AMD new R9 285 based on Tonga GPU is starting to appear in shops and the prices are ok. We are talking about a product launched with a $240 price tag. The card we tested today, PowerColor TurboDuo R9 285 2GB is available in Europe for 232 euro.

The new card comes with the new features straight off the Hawaii GPU like True Audio, Mantle and Free Sync. On the performance side it sits very close to the R9 280 or GTX 760.

The R9 285 is an appealing new card for those willing to upgrade without missing out on the latest AMD tech. However, if you already own an HD 7950, HD 7970, R9 280, or GTX 760 and sheer performance is your main concern, it is better to wait a little bit more for the next AMD line. The performance gain simply would not justify an upgrade at this point.

In different real world tests the R9 285 ends up faster or slower than the R9 280, but overall it is very close. It is usually faster than Nvidia’s GTX 760. The R9 280 pulls ahead in some benchmarks thanks to the fact that it sports 3GB of memory. In any case 1080p gaming is a breeze with the R9 285 Tonga.

PowerColor’s factory overclock is subtle and it won’t have much of an impact on performance. However, additional overclocking can deliver a 10% boost on the GPU side and a 12% higher memory clock, allowing the card to trounce the GTX 760 and R9 280.