R9 280 or 285?

[king81]

Hi all, I was looking for a new gfx card recently after my old 5850 TF2 started showing signs of dieing after 4 years+ of usage. Was leaning towards Msi's so i narrowed down my choices to either r9 280 gaming or r9 285 gaming. Will my current cpu ( i5 2500k o/ced to 4.2 ghz with 16 gb ram ) be able to make full use of the above mentioned gfx cards? If so , will this r9 280 gaming which is currently selling at $299 be a good deal or should i wait and see r9 285's pricing before i make the purchase? Thanks in advance.

 

[Alternative X]

1) Your CPU will not have problems handling these GPUs. You will only have problems if you are using a Pentium or a Athlon X2.

2) The MSI R9 280 is currently being sold for $339.

3) Prices of R9 280s may fall when the R9 285s finally enters the market, hence it may be worth the wait if your GPU does not die on you first.

 

[Ark Law]

285 to me is same as 280, just uses less power

 

[king81]

Will have to change it asap , my current gfx card i think is already a goner ( frequent bsods / black screen boots and artifacting in games ) - have since changed over to IGP for now til I buy a new card.
As for the $299 MSI r9 280 gaming, I saw the price when i was checking for the prices on videopro's online store special deals so I think it should be pretty credible. I was only wondering how much the r9 285 gaming would retail for only. If its at $350+ , it would make more sense to buy the r9 280 at $299 which is cheaper than the msi 270x.

 

[hengheng220]

Then just get the 280, IMO 285 is just another marketing tweak that amd is pushing... Not much diff from 280

 

[djdestiny]

285 is not a marketing tweak. It's a whole new architecture and the 285 is as fast as a original 7970 and costs the same as an 760 which is a bit (10-20$) cheaper than a standard R9 280
Power consumption also of a R9 270X

 

[royfrosty]

Then just get the 280, IMO 285 is just another marketing tweak that amd is pushing... Not much diff from 280

Ok lah not so bad. Is a new architecture that they implemented. Slightly more power efficient than the r9 280.

The only thing that amd kinda too assuring that this card can go for 1440p gaming. Which most reviews did tested out and found out that only a few games can play with some tone down settings.

 

[hengheng220]

Lols i know about the new architecture, but performance wise not a big improvement ba...

 

[djdestiny]

Lols i know about the new architecture, but performance wise not a big improvement ba...

Why would they care about big improvement in performance ... this also not a top bin, what they care about is dramatically lowered power consumption also because they switched to a 256bit controller so they can have lowered power consumption for the IMC and that does make a difference.
If you can get that sort of performance it does now on a 256bit bus it means they have succeeded.

 

[MoneyFace =p]

Just buy whichever cheaper. Who cares about the minute power consumption figure differences which only cost at most a few more bucks of your electricity bill?

 

[Ark Law]

285 is not a marketing tweak. It's a whole new architecture and the 285 is as fast as a original 7970 and costs the same as an 760 which is a bit (10-20$) cheaper than a standard R9 280
Power consumption also of a R9 270X

I guess that makes sense. My thinking was this;

I really doubt Tonga is a new thing. It looks and performs more like a re-optimised & re-tuned R7970

Because AMD named Curacao as "new" for 270X when it's basically a Pitcairn (7870)

 

[duffie]

285X for me.

 

[djdestiny]

I guess that makes sense. My thinking was this;



Because AMD named Curacao as "new" for 270X when it's basically a Pitcairn (7870)

Well the tuned 7970 would be the 280XTL (XTL variants of Tahiti)

 

[king81]

Thanks guys, already purchased the msi r9 280 gaming . Was at sim lim just now, didn't saw any msi r9 285 gaming there but saw the powercolour's version at $369. In the end just went for the msi r9 280 which is at $299. I wonder why is it cheaper than the 270x which is at $31x.

 

[shadow84]

Thanks guys, already purchased the msi r9 280 gaming . Was at sim lim just now, didn't saw any msi r9 285 gaming there but saw the powercolour's version at $369. In the end just went for the msi r9 280 which is at $299. I wonder why is it cheaper than the 270x which is at $31x.

Promotion i guess? or clear stocks for r285?

 

[king81]

Yea, I think so also which is a good thing for buyers like me lol.

 

[shadow84]

but, did u check the performance diff? Whether worth it or not?

 

[duffie]

Thanks guys, already purchased the msi r9 280 gaming . Was at sim lim just now, didn't saw any msi r9 285 gaming there but saw the powercolour's version at $369. In the end just went for the msi r9 280 which is at $299. I wonder why is it cheaper than the 270x which is at $31x.

They had this one PowerColor Official Website - Graphics, Cases, Power Supply -- PowerColor TurboDuo R9 285 2GB GDDR5 OC already?

 

[king81]

The powercolor one is the one simlim there currently has it which i was there earlier, selling at $369.
I looked up some reviews which shows r9 285 performs abit better than a 280 in most games but lose out in a few games also due to the 2gb vram / 256bit bandwidth. In short, its like a 2-5% performance increase in most games with abit more power efficiency ( 190watts tdp over r9 280's tdp of 200 watts). Not enough reason for me to fork out another $60-70 bucks to get the 285 over 280 ( $369 vs $299).

 

[duffie]

The powercolor one is the one simlim there currently has it which i was there earlier, selling at $369.
I looked up some reviews which shows r9 285 performs abit better than a 280 in most games but lose out in a few games also due to the 2gb vram / 256bit bandwidth. In short, its like a 2-5% performance increase in most games with abit more power efficiency ( 190watts tdp over r9 280's tdp of 200 watts). Not enough reason for me to fork out another $60-70 bucks to get the 285 over 280 ( $369 vs $299).

Definitely not worth the additional cash if it's only for games now, though, the 285 is based on a new architecture and that might give more potential for driver improvements.