Late last year, AMD introduced the Hawaii based Radeon R9 290/290X along with the Bonaire based Radeon R7 260/260X which utilized AMD's updated GCN (Graphics Core Next) architecture. AMD's updated GCN architecture, which we'll refer to GCN 1.1, supported new features such as improved compute performance, on die audio processing, and improvements to AMD's PowerTune technology to offer a faster, more power efficient chip than its GCN 1.0 cousins.

Unfortunately, AMD's GCN update didn't cover the mid-range GCN 1.0 based GPUs such as the Radeon R9 270/R9 270X or the Radeon R9 280/280X, which meant gamers who wanted the GCN 1.1 architecture had to choose between the Radeon R7 260/260X or the Radeon R9 290/290X ? cards that differed massively in both price and performance. At the time, AMD simply didn't offer a middle ground.

This is where AMD's latest Radeon R9 285 codename Tonga GPU comes in.