I want the features of the 285 but I want the price and 3GB frame buffer of the 280. I know the 380 is out but the 285 is exactly the same but for a lower cost. I would like the 4GB 380 but that is out of my budget. I'm playing at 1080p but I mod games a ton, and I don't think 2GB would be enough even without mods. I'm also going to get Arkham Knight and the minimum specs look pretty demanding for minimum specs.
Then get the R9-380. It's the exact same card as the 285. It's faster than the 280 and there is a 4GiB VRAM option for about the same price as the 285.
are you sure that the 285 is faster than the 280?
afaik 280 has more stream processors and higher mem bus, 384 vs 256 or something.
many people have also recommended the 280 over the 285 as it is cheaper and performs better,
i may be wrong about the latter
perhaps the 380x will be based on 280?
Stream processors don't really mean anything. At least for gaming they don't. Nvidia has cut off cuda cores with Maxwell and the cards are faster than last gen cards.
The 380X doesn't exist. All there is only a non-x variant on the 380 series.
The R9-380 which is just a 285 with a new name and higher clocks is much faster than the 280. Despite the lower bus. And there is 4GiB version of 380. So you'd be better off with that. Plus it has full support for DX12 and all of AMD's features, unlike the old 280.
lol i was holding off with the hopes that there would be an x branded card. i thought the stream processors might assist with madvr rendering. my 7870 is getting tired especially with the h265 content thats slowly trickling in
but i guess you have a point. amd wouldn't release a card that performed slower than last gen counterpart. must be a reason for it.
R9 380 > R9 285 > R9 280
Was never a fan of the price/performance ratio of the 285. It's faster than the 280 out of the box but just barely.
I still like the R9 280 but I wouldn't mind putting the 2GB R9 380 in a low-mid range build especially since you get DX12 support and all the new AMD features. If you're considering the 4GB R9 380, you should instead be able to step up to the R9 280X for the same price which is faster than the 280, 285 and 380. Unless of course you want AMD's latest and greatest.
i've owned a 7970, i've owned a 285. the 285 was faster it was just crippled by 2gb.
From what I've been reading, the 285 has a lot of driver stability problems. I'd avoid it.
What I'd do is to pick up a used 290 or 290x. You can probably get it cheap now thar the 3xx series is coming and they're both excellent cards.
I've never had stability problems with any of the radeon cards. 285 included. If anything the only real issue with AMD in the driver department is giving people false hope by showing us massive performance increases when it's really not true. Most of the time with each drivers, the FPS in games just tends to be smoother, and consistent.
I agree, never had any AMD driver stability problems especially with Windows DX11 games. I've had weird artefacts and performance issues in a few OpenGL games on older driver versions though.
I've only ever had crossfire issues.
Otherwise no problems with drivers and Ive gone through a fair share of AMD gpus.
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Crossfire isn't perfect. So i wouldn't be surprised. But the performance increases of going from one card to two is next to impeccable with AMD. Most if not all the time, they've sat on the Throne when it comes to Dual-GPU performance.
Get the 285 it is slightly faster uses less power has DX12,true audio,freesync and amd has droped the HD7950(R9 280) from there line up this year (and replaced it with the R9 380 a tweeked R9 285)
well the 280 aka 7950, has exaly the same amount of stream processors as the 285 Tonga chip has.
Its exaly allmost the same chip, but with some "feuture" improvements.
Also the 280, 285 and 380 all have the same amount of stream processors.
1792 to be exact.
The 285 and 380 are basicly both the same cards with the same Tonga chip.
The only improvement that the 380 has is basicly 4GB of vram.
If the 285 and 380 are on the same price point, then grab the 380.
But you might also check sales, because cards like Sapphire 290 TriX OC cards somethimes can be found on sale.