Sapphire Radeon R9 285 ITX Compact Graphics Card 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.

Given how close in performance both the GTX 960 and R9 285 are, I shared the settings between all of the games here.

	Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
	Minimum		Average
EVGA GTX 960 SSC	51		59
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 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
Sapphire R9 285 ITX	53		61
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 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

The R9 285 is off to a great start here, outperforming the GTX 960 from EVGA I took a look at a couple of weeks ago – despite that card being factory overclocked.

	Battlefield 4
	Minimum		Average
EVGA GTX 960 SSC	55		71
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 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
Sapphire R9 285 ITX	51		65
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 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

The 285 came ahead in Black Flag, but in Battlefield 4, the GTX 960 reigns supreme. Both cards still deliver excellent performance, however.

	Crysis 3
	Minimum		Average
EVGA GTX 960 SSC	50		68
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 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
Sapphire R9 285 ITX	42		62
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 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

Once again, the GTX 960 pulls well ahead, especially with regards to the minimum framerate.

	GRID 2
	Minimum		Average
EVGA GTX 960 SSC	52		61
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Multisampling:	4x MSAA	Night Lighting:	High
	Shadows:	Ultra	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
Sapphire R9 285 ITX	61		67
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Multisampling:	4x MSAA	Night Lighting:	High
	Shadows:	Ultra	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

It’s not the most intensive game out there, but GRID 2 is still gorgeous – and, it’s able to be run at 60 FPS with an R9 285 at 1440p resolution just fine.

	Sleeping Dogs
	Minimum		Average
EVGA GTX 960 SSC	64		80
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 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 285 ITX	68		81
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Anti-aliasing:	Normal	High-res Textures:	On
	Shadow Resolution:	High	Shadow Filtering:	High
	Ambient Occlusion:	High	Motion Blur:	High
	World Density:	Extreme

As beautiful as Sleeping Dogs is, it’s one setting in particular that obliterates performance: anti-aliasing. Once that’s dropped down to normal levels, both cards deliver excellent framerates at 1440p.

	Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
	Minimum		Average
EVGA GTX 960 SSC	55		65
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Texture Detail:	Ultra	Shadow:	High
	Parallax:	On	Tessellation:	On
	Texture Filtering:	16x	Ambient Occlusion:	Off
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA
Sapphire R9 285 ITX	51		66
Graphics Settings & Ingame Screenshot Resolution: 2560×1440	Texture Detail:	Ultra	Shadow:	High
	Parallax:	On	Tessellation:	On
	Texture Filtering:	16x	Ambient Occlusion:	Off
	Anti-aliasing:	FXAA

Wrapping up with Blacklist, both cards once again deliver great performance.