The board has a 256-bit interface and 2 GB of GDDR5 VRAM

Aug 11, 2014 09:56 GMT  ·  By

AMD's strongest video cards may have the X suffix, but there are some pretty cool ones that do without it. The Radeon R9 285, based on the Tonga graphics processing unit, is an example of that.

HIS has just leaked its version of the card, even though AMD has not, technically, released the thing yet. The Tonga GPU has been pegged for an August release though, so we don't have much to wait at this point.

Anyway, the HIS-branded Radeon R9 285 is said to possess 32 CUs (compute units) and 2,048 SPs (stream processors). This would put it on the same levels as some Tahiti chips.

The HIS Radeon R9 285 also boasts a 256-bit memory interface, connecting the GPU to the 2 GB of GDDR5 VRAM. Sadly, the exact frequency of the RAM remains unspecified.

The HIS Radeon R9 285 will compete directly with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 760. It remains to be seen if the IceQ X2 cooler gives it the upper hand in operation temperature and energy efficiency. Finally, Direct Memory Access CrossFire technology (XDMA CrossFire) is supported (direct resource sharing between multiple GPUs in a system).

Pricing and full specifications will be revealed in (probably) a week or so. We'll be checking out the other leaked R9 285 boards in the meantime.

HIS R9 285 (3 Images)

HIS R9 285
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