tell, Tonga doesn't offering whatsoever radical performance enhancements over Tahiti to make it worth investing in a card with a 256-bit wide retention bus over one with a 384-bit motorbus. It also doesn't actually challenge the GTX 760 any more than the R9 280 did.

The R9 285 uses a piffling more power and costs 4% more than than the GTX 760 but is 7% faster, though again that last figure doesn't business relationship for our sample's overclock. If y'all remove that from the equation, the R9 285 and GTX 760 are even closer in value. That'south essentially the aforementioned relationship the GTX 760 had with the R9 280, which used more ability but delivered a chip more than speed for a few actress bucks.

It's unfortunate that the R9 285 doesn't shake things up a little more. If you already ain a R9 280, HD 7950 or anything faster, then the R9 285 isn't for you unless yous need features such as Mantle API or DX12 support. If you were already eyeing the R9 280 and don't mind a memory downgrade, the R9 285 is a fine choice while information technology's probably a meliorate pick than the GTX 760 if you want the nearly frames per dollar.

Pros: For the same price as the R9 280, the R9 285 brings a slight performance boost along with some actress features such as support for DirectX 12, the Mantle API, TrueAudio and FreeSync.

Cons: The R9 285's 256-bit memory jitney is downgraded from the R9 280's 384-chip jitney. Although it has a performance edge on the GTX 760, it costs a little more and uses a little more power.