Radeon R9 285 

NVIDIA designed its previous-generation high-end chip, the GK104, as skillfully as the G92.

The strategy of rebranding current-generation high-end chips as next-generation performance-segment ones worked quite differently for NVIDIA and AMD.

Performance has really seen no significant improvements since Tahiti, i.e. the R9 280(X).

You can now use FreeSync in games on Tonga, but there are no FreeSync monitors, so we'll have to see if it'll be worth it.

While AMD tries to promote 1440p gaming on the card, I think it's just too slow for a really good gaming experience at the resolution.

In gaming, the two fans will definitely be noticeable.

While the GPU is clocked at 918 MHz, the memory is clocked to run at 5.50 GHz (GDDR5-effective), working out to 176 GB/s of memory bandwidth.

AMD's "Tahiti" silicon, in contrast, was built to be a "big" chip, with about 24 percent more transistors than the GK104, a requisite twelve memory chips occupying its wider memory bus, and heftier VRM design requirements.

The Elpida memory chips seemed to limit memory overclocks, which we've seen before on other AMD cards like the R9 290X.

AMD's latest game bundle also includes loads of titles, old and new, you could pawn off to save some cost.

While fan noise during gaming has improved, it's still not where I'd like it to as it doesn't beat competing products.

With some adoptions into games, it will hopefully pick up in the future.

Although it powers the $250-ish Radeon R9 280, it is more expensive to make (lower scope for price-cuts) and has power supply requirements rivaling GPUs two segments above it.

It can run any game at 1080p, comes at a sub-$250 price, and is energy-efficient to the extent of not looking out of place in this segment.