Review: gigabyte r9 285 windforce

We have been waiting for the official launch of the AMD “Tonga” chip for some time. These new chips are integrated into the new R9 285 and R9 285X series. And with a smaller bus, it will offer the same performance as that of the high-end: R9 280 and R9 280X, being more efficient in its consumption. incorporating more efficient cooling together with simpler VRMs and a slight price cut.

This time we have had for a week the Gigabyte R9 285 Windforce with double fan with a base frequency of 973 mhz in the core and 1375 mhz in the memories accompanied by 256 bus bits and 2GB of GDDR5 RAM.

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Technical characteristics

GIGABYTE R9 285 TECHNICAL FEATURES
Chipset	R9 285 (TONGA)
PCB format	ATX.
Core frequency	973 MHz
Digital and analog resolution	4096 X 2160
Memory size	2, 048 MB GDDR5 (Elpida)
Memory speed	1375 MHz
DirectX	version 11.2
BUS memory	256 bits
BUS card	PCI-E 3.0 x16.
DirectX and OpenGL (4.4)	Yes.
I / O	1x DVI-I 1x DVI-D 1x HDMI 1x DisplayPort
Dimensions	250mm x 120mm x 38mm
Warranty	2 years.

Gigabyte R9 285 Windforce

Gigabyte presents its Gigabyte R9 285 Windforce OC graphics card in a compact box and with a very attractive aesthetic. Very well protected as expected and with a very complete bundle:

Gigabyte R9 285 Windforce OC graphics card . 2 thieves PCI Express. Quick guide. CD with drivers.

Front box Gigabyte R9 285

Rear box Gigabyte R9 285

Gigabyte R9 285 bundle

The Gigabyte R9 285 Windforce OC includes the latest chip made by AMD, the 28nm Tonga with a 256-bit bus. From the factory it comes with a slight overclocking of 973 Mhz per Core and a speed of 1375 Mhz in its 2GB of GDDR5 RAM. With support for Mantle, OpenCL and DirectCompute 5.0.

As expected we have this is a special version of overclocking and makes the most of the PCI Express 3.0 connection . The graphics card is 2 cm long.

A view of the rear of the graphics card.

Gigabyte always mounts its Windforce heatsink, this time it is the 9.6 cm double fan version and a 10 cm total diameter of 4-wire PWM. The cooling has an improved aluminum grill design, a base and two large thick copper pipes. Already on the sides we see where the heatpipes and dissipation circuit finds its way.

Regarding power supply, it requires two 6-pin PCI Express connections, more than enough to supply and overclock this interesting and compensated graphics card. It is also important to remember that it supports XDMA technology. What does this mean? Well, it is not necessary to use the CrossFire bridge for synchronization with another graphics card?

Windforce heatsink

Heatsink with a height of 10.3 cm

PWM connector for the two fans

Windforce R9 285 heatsink overview

2 copper heatpipes.

Regarding the rear connections we have:

DVI-IDVI-DHDMIDisplayPort

Now it's time to see a little inside, for this we remove the 4 rear screws and we see that indeed the heatsink has a copper base, it has pre-applied thermal paste and two copper tubes (heatpipes) for excellent cooling.

Once the heatsink is removed we see the inside of the card. Tonga chip, GDDR5 memory modules that make 2GB of the ELPIDA brand, power phases and VRM protected by a passive heatsink. The quality of the components is seen at first glance.

Gigabyte R9 285 WINDFORCE OC: VIDEO Unboxing

Test bench and tests

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel i7-4790k
Base plate:	Gigabyte Z97X G1.Gaming Wifi-BK
Memory:	G.Skills Trident X 2400 mhz.
Heatsink	Noctua NH-D15
HDD	Samsung 120 GB EVO
Graphic card	Gigabyte R9 285 Windforce
Power supply	Antec HCP-850W
Box	Dimastech Benchtable

To evaluate the performance of the graphics card we have used the following applications:

Assasins Creed IVDiablo III Reaper Of SoulsCrysis 3Metro 2033 Last NightBattlefield 4

All our tests have been carried out with a resolution of 1920px x 1080px.

What are we looking for in the tests?

First the best possible image quality. The most important value for us is the average FPS (Frames per second), the higher the number of FPS, the more fluid the game will be. To slightly differentiate the quality, we leave you a table to assess the quality in FPS:

FRAMES BY SECONDS
Frames for Seconds. (FPS)	Gameplay
Less than 30 FPS	Limited
30 - 40 FPS	Playable
40 - 60 FPS	Good
Greater than 60 FPS	Fairly Good or Excellent

Let's not fool ourselves; there are games that can have an average of 100 FPS. It may be because the game is quite old and does not require excessive graphic resources or that the graphics is the most powerful on the market, or we have GPU systems for thousands of euros. But the reality is different, and games like Crysis 3 and Metro 2033 are very demanding and do not usually give high scores.

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GIGABYTE R9 285 WINDFORCE TESTS
Asasasins Creed IV BF	39 FPS.
Diablo III ROS	175 FPS.
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag	52 FPS
Metro Last Light	59 FPS
Crysis 3	32 FPS.
Battlefield 4	49 FPS

We also attach a table with its consumption at rest and in maximum performance with the test equipment.

And some of the temperatures:

Final words and conclusion

The Gigabyte R9 285 Windforce is a mid-range / high-end graphics card with an excellent design, cooling and power for most users and gamers with its 2GB of RAM.

Its Windforce cooling system has two 9.6 cm fans, with an aluminum base and two 8 mm heatpipes that keep the graphics card very cool. The temperatures achieved at rest are 27ºC and at maximum power 61ºC. We must not forget that it has two DVI connections, one HDMI and the other Displayport, in this way it adapts to a large number of scenarios and resolutions.

Our tests are carried out with a computer with 1920 × 1080 resolution and AA filters. The team consisted of a Z97X Gaming G1 motherboard. Wifi-BK, an i7-4790k processor and an 850W power supply. The team has delivered great gaming performance with 59 FPS averages in Metro 2033 Last Night and 175 FPS in Diablo Reaper of Souls. Regarding consumption, it is barely less than 10% that of a Radeon 280 / 280x and its performance is really similar, winning in some games and losing in others.

In short, if you are looking for a mid / low range graphics card at a price around € 225 to € 250, the Gigabyte R9 286 Windforce is the perfect candidate.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ 28nm CHIP TONGA	- VERSION WITH BETTER MEMORY SERIOUS BETTER.
+ WINDFORCE HEATSINK
+ PCI EXPRESS 3.0.
+ EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE.
+ GREAT GAMING EXPERIENCE.
+ EXCELLENT TEMPERATURES AND LOWER CONSUMPTION THAN ITS PREVIOUS VERSIONS.