AMD’s GTX 760 Killer? MSI Radeon R9 285 Twin Frozr IV Review

For about as long as GPU-accelerated games have existed, an ideal performance target has been 60 frames-per-second. Owing thanks to this is the standard 60Hz monitor, which delivers its best result when the framerate matches its refresh rate. To make sure the monitor’s refresh rate and game’s framerate keep aligned, to avoid visible tearing, VSync should be enabled.

While I believe our Best Playable results will appeal to any gamer, they could especially prove useful to those intrigued by livingroom gaming or console replacements. The goal here is simple: With each game, the graphics settings are tweaked to deliver the best possible detail while keeping us as close to 60 FPS on average as possible.

Because our Metro Last Light and Total War: SHOGUN 2 tests are timedemos, and because this kind of testing is time-consuming, I am sticking to six out of the eight games I test with for inclusion here.

For comparison’s sake, I’m including the Best Playable results from EVGA’s GeForce GTX 760, priced at $240, and Sapphire’s R9 280 Dual-X, priced at $220. As mentioned on the first page of this review, the R9 280 originally launched with a $250 price tag, and as the R9 285 is now here, it’ll soon be phased out. Note, all three cards are pre-overclocked, but vary in OC level.

Note: Both the GTX 760 and R9 280X cards were benchmarked about six months ago; due to time constraints, they were unable to be retested. It goes without saying that had these cards been rebenchmarked, they’d see slightly improved performance.

	Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
	Minimum		Average
MSI R9 285 Twin Frozr IV	47		57
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Environment:	High	Shadow:	High
	Texture:	High	Reflection:	High
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	God Rays:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	Off	Volumetric Fog:	On
	Motion Blur	On
EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC	46		57
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080	Environment:	Very High	Shadow:	Very High
	Texture:	High	Reflection:	High
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	God Rays:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	On	Volumetric Fog:	On
	Motion Blur	On
Sapphire R9 280 Dual-X	47		58
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080	Environment:	Very High	Shadow:	Very High
	Texture:	High	Reflection:	High
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	God Rays:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	On	Volumetric Fog:	On
	Motion Blur	On

AMD’s R9 285 is impressive here, as unlike the R9 280 and GTX 760, it managed to score a Best Playable at 1440p. That of course required a couple of settings to be decreased, but to achieve that higher resolution, it’s a small price to pay. On the other cards, 1440p would have required dropping the detail below desired levels.

	Battlefield 4
	Minimum		Average
MSI R9 285 Twin Frozr IV	54		69
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Texture Quality:	Ultra	Texture Filtering:	Ultra
	Lighting:	Ultra	Effects:	High
	Post Processing:	Ultra	Mesh:	Ultra
	Terrain:	Ultra	Terrain Decoration:	Ultra
	Anti-aliasing Deferred:	Off	Anti-aliasing Post:	Off
	Ambient Occlusion:	SSAO
EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC	45		61
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Texture Quality:	High	Texture Filtering:	High
	Lighting:	High	Effects:	High
	Post Processing:	High	Mesh:	High
	Terrain:	High	Terrain Decoration:	High
	Anti-aliasing Deferred:	Off	Anti-aliasing Post:	Off
	Ambient Occlusion:	SSAO
Sapphire R9 280 Dual-X	51		66
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Texture Quality:	High	Texture Filtering:	High
	Lighting:	High	Effects:	High
	Post Processing:	High	Mesh:	High
	Terrain:	High	Terrain Decoration:	High
	Anti-aliasing Deferred:	Off	Anti-aliasing Post:	Off
	Ambient Occlusion:	SSAO

We saw with AC IV: Black Flag, that the R9 285 card was able to handle a bit more abuse than the others, and that’s something that’s going to continue on for the rest of the page. In Battlefield 4, that extra oomph allowed us to bump every single detail level aside from Effects up to Ultra, while retaining SSAO.

	Crysis 3
	Minimum		Average
MSI R9 285 Twin Frozr IV	42		62
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	Texture:	Very High
	Effects:	High	Object:	High
	Particles:	High	Post Processing:	High
	Shading:	High	Shadows:	High
	Water:	High	Anisotropic Filtering:	x16
	Motion Blur:	Medium	Lens Flares:	Yes
EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC	43		63
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	Texture:	High
	Effects:	High	Object:	High
	Particles:	High	Post Processing:	High
	Shading:	High	Shadows:	High
	Water:	High	Anisotropic Filtering:	x16
	Motion Blur:	Medium	Lens Flares:	Yes
Sapphire R9 280 Dual-X	43		59
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 1920×1080	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA	Texture:	High
	Effects:	High	Object:	High
	Particles:	High	Post Processing:	High
	Shading:	High	Shadows:	High
	Water:	High	Anisotropic Filtering:	x16
	Motion Blur:	Medium	Lens Flares:	Yes

With AC IV: Black Flag and Battlefield 4, it wasn’t too challenging to find a Best Playable setting, but with Crysis 3, it kind of was. The reason is that the game is just such a tank, and most of the individual settings can skew performance too much. Fortunately, bumping the texture detail up to Very High allowed us to separate the card from the others and retain the average 60 FPS we’re after.

	GRID 2
	Minimum		Average
MSI R9 285 Twin Frozr IV	57		66
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Multisampling:	4x MSAA	Night Lighting:	High
	Shadows:	High	Advanced Fog:	On
	Particles:	Ultra	Crowd:	Ultra
	Cloth:	High	Ambient Occlusion:	Ultra
	Soft Ambient Occlusion:	On	Ground Cover:	High
	Vehicle Details:	High	Trees:	Ultra
	Objects:	Ultra	Vehicle Reflections:	Ultra
	Water:	High	Post Process:	High
	Skidmarks:	On	Advanced Lighting:	On
	Global Illumination:	On	Anisotropic Filtering:	Ultra
EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC	55		62
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Multisampling:	4x MSAA	Night Lighting:	High
	Shadows:	Ultra	Advanced Fog:	On
	Particles:	Ultra	Crowd:	Ultra
	Cloth:	High	Ambient Occlusion:	Low
	Soft Ambient Occlusion:	Off	Ground Cover:	High
	Vehicle Details:	High	Trees:	Ultra
	Objects:	Ultra	Vehicle Reflections:	Ultra
	Water:	High	Post Process:	High
	Skidmarks:	On	Advanced Lighting:	On
	Global Illumination:	Off	Anisotropic Filtering:	Ultra
Sapphire R9 280 Dual-X	54		64
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Multisampling:	4x MSAA	Night Lighting:	High
	Shadows:	High	Advanced Fog:	On
	Particles:	Ultra	Crowd:	Ultra
	Cloth:	High	Ambient Occlusion:	High
	Soft Ambient Occlusion:	On	Ground Cover:	High
	Vehicle Details:	High	Trees:	Ultra
	Objects:	Ultra	Vehicle Reflections:	Ultra
	Water:	High	Post Process:	High
	Skidmarks:	On	Advanced Lighting:	On
	Global Illumination:	On	Anisotropic Filtering:	Ultra

At 1440p, this R9 285 is able to handle GRID 2 at max detail – save for dropping the Shadows to High – very comfortably at over 60 FPS.

	Sleeping Dogs
	Minimum		Average
MSI R9 285 Twin Frozr IV	68		81
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Anti-aliasing:	Normal	High-res Textures:	On
	Shadow Resolution:	High	Shadow Filtering:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	High	Motion Blur:	High
	World Density:	Extreme
EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC	61		73
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Anti-aliasing:	Normal	High-res Textures:	On
	Shadow Resolution:	High	Shadow Filtering:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	High	Motion Blur:	High
	World Density:	Extreme
Sapphire R9 280 Dual-X	65		75
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Anti-aliasing:	Normal	High-res Textures:	On
	Shadow Resolution:	High	Shadow Filtering:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	High	Motion Blur:	High
	World Density:	Extreme

The same Best Playable settings were used across all three cards here (not surprising given the lack of tweaking-ability in the game), so the R9 285 simply helped us break through the 80 FPS mark. No card here could be considered a true “winner”, though, as with VSync enabled, all three can successfully keep the game locked to 60 FPS.

	Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
	Minimum		Average
MSI R9 285 Twin Frozr IV	55		63
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Texture Detail:	Ultra	Shadow:	High
	Parallax:	On	Tessellation:	On
	Texture Filtering:	16x	Ambient Occlusion:	Off
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA
EVGA GeForce GTX 760 SC	52		65
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Texture Detail:	Ultra	Shadow:	High
	Parallax:	On	Tessellation:	On
	Texture Filtering:	16x	Ambient Occlusion:	Off
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA
Sapphire R9 280 Dual-X	51		63
Graphics Settings & Ingame ScreenshotResolution: 2560×1440	Texture Detail:	Ultra	Shadow:	High
	Parallax:	On	Tessellation:	On
	Texture Filtering:	16x	Ambient Occlusion:	Off
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA

The R9 285 managed to easily outpace the other two cards in the first five games, but with Blacklist, they’re all brought to an even playing field.