AMD Radeon R9 Nano Review

[FormatC]

Please take a look at the different authors and you will understand the reason why the conclusions are looking so different (and as follow the comments). Other writers, other opinions, other reactions in this forum. But I'm over 25 years in the IT business and old enough to split all this things in my private preferences and objective conclusions for public. 100% objectivity is impossible, but we can try it.

I think I was fair enough to give the 970 also a few lines in the conclusion (and not only there). The focus was logically on the Nano, but the 970 is not only a competitor, it is also a card "in its own class". One level below, ok, but always good for a nice FullHD mini-ITX solution.

At the end we have two very different cards with their own fanbase

 

[cub_fanatic]

This is a perfect example of a PC part that really only benefits future customers of mid-range cards. It and the other HBM Fiji cards are essentially prototypes that you can buy. Retail proofs of concept that demonstrate the ability to put a card with this amount of processing power on a tiny half length PCB that uses very low power and has a low TDP not to mention demonstrating HBM. But, the performance advantage that you are paying for vs something like a 970 or Hawaii card is nowhere near worth it for anyone other than those who want the latest tech which there is always a small market for. Even at these prices, I doubt AMD is making much of a profit off of these chips. The people who are going to benefit most are mid-range GPU customers 2 or 3 years from now who will be able to buy a 14nm FF R9 570 for $200 that has 8 GB of HBM and can do 4K @ 60 FPS in its sleep. The same goes with the Titan-X, future Nvidia customers buying the $200 GTX 1260 (or whatever they'll call their "sweet spot" card) with 6 or 8 GB VRAM will be thankful for the few people who bought the Titan-X @ $1,000 in 2015.

 

[_Antibios]

no HDMI2.0 in itx small system near the 4k TV is unforgivable AMD , what were you thinking?

why would anyone want HDMI 2.0 over DP?

 

[FormatC]

Try to find an UHD-TV with DisplayPort....

 

[Ww3t1d1]

Liked this story. Was shopping at Newegg,com, and could not get a R9 Fury X. Almost got a R9390 or Fury. But shopped for other items. Went back to the video cards and the R9 Nano was now available. I have video cards from most of the brands. And chose the Saphire, since they have been more stable, even if some other brands seem faster. The card came the next day. I put the card in my son's computer, who is a college student studying software design. He only experienced one driver related momentary glitch in these first 2 days of testing. But then the hardware is excellent, new driver glitch aside! I wanted to support the HBM technology, so this is the first time that I bought any computer part on introduction. I usually wait 3 months to buy new technology. We have a 4k Samsung 28 inch monitor, and 3 other monitors that are 1080p, using Display Ports. I like the power efficiency, and lower wattage draw for a powerful card. AIO water cooling is the typical cpu cooling method I prefer. I build a mix of AMD and Intel machines, but this card is a good technology, that I hope becomes the MAINSTREAM technology!

 

[mapesdhs]

Igor, very disappointed to see the 'Avg CPU Calls Per Frame' graph using a non-zero origin; the graph is incredibly misleading. The whole point of a bar graph is that the relative sizes of the bars convey an immediate impression of the data spread, but this is completely ruined by using a non-zero origin. Please don't do this again, it's bad practice.

Other than that though, good article, though not a card I'd buy, far too expensive, for the same money one can get a 980 Ti (or SLI two 970s). I don't think its appeal for miniITX builds will be as strong as many wish to believe, not at this price point, and especially not without HDMI 2.0 support for 4K. With the same budget, building a box to drive a 4K TV/monitor, I'd rather just build a bigger box and use a larger card, whether that's a 980 Ti or top-end AMD (there are some nice uATX cases around). Overall, the specs & performance of the Nano are what I expected, but the price is nuts.

 

[xaero1ne]

man i would love to build a mini rig with one of these in but that is just soooo much cash for such a small little card *eeeek*

 

[littleleo]

"In the end, we stand in amazement before a great product "

Yeah amazement just about sums it up.

"Hardcore AMD fans, hardcore mini-ITX fans and hardcore collectors will make sure that the AMD Radeon R9 Nano flies off the shelves. This graphics card might cost $649, but it’ll still be semi-permanently sold out everywhere, which is why we’re not lamenting its MSRP too much."

Here i thought it was because no one had stock because of the very few cards produced.

After reading about how some review sites were not given samples to test because according to AMD PR machine; they only wanted sites that would give a "Fair and balanced review". I can see TH got a card as did AMD fan site Anandtech. And it won a 2015 Editor's Choice award too on TH too how about that. If it is so great why limit those that are reviewing it?

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/09/09/amd_roy_taylor_nano_press#.VfhiDrVmrgU

http://techreport.com/news/28971/wanted-for-review-amd-radeon-r9-nano

http://www.techpowerup.com/215776/amd-radeon-r9-nano-review-by-tpu-not.html

Hopefully this review will keep TH on Roy Taylor's good side so you can "review" more AMD products in the future.

 

[loki1944]

"In the end, we stand in amazement before a great product "

Yeah amazement just about sums it up.

"Hardcore AMD fans, hardcore mini-ITX fans and hardcore collectors will make sure that the AMD Radeon R9 Nano flies off the shelves. This graphics card might cost $649, but it’ll still be semi-permanently sold out everywhere, which is why we’re not lamenting its MSRP too much."

Here i thought it was because no one had stock because of the very few cards produced.

After reading about how some review sites were not given samples to test because according to AMD PR machine; they only wanted sites that would give a "Fair and balanced review". I can see TH got a card as did AMD fan site Anandtech. And it won a 2015 Editor's Choice award too on TH too how about that. If it is so great why limit those that are reviewing it?

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/09/09/amd_roy_taylor_nano_press#.VfhiDrVmrgU

http://techreport.com/news/28971/wanted-for-review-amd-radeon-r9-nano

http://www.techpowerup.com/215776/amd-radeon-r9-nano-review-by-tpu-not.html

Hopefully this review will keep TH on Roy Taylor's good side so you can "review" more AMD products in the future.

Wow, I definitely never viewed harcop as biased, or at least no more than other review sites. That's pretty shoddy of AMD.

 

[jimmysmitty]

"In the end, we stand in amazement before a great product "

Yeah amazement just about sums it up.

"Hardcore AMD fans, hardcore mini-ITX fans and hardcore collectors will make sure that the AMD Radeon R9 Nano flies off the shelves. This graphics card might cost $649, but it’ll still be semi-permanently sold out everywhere, which is why we’re not lamenting its MSRP too much."

Here i thought it was because no one had stock because of the very few cards produced.

After reading about how some review sites were not given samples to test because according to AMD PR machine; they only wanted sites that would give a "Fair and balanced review". I can see TH got a card as did AMD fan site Anandtech. And it won a 2015 Editor's Choice award too on TH too how about that. If it is so great why limit those that are reviewing it?

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/09/09/amd_roy_taylor_nano_press#.VfhiDrVmrgU

http://techreport.com/news/28971/wanted-for-review-amd-radeon-r9-nano

http://www.techpowerup.com/215776/amd-radeon-r9-nano-review-by-tpu-not.html

Hopefully this review will keep TH on Roy Taylor's good side so you can "review" more AMD products in the future.

TH never, as a site, has bias. Writers can, no matter what you do someone always likes one product a bit more.

That said, it is funny you mention Anandtech as a AMD fan site when not too long ago everyone was calling them a Intel "paid" site. I kind of like how with Intel it is "paid" and AMD it is "fan".

I do agree though with the reasons AMD not giving samples out is just BS. That or they just didn't have enough.

 

[FormatC]

Biased? Stupid. For AMD it is big win to get a review in English, German, French, Italian with only one sample. Call it efficiency. The award? It was ok, because it is called "Editor's choice". That means my choice. And I wrote the reason why I can't give a "Recommended buy". Easy to declare and from my point of view more as fair. It is an awesome product, because AMD first time used a better telemetry.

Techpowerup is a longer story and it is not my style to write about colleagues. But I'm sure that AMD isn't really happy that Fiji is not complete implemented in GPU-Z - until today. The fan speed values are also false, from the first day. All other discussions are useless. And only for interest: I'm using in my private PCs only Nvidia cards (MSI 980 Ti Lightning, Quadro M6000)

 

[Muezick]

Waste of money, especially considering most good mini-ITX cases have full support for up to 300mm GPUs. I can't believe a water block for this card already exists. Seriously, just get a Fury X if you're gonna be doing that.

 

[cub_fanatic]

Biased? Stupid. For AMD it is big win to get a review in English, German, French, Italian with only one sample. Call it efficiency. The award? It was ok, because it is called "Editor's choice". That means my choice. And I wrote the reason why I can't give a "Recommended buy". Easy to declare and from my point of view more as fair. It is an awesome product, because AMD first time used a better telemetry.

Techpowerup is a longer story and it is not my style to write about colleagues. But I'm sure that AMD isn't really happy that Fiji is not complete implemented in GPU-Z - until today. The fan speed values are also false, from the first day. All other discussions are useless. And only for interest: I'm using in my private PCs only Nvidia cards (MSI 980 Ti Lightning, Quadro M6000)

Some people probably confused "recommended buy" with "buy this over an Nvidia GTX 980ti if you have $650-$700 to spend on a GPU". But, only a biased reader would make that mistake.

 

[FormatC]

Some people probably confused "recommended buy" with "buy this over an Nvidia GTX 980ti if you have $650-$700 to spend on a GPU". But, only a biased reader would make that mistake.

It would be cynical, if I gave an explicit recommendation to buy this card. Too expensive for the masses and at the end a real niche product. But all interested readers will buy it also without our recommendation - if they really need it (or they think they need it). I gave the award from the pure technical point of view.

And I'm sure that a lot of readers are more biased than I.

 

[cub_fanatic]

Some people probably confused "recommended buy" with "buy this over an Nvidia GTX 980ti if you have $650-$700 to spend on a GPU". But, only a biased reader would make that mistake.

It would be cynical, if I gave an explicit recommendation to buy this card. Too expensive for the masses and at the end a real niche product. But all interested readers will buy it also without our recommendation - if they really need it (or they think they need it). I gave the award from the pure technical point of view.

And I'm sure that a lot of readers are more biased than I.

oops I meant "editor's choice" not "recommended buy", still a lot of people probably thought that meant "better than Nvidia".

 

[littleleo]

The from what I've been able to read the Nano card runs better then many expected especially with the talk of the card being tuned to throttle down to reduce heat. It brings the highest performance yet to a mini-ITX form factor when a regular sized cards won't fit. There are some issues I have with the card and its release:

1. the Price $649 seems too much when compared to the Fury & Fury-X
2. Using a HDMI 1.4a port instead of a 2.0, most 4K TVs require HDMI 2.0
3. the target segment for this card is as tiny if not smaller then the card
4. the yield on the Fiji XT GPUs seems to be very limited despite AMD's
claims otherwise
5. If the yields are fine why the selective release of samples to websites
is AMD bullying review websites to give a more positive reviews?

All in all I'd like to see AMD come out with a more of a main stream card. That can develop a good demand that AMD can provide in good quantities that we can sell a lot of. This card has its niche it's just not enough to help AMD grow its market share, and increase sales of AMD GPUs in general. Add to that the attitude of the AMD PR department and this whole release seems poorly done. You have Websites talking about AMD PR culture instead of the AMD Nano and that isn't a win for AMD.

 

[littleleo]

"In the end, we stand in amazement before a great product "

Yeah amazement just about sums it up.

"Hardcore AMD fans, hardcore mini-ITX fans and hardcore collectors will make sure that the AMD Radeon R9 Nano flies off the shelves. This graphics card might cost $649, but it’ll still be semi-permanently sold out everywhere, which is why we’re not lamenting its MSRP too much."

Here i thought it was because no one had stock because of the very few cards produced.

After reading about how some review sites were not given samples to test because according to AMD PR machine; they only wanted sites that would give a "Fair and balanced review". I can see TH got a card as did AMD fan site Anandtech. And it won a 2015 Editor's Choice award too on TH too how about that. If it is so great why limit those that are reviewing it?

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2015/09/09/amd_roy_taylor_nano_press#.VfhiDrVmrgU

http://techreport.com/news/28971/wanted-for-review-amd-radeon-r9-nano

http://www.techpowerup.com/215776/amd-radeon-r9-nano-review-by-tpu-not.html

Hopefully this review will keep TH on Roy Taylor's good side so you can "review" more AMD products in the future.

TH never, as a site, has bias. Writers can, no matter what you do someone always likes one product a bit more.

That said, it is funny you mention Anandtech as a AMD fan site when not too long ago everyone was calling them a Intel "paid" site. I kind of like how with Intel it is "paid" and AMD it is "fan".

I do agree though with the reasons AMD not giving samples out is just BS. That or they just didn't have enough.

When calling Anandtech a AMD fan site it's in regards to AMD GPUs, what can be said as a positive about AMD CPUs with a straight face.

 

[Kevin Davidson]

Mini itx in my opinion and most of my customers Is where the future is home theater with high end gaming. This is a really good option! My problem how to sell this price point to the customer a lot of people will want them but just won't pay! AMD is banking on the fact that builders will find it easier to fit but hell my customer will take the bigger card in a cooler master 130 case for a 300. dollar price drop. Problem I have been having is getting high end sound from mini itx board. Most clients have a nice sound system they want to connect to the mini itx boards have crap try to fit a good sound card is one hell of a challenge! There is a market here but they have to get a more reasonable price point and better motherboards!

 

[cub_fanatic]

When calling Anandtech a AMD fan site it's in regards to AMD GPUs, what can be said as a positive about AMD CPUs with a straight face.

There are a lot of positives, most of them having to do with their APUs, their great pricing and providing the only real competition to Intel in the consumer desktop market which is basically preventing a monopoly from charging us $600 for an i5 (ok, maybe a little exaggeration on the price). True, AMD doesn't have a CPU that beats Intel's flagship CPU in performance. The don't have a CPU that even come anywhere close to what could be considered Intel's midrange CPUs like the Core i7 6700K or even the last two i7's before it like the 4790k and the 3770k let alone anything in the Extreme series (basically anything in the Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge/Haswell Extreme lineup vs the FX-9000 series). They haven't been the top dawg in a while. But, all that means is that AMD isn't the absolute best. It doesn't mean that there isn't a single positive thing about their CPUs or APUs. In fact, their APUs could be what the future of gaming looks like for the masses. Intel still doesn't have an affordable single chip gaming solution that can drive a 1080p monitor in many games. Not everyone can afford a $200 GPU like the GTX 960 or a $225 CPU like an i5. The next gen lineup of APUs might include a chip with 8 CPU cores and a GPU that rivals an R7 370 or R9 270x for under $200. The work they are doing to bring cheap single chip gaming solutions to the masses can be considered nothing but positive.

On a side note, this is coming from someone who has 8 Intel PCs and laptops in my house at this moment and only one old rig with an AMD CPU in it from the mid-2000's (an Athlon 64 X2). I've another AMD, a Sempron, and a motherboard in a box somewhere in my garage that I know works but that one doesn't really count just like the half dozen Pentium II/III/IV's next to it in don't count either.

 

[mapesdhs]

1. the Price $649 seems too much when compared to the Fury & Fury-X

$649 is already way too high of course, buf if only they were that cheap. In the UK the Nano is well over the equivalent of $800 US.

 

[loki1944]

1. the Price $649 seems too much when compared to the Fury & Fury-X

$649 is already way too high of course, buf if only they were that cheap. In the UK the Nano is well over the equivalent of $800 US.

That is just crazy expensive there. I feel bad for pc gamers in Europe in general with their taxes/VAT piling on the monetary pain.

 

[mapesdhs]

That is just crazy expensive there. I feel bad for pc gamers in Europe in general with their taxes/VAT piling on the monetary pain.

It varies of course, places like Germany are better for pricing, eg. when the N64 first launched, it was 250 UKP in the UK, while the equivalent of only 165 UKP in Germany. The UK though is particularly bad for product markup from the US, mainly due to the middlemen who supply mainstream stores (companies which the public usually haven't heard of, such as THE Games). Alas, as long as the public are happy to pay crazy prices, nothing will change. When I first visited the US in 1995, I saw computer parts pricing which was fully 50% cheaper than back home. It shifts up & down due to exchange rate changes, but there's stll a big markup present today.

Ian.

 

[littleleo]

When calling Anandtech a AMD fan site it's in regards to AMD GPUs, what can be said as a positive about AMD CPUs with a straight face.

There are a lot of positives, most of them having to do with their APUs, their great pricing and providing the only real competition to Intel in the consumer desktop market which is basically preventing a monopoly from charging us $600 for an i5 (ok, maybe a little exaggeration on the price). True, AMD doesn't have a CPU that beats Intel's flagship CPU in performance. The don't have a CPU that even come anywhere close to what could be considered Intel's midrange CPUs like the Core i7 6700K or even the last two i7's before it like the 4790k and the 3770k let alone anything in the Extreme series (basically anything in the Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge/Haswell Extreme lineup vs the FX-9000 series). They haven't been the top dawg in a while. But, all that means is that AMD isn't the absolute best. It doesn't mean that there isn't a single positive thing about their CPUs or APUs. In fact, their APUs could be what the future of gaming looks like for the masses. Intel still doesn't have an affordable single chip gaming solution that can drive a 1080p monitor in many games. Not everyone can afford a $200 GPU like the GTX 960 or a $225 CPU like an i5. The next gen lineup of APUs might include a chip with 8 CPU cores and a GPU that rivals an R7 370 or R9 270x for under $200. The work they are doing to bring cheap single chip gaming solutions to the masses can be considered nothing but positive.

On a side note, this is coming from someone who has 8 Intel PCs and laptops in my house at this moment and only one old rig with an AMD CPU in it from the mid-2000's (an Athlon 64 X2). I've another AMD, a Sempron, and a motherboard in a box somewhere in my garage that I know works but that one doesn't really count just like the half dozen Pentium II/III/IV's next to it in don't count either.

So how many APUs are you running? I my garage I had like 5 AMD motherboards and with CPUs from the old Athlon 3200 to the x2s and x4s and took them to goodwill and told the guy they still worked and I included RAM for them. They told me they would probably throw them away. Man, I was heart broken I couldn't even give them away, but the old lady said they go or I go, lol. Oh for the day when AMD made a decent CPU, and not this APU crap.

FYI, Microcenter is selling the i5-4790K for $199, not $600.

 

[cub_fanatic]

When calling Anandtech a AMD fan site it's in regards to AMD GPUs, what can be said as a positive about AMD CPUs with a straight face.

There are a lot of positives, most of them having to do with their APUs, their great pricing and providing the only real competition to Intel in the consumer desktop market which is basically preventing a monopoly from charging us $600 for an i5 (ok, maybe a little exaggeration on the price). True, AMD doesn't have a CPU that beats Intel's flagship CPU in performance. The don't have a CPU that even come anywhere close to what could be considered Intel's midrange CPUs like the Core i7 6700K or even the last two i7's before it like the 4790k and the 3770k let alone anything in the Extreme series (basically anything in the Sandy Bridge/Ivy Bridge/Haswell Extreme lineup vs the FX-9000 series). They haven't been the top dawg in a while. But, all that means is that AMD isn't the absolute best. It doesn't mean that there isn't a single positive thing about their CPUs or APUs. In fact, their APUs could be what the future of gaming looks like for the masses. Intel still doesn't have an affordable single chip gaming solution that can drive a 1080p monitor in many games. Not everyone can afford a $200 GPU like the GTX 960 or a $225 CPU like an i5. The next gen lineup of APUs might include a chip with 8 CPU cores and a GPU that rivals an R7 370 or R9 270x for under $200. The work they are doing to bring cheap single chip gaming solutions to the masses can be considered nothing but positive.

On a side note, this is coming from someone who has 8 Intel PCs and laptops in my house at this moment and only one old rig with an AMD CPU in it from the mid-2000's (an Athlon 64 X2). I've another AMD, a Sempron, and a motherboard in a box somewhere in my garage that I know works but that one doesn't really count just like the half dozen Pentium II/III/IV's next to it in don't count either.

So how many APUs are you running? I my garage I had like 5 AMD motherboards and with CPUs from the old Athlon 3200 to the x2s and x4s and took them to goodwill and told the guy they still worked and I included RAM for them. They told me they would probably throw them away. Man, I was heart broken I couldn't even give them away, but the old lady said they go or I go, lol. Oh for the day when AMD made a decent CPU, and not this APU crap.

FYI, Microcenter is selling the i5-4790K for $199, not $600.

How many APUs have I ever owned is the better question. None. I'm not part of the class that needs cheap gaming chips. That is why I don't even buy consoles anymore. Consoles is the current gaming platform of the masses. How many original Xbox and PS2s are your local Goodwill accepting? That is my point, the APU is almost a disposable chip. It costs $100-150 and gives you solid gaming performance for around 3 years and then you go buy an updated one. The chipsets last longer so people spend less on intermediate upgrades. Also, reading comprehension helps: I said if Intel was a monopoly, their i5s would cost $600 (and I even acknowledged that was an exaggeration). Oh, and an APU is a CPU. Technically every consumer level CPU that Intel makes is an APU as well since they all have HD Graphics GPUs in them. The other part of my point is that being inferior to Intel doesn't mean there are no positives about anything AMD does in the CPU market. You are essentially trying to argue who is better and who has better resale value. That has nothing to do with positive attributes.

 

[Math Geek]

i wish people could understand this as well fanatic. just because there is something better, does not mean the product is useless and not worthwhile. the amd apu's have a great place in the market. it is just not the same place as an i5/i7.

this is kind of like comparing a ford to a mercedes. sure the mercedes is a better built car, but that does not mean that if you buy something less like a ford or chevy or hyundai, etc, you're just getting junk. it just means your budget was less or perhaps your needs were met by a lesser vehicle.

i don't need the $1000 high end i7 either but i'm not calling the $200 i5 junk either just cause there is a better cpu on the market. pretty much the same thing folks like to say about the amd apu's. if the $150 for the a10 is good enough, then so be it, that's why they make them.