Theres something to be said for picking up the cheapest graphics card you can find and then overclocking the heck out of it. But theres also an undeniable exclusivity reserved for premium products that offer something extra. With the highest factory overclock weve seen so far on a Radeon R9 285, XFXs Black Edition slots into the second category. Despite its lofty claim to fame, this aptly-named card sports XFXs typical down-to-business style in classic black-on-black. Only the silver and copper hardware contrasts with the minimalistic monochrome theme. Built onto a 112mm-tall PCB measuring 220mm (8.75) in length, the board isnt particularly large. Moreover, it fits into a dual-slot form factor at 38mm (about 1.5) wide. That makes it almost an inch shorter than AMDs reference Radeon HD 7770. And at 544 grams (1 lb 3 oz), its not particularly heavy either. Asus Strix 285 is 316 grams (13 oz) heavier. In short, you shouldnt have any problems getting the XFX R9 285 Black Edition to fit inside a majority of PC cases. Lets talk about that class-leading overclock. At 975MHz, the GPU operates 57MHz faster than reference, which doesnt sound like much. However, no other manufacturer is pushing this card higher. The boards 2GB of GDDR5 memory employs AMDs suggested 1375MHz (5500MT/s) frequency, exceeded only by Sapphires R9 285 Dual-X OC at 1400MHz. The images clearly depict XFXs Double Dissipation cooling system. Its block is surprisingly thin, channeling four 6mm copper heat pipes to the black aluminum fins. Both 85mm fans are enveloped by a polycarbonate shroud. As an aside, the protector covering the glossy shroud left a significant amount of adhesive residue behind, which took a bit of time to clean off for the pictures. The card requires two 6-pin power connectors, easy delivering up to 75W in addition to the PCI Express slots 75W ceiling. This is the same setup weve seen on all of the Radeon R9 285 cards weve come across so far. Like AMDs Radeon R9 290 and R7 260, the R9 285 doesnt need CrossFire bridges to support multi-GPU configurations. XFXs Black Edition card is equipped with dual-link DVI-I, DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs. The bundle includes two dual-Molex-to-6-pin PCIe adapters, documentation and a driver CD. There are no video adapters, cables or value-adds in the package, which is something of a disappointment in a premium product.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Dec 2014 10:17:50 +0000
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