Another board partner graphics card will serve as the basis for our power consumption and temperature measurements going forward. The Gigabyte R9 285 WindForce OC comes overclocked to 973 MHz from the factory.
| Gigabyte R9 285 Windforce OC | |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 250 mm (L) x 120 mm (H) x 38 mm (D) |
| Weight | 609 g |
| Form Factor | Dual Slot |
| PCIe | 2x 6-Pin |
| Connectors | 1x DVI-I (Dual Link, + analog) 1x DVI-D (Dual Link) 1x HDMI 1x DisplayPort |
The relatively light graphics card uses the new WindForce cooler with only two fans, which have a larger diameter of 96 mm and fan openings with a diameter of 103 mm.
The cooler and board also represent an interesting new design. The voltage converters are now located near the back of the card, as opposed to the area close to the PCIe power connectors. The aluminum cooler has three parts and uses two 8 mm heat pipes that run through its center to transport waste heat to the two side sections.
We see that the power converters have their own separate aluminum cooler and aren’t connected to the bottom of the main cooler. The airflow is supposed to go through the fins of the main cooler and reach all the way down to the other cooler. We’ll see later if, and how well, this might work.
The top of the Gigabyte R9 285 WindForce OC is dominated by the two 6-pin PCIe power connectors, which have been turned to face toward the board. This perspective also provides a good overview of the cooler’s design.
The end of the graphics card affords a good view of one of the two large heat pipes made of composite material. The orientation of the cooler’s fins shows the direction of the airflow from the board to the top of the card.
The connectors are standard fare. Details can be found in the table above.
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- The Radeon's GCN Is Updated Again: The Tonga GPU
- Asus Strix Radeon R9 285
- Gigabyte R9 285 WindForce OC
- Test Setup and Benchmark Suite
- Synthetic Benchmark Results
- Titanfall and Battlefield 4 Results
- Thief and Arma 3 Results
- Grid Autosport and Assassin's Creed IV Results
- Watch Dogs and Far Cry 3 Results
- Idle Power Consumption Results
- Gaming Power Consumption Results
- GPGPU Power Consumption Results
- Temperature and Noise Results
- Radeon R9 285 Holds its Own at $250








Good to see AMD have tackled the noise and temperature issues that have plagued it's previous 28nm cards as well but it's a bit late in the day given that 20nm shouldn't be to far off now.
Also, on the last page, you guys wrote R7 270X instead of R9, and in the chart it says "Relative to Radeon HD 7950 Boost". Oh, and in the Pros section, it says the 285 has R9 260 like performance?
[EDIT by Cleeve]
Thanks for the proofread, fixing it now!
[/edit]
I prefer get a r9 280 and downclock get same results. I can't see the point of this heat on graphics. maybe drivers. OR THIS IS HAWAII XT! Too much Heat!
I think the guys see if they hit the OC the room Will burn! maybe a problem with drivers.
Last time i see that Heat 290x tests. lol!
But in fact, the memory interface was cut by a third (384 bit -> 256 bit), not half.
[Edit by Cleeve]
Good point, fixed! Thx.
[/edit]
[Edit by Cleeve]
Good catch, fixed but might take a while to populate.
[/Edit]
Faster memory would have helped but more would not have made much of a difference: most of the extra memory on GPUs with more memory channels gets filled with extra copies of resources to improve availability. Without those extra channels, filling more RAM with extra copies would make little difference.
The R7 265 is faster than the R7 260X, yet the R9 285 is slower than the R9 280X?
The R7 265 is faster than the R7 260X, yet the R9 285 is slower than the R9 280X?
Yea this should have been named 275 or 275x.
The 280X probably should have been the 285, and this card should have been released as the 280X. Or it could be next-gen; call it the 380 or 375.
The 270/280 are just rehashes of HD7xxx designs while the 285 is a cut-down 290... and the 285 does beat the 280 enough times to earn its place in the 28x range.
Give the 285 a 6GT/s memory interface and it would slot in more solidly between the 280 and 280X.
The R7 265 is faster than the R7 260X, yet the R9 285 is slower than the R9 280X?
Indeed, naming schemes are always kind of bogus.
260< 260X < 265
280<=285< 280X
That's just the way it is.