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The R9 Nano Performance Review Comment Thread

Vittra

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Outside of the price and the coil whine it is a very compelling card. If it were $50-$100 cheaper it would be very tasty.

I am curious to see what it's like in the real world, and how supply will flesh out too. Trying to supply higher quality binned ASICS is very sensitive to production refinements, so I think until some revisions are done, retail/e-tail supply will be rather sparse.

For me the regular R9 Fury X is more than small enough, and being a water cooler lover type I would just get a block for it and spec out my radiators and fans to handle the extra TDP from the card.

Great review SKY.

It does seem that at $600 this would have been a very dangerous card to Nvidia and provided enough distinction in price from the Fury X. Personally I'd choose the Nano over the Fury X for the following reasons:

1) 6" length on the Nano vs 7.5" on the Fury X, not including the AIO tubing
2) Air cooler to fall back on for troubleshooting / resale value
3) The Fury X doesn't OC all that well on average anyway. Might as well have the better binned chip and crank the power target

Given this trend.. low end cards will be starting at 300$ in the next few years..

It is likely low end cards won't have any relevance in a few years. Broadwell's iGPU is within 15% of a 750 Ti, which is plenty enough for what most casual gamers play - LoL and the like - and Intel has voiced AdaptiveSync adoption is coming for future chips.
 
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chrisk

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Jul 12, 2008
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Brutal coil whine! This is all I would hear.

Someone has gotta say it...a fair review indeed.
 

Bond007

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Jun 24, 2009
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Nova Scotia
I am actually pleasantly surprised with the GPU. Nice review and comments on it. If only they had these noise issues sorted out.
 

bradleyg5

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Sep 29, 2011
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83
So has anyone figured out a build that could actually take advantage of such a short card? Most ITX cases are still pretty huge, I wanna see something the size of a Xbox or PS4.
 

YoungMan

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Joined
Jul 4, 2009
Messages
502
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Surrey, B.C.
Finally! Form factors going in a good direction! Getting sick of all these dual and triple fan coolers and cards taking up 3 slots and all sorts of BS.
There are weakass gtx 950 / 750ti cards with longass dual fan coolers, like who are you kidding.

Formfactor aside, that coil whine is brutal. And now, like how amd replaced the memory with HBM, it's nvidia's turn to come up with something innovative to replace coils or something.
 

supeg

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Joined
Aug 11, 2011
Messages
42
Great Review, product however not impressive at all.

The Price is obviously the worst thing, second IMO is no HDMI 2.0

Why make a ultimate HTPC video card that does not do HDMI 2.0 when pretty much every single 4k tv does not support display port.

AMD makes the dumbest decisions...
 

Fleurious

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Jun 12, 2011
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197
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Tottenham, ON
With that coil whine i wouldn't use it in one of my machines even if it was free... Which it's not so no worries there lol.
 

Vittra

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1,237
Location
Ontario
So has anyone figured out a build that could actually take advantage of such a short card? Most ITX cases are still pretty huge, I wanna see something the size of a Xbox or PS4.

Most mass produced cases that qualify for SFF (20L or less, regardless of actual form factor) will fit a full length card. A good deal of the custom/small run SFF cases will also fit a full length card, as they have been designed specifically to do so as to not limit their use. In some of these cases however, utilizing a smaller card frees up space for certain configurations, or for better airflow or cable management. The NCASE M1 is actually one such example. It's designed for full length reference cards, but not necessarily for aftermarket ones. The Fury X and Nano allow for powerful, small cards that free up space for a configuration such as a custom WC loop while being able to fit a reservoir inside the case - otherwise you're forced to mount it externally on the 92mm fan bracket or get very creative internally with the microres options.

There's also the argument that a reservoir is unnecessary in the case, which is a valid point. You can go the Swiftech AIO route, or with a custom loop get a fill/drain port setup and have it function as a bleed port.

With respect to actual restrictions - several Lian Li ITX cases will only fit cards 170mm or less - the PC-Q21 is one such variation.

In terms of custom/small run cases where this would shine, the Osmi is a perfect candidate.

Osmi-case only
https://www.facebook.com/HG-Computers-224496684372711/timeline/

Great Review, product however not impressive at all.

The Price is obviously the worst thing, second IMO is no HDMI 2.0

Why make a ultimate HTPC video card that does not do HDMI 2.0 when pretty much every single 4k tv does not support display port.

AMD makes the dumbest decisions...

They never intended for these cards to be used with HTPCs despite what their confused and conflicting marketing seems to suggest. When they said 4K, they clearly meant 4K monitors, for use with Displayport, to leverage Freesync. This generic "4K" nonsense is a a poor marketing slogan, because a majority of the best 4K displays now are in fact tvs. When you couple that with the general consensus of a small pc meaning "HTPC!", well.. you end up with this situation. They definitely should have put more effort in educating everyone - and I mean everyone - on what exactly the purpose of the Nano and Fury X are - a strong emphasis on Project Quantum for example would have provided some clarity.

Personally, I'm of the opinion that when these phantom DP to HDMI adapters become available, all manufacturers should include them with the card. I had heard some rumours that Gigabyte was actually doing that with the Fury X, but never confirmed such a thing.
 
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supeg

Active member
Joined
Aug 11, 2011
Messages
42
Most mass produced cases that qualify for SFF (20L or less, regardless of actual form factor) will fit a full length card. A good deal of the custom/small run SFF cases will also fit a full length card, as they have been designed specifically to do so as to not limit their use. In some of these cases however, utilizing a smaller card frees up space for certain configurations, or for better airflow or cable management. The NCASE M1 is actually one such example. It's designed for full length reference cards, but not necessarily for aftermarket ones. The Fury X and Nano allow for powerful, small cards that free up space for a configuration such as a custom WC loop while being able to fit a reservoir inside the case - otherwise you're forced to mount it externally on the 92mm fan bracket or get very creative internally with the microres options.

There's also the argument that a reservoir is unnecessary in the case, which is a valid point. You can go the Swiftech AIO route, or with a custom loop get a fill/drain port setup and have it function as a bleed port.

With respect to actual restrictions - several Lian Li ITX cases will only fit cards 170mm or less - the PC-Q21 is one such variation.

In terms of custom/small run cases where this would shine, the Osmi is a perfect candidate.

Osmi-case only
https://www.facebook.com/HG-Computers-224496684372711/timeline/



They never intended for these cards to be used with HTPCs despite what their confused and conflicting marketing seems to suggest. When they said 4K, they clearly meant 4K monitors, for use with Displayport, to leverage Freesync. This generic "4K" nonsense is a a poor marketing slogan, because a majority of the best 4K displays now are in fact tvs. When you couple that with the general consensus of a small pc meaning "HTPC!", well.. you end up with this situation. They definitely should have put more effort in educating everyone - and I mean everyone - on what exactly the purpose of the Nano and Fury X are - a strong emphasis on Project Quantum for example would have provided some clarity.

Personally, I'm of the opinion that when these phantom DP to HDMI adapters become available, all manufacturers should include them with the card. I had heard some rumours that Gigabyte was actually doing that with the Fury X, but never confirmed such a thing.

Won't those adapters be 100+ dollars for the active ones and add lag?
 

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