{"id":80601,"date":"2015-08-27T14:00:40","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T12:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=80601"},"modified":"2015-09-15T12:51:59","modified_gmt":"2015-09-15T10:51:59","slug":"amds-radeon-r9-nano-half-the-size-of-the-gtx-980-just-as-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/hardware\/80601-amds-radeon-r9-nano-half-the-size-of-the-gtx-980-just-as-fast","title":{"rendered":"AMD’s Radeon R9 Nano: half the size of the GTX 980, just as fast"},"content":{"rendered":"

UPDATED: We’ve added the confirmed price tag and benchmark results for the R9 Nano. Thanks WCCFTech<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As it turns out, the R9 Nano is as fast as the GTX 980, though its official price is a heck of a lot more at $649. That means it costs the same price as the R9 Fury X, a faster card in almost every case.<\/p>\n

Granted, it’s a very neat package, its size being incredibly attractive, but that price is a little too steep.<\/p>\n

Mini-ITX cards most often target sub-$400 markets, particularly because you don’t generally use compact PCs as your primary gaming rig.<\/p>\n

If it’s not handling a majority of your gaming, the R9 Nano-powered PC we mean, then why would you spend such an enormous amount of money on such a GPU? Very few can afford that.<\/p>\n

Besides, for the most part you can fit a GTX 980 into a compact PC case if you’re smart about it. Not all cases can manage it, but many can. That’ll save you R2, 000 right there.<\/p>\n

And actually, if you can work a water cooling reservoir into the space you’re using for your compact PC, then you can just purchase an R9 Fury X. The Fury X is really quite small and should happily fit.<\/p>\n

Here are the R9 Nano’s benchmark results:<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Graphics Card<\/span><\/th>\nGeForce GTX 960 Mini<\/span><\/th>\nGeForce GTX 970 Mini<\/span><\/th>\nRadeon R9 380 ITX-Compact<\/span><\/th>\nRadeon R9 Nano<\/span><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
3DMark Firestrike 4K (Ultra)<\/td>\n1297 Marks<\/td>\n2593 Marks<\/td>\n1551 Marks<\/td>\n3411 Marks<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Far Cry 4 4K (High\/0xAA\/0xAF)<\/td>\n15.095 FPS<\/td>\n27.345 FPS<\/td>\n16.542 FPS<\/td>\n37.966 FPS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Performance Per Watt in Far Cry 4 4K (Ultra\/SMAA\/0xAF)<\/td>\n0.13 FPS\/Watt<\/td>\n0.12 FPS\/Watt<\/td>\n0.08 FPS\/Watt<\/td>\n0.22 FPS\/Watt<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Battlefield 4 4K (High\/FXAA\/0xAF)<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n41 FPS<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n57 FPS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Crysis 3 4K (High\/0xAA\/0xAF)<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n41 FPS<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n58 FPS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Far Cry 4 4K (High\/SMAA\/0xAF)<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n28 FPS<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n42 FPS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
GTA V 4K (High\/0xAA\/4xAF)<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n38 FPS<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n60 FPS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Shadow of Mordor 4K (High\/0xAA\/0xAF)<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n34 FPS<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n50 FPS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Witcher 3 4K (High\/0xAA\/0xAF)<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n26 FPS<\/td>\nN\/A<\/td>\n37 FPS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

As we pointed out below, NVIDIA’s closest competitor is a compact GTX 970, which is a good margin slower than the R9 Nano.<\/p>\n

It’s an impressive card, no doubt, but that price.<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Original Story:<\/strong> We\u2019ve thought for a while now that the Radeon R9 Nano used the R9 Fury X\u2019s<\/a> entire Fiji XT<\/a> GPU, rather than the nerfed Fiji Pro powering the R9 Fury.<\/p>\n

And in spite of AMD\u2019s efforts to keep the mini-ITX GPU\u2019s specifications a mystery, a number of leaks have all but confirmed it’s that GPU.<\/p>\n

After all, when an R9 Nano was tested against the R9\u00a0290X in the Unigine Heaven Benchmark and crushed it, scoring nearly twice the latter card\u2019s score<\/a>, there was little doubt about what was powering this little dynamo.<\/p>\n

Now, thanks to a leaked datasheet, we know exactly what\u2019s under the hood of the little card that could.<\/p>\n

\"AMD-Radeon-R9-Nano-Final-Specifications\"<\/a>

AMD Radeon R9 Nano Final Specifications. Image courtesy of VideoCardz.com<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

What that means is that AMD\u2019s latest Mini-ITX card, and easily the most powerful card of its type with an absurd 8.9 billion transistors, has much the same specs as the R9 Fury X, and it\u2019s done with 100W less.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s some very impressive numbers, and an efficiency no one is going to scoff at.<\/p>\n

Who would have thought that AMD would manage to run all 64 compute units, each containing 64 stream processors, a single render output unit (ROP) and 4 texture mapping units (TMUs), with far less power than is required to run the R9 Fury X \u2013 keep in mind that the Fiji XT GPU is one serious piece of silicon.<\/p>\n

\"AMD-Radeon-R9-Nano-Fiji-GPU-Block-Diagram\"<\/a>

Fiji XT’s GPU Block Diagram.<\/p><\/div>\n

Don\u2019t forget that a full Fiji XT GPU means the added bonus of 4GB of high bandwidth memory<\/a> (HBM). That\u2019s 4GB of memory with an immense 512 GB\/s of bandwidth.<\/p>\n

For reference sake, the mighty NVIDIA GeForce Titan X<\/a> has a memory bandwidth of just 336.5 GB\/s.<\/p>\n

And all of this performance, 8.19 TFlops at a cores speed of 1000 MHz, can be obtained by a 6 inch (approximately 15 centimetres) long card with a single 8-Pin connector.<\/p>\n

NVIDIA\u2019s best mini-ITX GPU in comparison, the mini-ITX version of the GTX 970, manages just 3.494 TFlops.<\/p>\n

Just keep in mind that 1000 MHz is the maximum speed of the R9 Nano, not necessarily what it will be running at around the clock.<\/p>\n

The core speed will increase and decrease according to the task required of it, optimising its energy efficiency even more so.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Category<\/span><\/th>\nAMD Radeon R9 Fury X2<\/span><\/th>\nAMD Radeon R9 Fury X<\/span><\/th>\nAMD Radeon R9 Nano<\/span><\/th>\nAMD Radeon R9 Fury<\/span><\/th>\nAMD Radeon R9 290X<\/span><\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
GPU<\/td>\nFiji XT x 2<\/td>\nFiji XT<\/td>\nFiji XT<\/span><\/td>\nFiji Pro<\/td>\nHawaii XT<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Stream Processors<\/td>\n8192<\/td>\n4096<\/td>\n4096<\/span><\/td>\n3584<\/td>\n2816<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
GCN<\/a> Compute Units<\/td>\n128<\/td>\n64<\/td>\n64<\/span><\/td>\n56<\/td>\n44<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ROPs<\/a><\/td>\n128<\/td>\n64<\/td>\n64<\/span><\/td>\n64<\/td>\n64<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
TMUs<\/a><\/td>\n512<\/td>\n256<\/td>\n256<\/span><\/td>\n224<\/td>\n176<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
GPU Frequency<\/td>\nTBA<\/td>\nUp to 1050Mhz<\/td>\nUp to 1000 MHz<\/span><\/td>\nUp to 1000 MHz<\/td>\n1000Mhz<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Memory<\/td>\n8GB HBM<\/a> (4 GB Per Chip)<\/td>\n4GB HBM<\/a><\/td>\n4GB<\/span> HBM<\/a><\/td>\n4GB HBM<\/a><\/td>\n4GB GDDR5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Memory Interface<\/td>\n4096-bit x 2<\/td>\n4096bit<\/td>\n4096bit<\/span><\/td>\n4096bit<\/td>\n512bit<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Memory Frequency<\/td>\n500Mhz<\/td>\n500Mhz<\/td>\n500 MHz<\/span><\/td>\n500Mhz<\/td>\n1250Mhz<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Effective Memory Speed<\/td>\n1Gbps<\/td>\n1Gbps<\/td>\n1Gbps<\/span><\/td>\n1Gbps<\/td>\n5Gbps<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Memory Bandwidth<\/td>\n1024 GB\/s<\/td>\n512GB\/s<\/td>\n512GB\/s<\/span><\/td>\n512GB\/s<\/td>\n320GB\/s<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Cooling<\/td>\nLiquid<\/td>\nLiquid, 120mm Radiator<\/td>\nAir, Single Fan. Custom AIB Solutions Later<\/span><\/td>\nAir, Custom AIB Solutions<\/td>\nAir, Single Blower Fan<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Performance (SPFP)<\/td>\n17.2 TFLOPS<\/td>\n8.6 TFLOPS<\/td>\n8.19 TFLOPS<\/span><\/td>\n7.2 TFLOPS<\/td>\n5.6 TFLOPS<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
TDP<\/td>\nTBA<\/td>\n275W<\/td>\n175W<\/span><\/td>\n275W<\/td>\n250W<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Power Connectors<\/td>\nDual 8-Pin<\/td>\nDual 8-Pin<\/td>\n8-Pin<\/span><\/td>\nDual 8-Pin<\/td>\n6+8 Pin<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
GFLOPS\/Watt<\/td>\n~<\/td>\n31.3<\/td>\nTBA<\/span><\/td>\n26.2<\/td>\n22.4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Launch Price \/ Local Price<\/td>\nTBA<\/td>\n$649 \/ R10, 500<\/a> – R12, 000<\/a><\/td>\n$649
\n<\/span><\/td>\n		$549 \/ R9, 800<\/a><\/td>\n$549 \/ R5, 000<\/a> – R8, 500<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Launch Date<\/td>\nAutumn 2015<\/td>\n24th June 2015<\/td>\n27th August 2015 (Announcement)<\/span>
\n 10th September (Launch)<\/span><\/td>\n		10th July 2015<\/td>\n24th October 2013<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table><\/div>\n

*Table courtesy of WCCFTech<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s perhaps the most impressive card AMD has revealed of late \u2013 we\u2019re just waiting on the colossal R9 Fury X2<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The only point that may sour the R9 Nano for you is its price tag. Predicted to offer a similar performance to the GTX 980<\/a>, it\u2019s probably going to sit around the same price range, between R7, 900<\/a> and R10, 800<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"AMD<\/a><\/p>\n

\"AMD<\/a><\/p>\n

\"AMD<\/a><\/p>\n

\"AMD<\/a><\/p>\n

*Images courtesy of iyd.kr<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Should the R9 Nano launch at around $499, the international recommended price for the GTX 980, then we might just see the card sit under the R8, 000 mark.<\/p>\n

Funnily enough, if it does, there would be very little reason to buy the bulkier, and slower, R9 Fury. So we expect it to arrive at the same price as the R9 Fury, pushing the overall price of the R9 Fury down somewhat.<\/p>\n

Like the rest of the Fury range, the R9 Nano comes with 3x DisplayPorts and 1x HDMI. It will also support DirectX 12 and anything else you might require of it.<\/p>\n

Just one caveat, while the R9 Nano supports the codecs to encode and decode ultra-high-definition (UHD) video, via H.265 (HEVC), it does not support HDMI 2.0<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So if you want to use your R9 Nano with your Ultra HD television, you will need to use a DisplayPort. But just how many of you own 4K televisions?<\/p>\n

\n

Source: VideoCardz<\/a>, KitGuru<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n

More AMD news you might be interested in<\/strong><\/h3>\n

From an R9 Fury to R9 Fury X: tool unlocks the cores of select Radeon cards<\/a><\/p>\n

The ultimate 4K showdown: Radeon R9 Fury X Quad Crossfire vs. Titan X Quad SLI<\/a><\/p>\n

AMD Catalyst 15.7 WHQL drivers adds cross-generation Crossfire support<\/a><\/p>\n

AMD is moving on from Mantle: expect all optimisations to be halted<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Updated: It is indeed faster than a GTX 980, but it’s a heck of a lot more expensive too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":80621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1051,13760,14674,47,6292,1085,13756,1756,1969,15397,15577,14810,14816],"class_list":["post-80601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hardware","tag-amd","tag-fiji","tag-gcn-1-2","tag-gpu","tag-graphics-card","tag-hardware-2","tag-hbm","tag-mini-itx","tag-news-2","tag-pc","tag-radeon-r9-fury","tag-radeon-r9-fury-x","tag-radeon-r9-nano"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80601"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80629,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80601\/revisions\/80629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}