Thursday, August 27th 2015
AMD Announces the Radeon R9 Nano Graphics Card
AMD continues to push the boundaries of graphics card design, today announcing its category-creating AMD Radeon R9 Nano, the fastest Mini ITX graphics card ever to enable 4K gaming in the living room through ultra-quiet, ultra-compact PC designs. First previewed to gamers around the world during the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles in June 2015, the AMD Radeon R9 Nano graphics card is based on the graphics chip codenamed "Fiji," and is the third "Fiji"-based product to launch this summer alongside the AMD Radeon R9 Fury and R9 Fury X graphics cards. The AMD Radeon R9 Fury graphics family, based on the "Fiji" chip, marks a turning point in PC gaming with the implementation of High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM) to deliver extreme energy efficiency and performance for ultra-high resolutions, unparalleled VR experiences, smoother gameplay, with the Radeon R9 Nano revolutionizing form-factors for enthusiasts everywhere.
With 30 percent more performance and 30 percent lower power than the previous generation AMD Radeon R9 290X card, the 175W AMD Radeon R9 Nano is the world's most power efficient Mini ITX enthusiast graphics card. The six-inch long, air-cooled board represents a new class of graphics card, enabling gamers, PC modders, and system integrators to build compact, unique, ultra-small form factors that have never before been possible, opening the door to new, sleek PC designs that are no bigger than a home DVR or videogame console, and look every bit in place beside them.
"With the Radeon R9 Nano graphics card, AMD is enabling 4K class gaming in your living room in an exceptionally quiet, ultra-small design built to excel in today's games and on the latest APIs like DirectX 12 and Vulkan. There simply is nothing else like it," said Matt Skynner, corporate VP and general manager, Product, Computing and Graphics Business Unit at AMD. "Our Radeon graphics line-up is ushering in a new era of PC gaming delivering remarkable performance, unmatched GPU designs and groundbreaking technologies. Today is a revolutionary moment for PC gaming, and we are proud to add this distinct product to our well-rounded AMD Radeon R9 graphics lineup."
The AMD Radeon R9 line of graphics cards offers a spectrum of products ranging in price from $199 - $649 SEP. The Radeon R9 Nano is priced at $649 (MSRP). Delivering stunningly powerful graphics for unparalleled 4K gaming experiences in their class, the AMD Radeon R9 Series meets virtually every need and budget for anyone who demands a premium gaming experience.
With 30 percent more performance and 30 percent lower power than the previous generation AMD Radeon R9 290X card, the 175W AMD Radeon R9 Nano is the world's most power efficient Mini ITX enthusiast graphics card. The six-inch long, air-cooled board represents a new class of graphics card, enabling gamers, PC modders, and system integrators to build compact, unique, ultra-small form factors that have never before been possible, opening the door to new, sleek PC designs that are no bigger than a home DVR or videogame console, and look every bit in place beside them.
The AMD Radeon R9 line of graphics cards offers a spectrum of products ranging in price from $199 - $649 SEP. The Radeon R9 Nano is priced at $649 (MSRP). Delivering stunningly powerful graphics for unparalleled 4K gaming experiences in their class, the AMD Radeon R9 Series meets virtually every need and budget for anyone who demands a premium gaming experience.
81 Comments on AMD Announces the Radeon R9 Nano Graphics Card
Guys its a tiny card with huge performance.
Its sexy and i'm sure everyone will love to have one of this.
I feel like everyone on this forum has an nvidia card in his computer, and they cannot believe what the others managed to do. (which is quite possible seeing the latest market shares)
If its worth the price or not its another thing, but yes, for some with very compact systems it will be definitely worth it. Not everyone likes a big noisy box with 5 fans in the house.
Just speaking for myself aesthetics have some bearing in my choices for hardware but only after the quality, performance and price boxes have been ticked.
Maybe AMD should slap a 'Hello Kitty' sticker on the Nano.
But seriously, I was expecting the core to be crippled in a much worse way. Having the full 4096 cores active is almost impressive.
Now what I don't understand is who is this card for? ITX people? Most of them can use the Fury X, and at exactly the same price, why would they care so much about the Nano? AMD is cornering themselves into a niche of a niche of a market that keeps getting smaller and smaller? They dropped to 18% market share last time I looked. nVIDIA, even with all the hate, is up to almost 82%.
What is AMD's plan here?
I say this every time, I really like me some Team Red, but it just doesn't make sense. Again, I think we just have to wait for benchmarks. Even at the 30% claimed, AMD must be trying to capture that slim "fastest regardless of price" market to expect twice the cost.
Actually, they're looking for a niche market inside of a niche market. "Fastest regardless of price" AND "Fits in my mITX case". Many, myself included, would go mATX and a normal card.
Also, I'm going to be trolling again, how lame is it that they are again using an Intel ITX motherboard in an AMD PRESS RELEASE? Is AMD trying to tell us something? Maybe a future business merger?
I mean... have some pride!
Crossfire/SLI is always an option! (depends on how much you want it)
Frankly, the 970 is not a viable option due to the VRAM issue. 960 isn't viable because its a piece of crap. 980 is the only option and right now it is overpriced. 390s are the only viable options for the price segment. Which is the price nVidia pays for gimping the 960 with a 206 chip instead of a 204 and leveraging the 204 far too much.
It's bad when you remove an AIO and replace it with a vapour chamber but the cost remains the sameDon't get carried away. It's only an inch shorter than the Fury X.
Does that make up for an inferior cooler?
Does that make up for inferior clocks?
Does that make up for inferior performance?
Does that make up for being a louder card?Buy me one and I'll test out your theoryMost people are comparing the NaNO!NO!NO! to the Fury X. FYI both are made by AMD.
Maybe its more a case of people realizing that they're being offered less for the same price and they fail to appreciate AMD's line of reasoning. Why spend the same amount on a slower version of a card that already exists and has a much superior cooling solution and is barely an inch longer?
It's awesome that AMD feel the need to fill a niche for Intel mini-ITX platform owners though. I'd assume that anyone buying a $650 card isn't going to want performance bottlenecked any further by anything AMD can put into that particular form factor.Yep. If McDonalds decided to sell sliders for the same price as Big Mac's citing form factor as reasoning, they'd really be onto something.So, the market is for people who spend $650 on a graphics card, that have a chassis too small for a 19cm board, and prefer a high rpm fan to a quieter AIO/fan combo, and even though they spent $650 on a single card, don't care that it leaves a ton of untapped potential unavailable to them. Sounds like you'll need get in quick - these should sell like hot cakes.Robin Williams an AMD's BoD both afflicted by Dementia?
Wait.. No! I didn't say that! DIBS ON COPYRIGHT/PATENTS/ETC!
Too much promises, too much uncertainties, based on AMD's track record, these uncertainties should not be valued while making a purchase decision. Especially all their products are pushed much further than competitors in order for AMD to keep competitive.
I don't think Nano will be a good product for its targeted markets even at reasonable prices (in line with its performance), given its AMD measured noises and thermal outputs.
The 980 isn't going to drop to that range, Nvidia has no reason to compete at every price point. And they have shown in the recent past they won't, with Kepler. The 680 only got cheaper once the 770 landed and only because AMD had the solid 7970/280x up against it. If Nvidia wants to compete, they use their cheapo 970. AMD is trying to pull a Nvidia with their Fury cards, thinking they're Titans on water, but nobody cares because of the negative image of the company and lackluster performance below 4K, not to mention the fact that Fury gets crushed after overclocked results versus 980ti. 980ti is both more versatile and less power hungry while having more VRAM and the power to drive it.
390s are not better value thanks to VRAM, because 8GB on that card is useless until you crossfire it. And there is no game that runs over 4GB on plausible resolutions either. It's a non-argument. You're not driving 4k with this, and if so, you need crossfire.
The 970 isn't gimped in a single card setup, there is zero evidence to support that.
The 960 can drop in price just like 660 did, making it an acceptable mid ranger. Remember however that we might still see a 950ti, just like 750ti pushed 660 out of the market. But then again the 950 is good enough already.
The bottom line is, AMD can only compete with their old line up and nobody really wants a Pitcairn these days anymore. So what's left? 390... which is also old news, that is not going to force Nvidia to do anything. And Nano, well I'm sure it looks great but they will sell about 3 of those.