Radeon HD 7850 vs R9 285

Aggregate performance score

We've compared Radeon R9 285 and Radeon HD 7850, covering specs and all relevant benchmarks.

R9 285
2014
2 GB GDDR5, 190 Watt
17.34
+72.5%

R9 285 outperforms HD 7850 by an impressive 73% based on our aggregate benchmark results.

Primary details

GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.

Place in the ranking315451
Place by popularitynot in top-100not in top-100
Cost-effectiveness evaluation8.762.94
Power efficiency6.265.30
ArchitectureGCN 3.0 (2014−2019)GCN 1.0 (2011−2020)
GPU code nameTongaPitcairn
Market segmentDesktopDesktop
Designno datareference
Release date2 September 2014 (10 years ago)5 March 2012 (12 years ago)
Launch price (MSRP)$249 $249

Cost-effectiveness evaluation

Performance to price ratio. The higher, the better.

R9 285 has 198% better value for money than HD 7850.

Detailed specifications

General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.

Pipelines / CUDA cores17921024
Core clock speed918 MHzno data
Boost clock speedno data1000 MHz
Number of transistors5,000 million2,800 million
Manufacturing process technology28 nm28 nm
Power consumption (TDP)190 Watt130 Watt
Texture fill rate102.855.04
Floating-point processing power3.29 TFLOPS1.761 TFLOPS
ROPs3232
TMUs11264

Form factor & compatibility

Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).

Bus supportno dataPCIe 2.1 x16
InterfacePCIe 3.0 x16PCIe 3.0 x16
Length221 mm210 mm
Width2-slot2-slot
Supplementary power connectors2x 6-pin1x 6-pin

VRAM capacity and type

Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.

Memory typeGDDR5GDDR5
Maximum RAM amount2 GB2 GB
Memory bus width256 Bit256 Bit
Memory clock speed1375 MHz1200 MHz
Memory bandwidth176.0 GB/s153.6 GB/s

Connectivity and outputs

Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.

Display Connectors2x DVI, 1x HDMI 1.4a, 1x DisplayPort 1.21x DVI, 1x HDMI, 2x mini-DisplayPort
Eyefinity-+
HDMI++

Supported technologies

Supported technological solutions. This information will prove useful if you need some particular technology for your purposes.

CrossFire-+
FreeSync-+

API compatibility

List of supported 3D and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.

DirectX12 (12_0)12
Shader Model6.55.1
OpenGL4.64.6
OpenCL2.11.2
Vulkan1.2.170+

Synthetic benchmark performance

Non-gaming benchmark results comparison. The combined score is measured on a 0-100 point scale.


Combined synthetic benchmark score

This is our combined benchmark score. We are regularly improving our combining algorithms, but if you find some perceived inconsistencies, feel free to speak up in comments section, we usually fix problems quickly.

R9 285 17.34
+72.5%
HD 7850 10.05

Passmark

This is the most ubiquitous GPU benchmark. It gives the graphics card a thorough evaluation under various types of load, providing four separate benchmarks for Direct3D versions 9, 10, 11 and 12 (the last being done in 4K resolution if possible), and few more tests engaging DirectCompute capabilities.

R9 285 6680
+72.6%
HD 7850 3871

3DMark Fire Strike Graphics

Fire Strike is a DirectX 11 benchmark for gaming PCs. It features two separate tests displaying a fight between a humanoid and a fiery creature made of lava. Using 1920x1080 resolution, Fire Strike shows off some realistic graphics and is quite taxing on hardware.

R9 285 8570
+64.5%
HD 7850 5210

Gaming performance

Let's see how good the compared graphics cards are for gaming. Particular gaming benchmark results are measured in FPS.

Pros & cons summary


Performance score 17.34 10.05
Recency 2 September 2014 5 March 2012
Power consumption (TDP) 190 Watt 130 Watt

R9 285 has a 72.5% higher aggregate performance score, and an age advantage of 2 years.

HD 7850, on the other hand, has 46.2% lower power consumption.

The Radeon R9 285 is our recommended choice as it beats the Radeon HD 7850 in performance tests.


Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.

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AMD Radeon R9 285
Radeon R9 285
AMD Radeon HD 7850
Radeon HD 7850

Comparisons with similar GPUs

We selected several comparisons of graphics cards with performance close to those reviewed, providing you with more options to consider.

Community ratings

Here you can see the user ratings of the compared graphics cards, as well as rate them yourself.


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Questions & comments

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