PowerColor Radeon RX Vega 56 Nano Hands-on

[btarunr]

After the AMD event, we got a chance to go hands on with the PowerColor Radeon RX Vega 56 Nano, the most compact desktop graphics card based on the "Vega10" silicon. This product is so special that it got an exclusive unveiling by AMD as a "one more thing." The card's PCB itself it slightly under 5 mm longer than that of the original R9 Nano, but the cooler adds another centimeter to its length. We can only imagine what SFF enthusiasts can do with this card under a specially-design full-coverage water-block.

It's also revealed that the card draws power from a combination of a 6-pin + 8-pin PCIe power connectors. The cooling solution consists of a dense aluminium fin-stack heatsink. A single 80 mm spinner ventilates this heatsink, and a plastic shroud covers it all up. Given that this card has specific "RX Vega 56" SKU marking and not an off-beat "RX Vega Nano" branding, we think this card will be as fast as a stock RX Vega 56, out of the box. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.4 and a HDMI 2.0. The MSRP for this card is set at USD $449.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Ubersonic]

You can imagine the guy who thought of this at the meeting:

Dude1: "Hey guys, I've had a great idea! You know how our Red Dragon Vega 56 card uses a short PCB? Well how about we replace the full length triple fan cooler with the one from the Fury Nano!"
Dude2: "Unless you downclock it to near RX580 performance it will throttle like crazy, the customers won't like it"
Dude1: "But by that point we will have their money"
Dude2: "Genius!"

 

[SkyN3T24]

Will this use a vapour chamber like the original Nano Fury did? Also, they could have made the card a bit taller to fit a 92mm fan. And even though it will not sag, I wouldn't mind a backplate

 

[Midland Dog]

this is a stupid launch from amd, they will possibly lose money from these products, an rx 580 refresh would have made them more money, and they desperately need to make more money, zen gave them momentum dont waste the money they made from that on a gpu that will perform like an overclocked rx580/1060

 

[kruk]

Before people go into wild speculations about this cards performance and power consumption, here is a sneak preview from PC Games Hardware (German)

The reviewer also compares it to reference RX Vega 56 ... It certainly looks like Nano is just RX Vega 56 with short PCB, like it was speculated before ...

 

[Vya Domus]

this is a stupid launch from amd, they will possibly lose money from these products, an rx 580 refresh would have made them more money, and they desperately need to make more money, zen gave them momentum dont waste the money they made from that on a gpu that will perform like an overclocked rx580/1060

First of all this is not a product coming exclusively and directly from AMD , but rather from an AIB. Secondly it must have cost "peanuts" to put this thing together , it's not like they spent dozens of millions on it , they just redesigned the PCB and cooler , a small development cost that , again, was mostly taken by the AIB not AMD.

Oh , and this way faster than a 580/1060.

 

[Ruru]

this is a stupid launch from amd, they will possibly lose money from these products, an rx 580 refresh would have made them more money, and they desperately need to make more money, zen gave them momentum dont waste the money they made from that on a gpu that will perform like an overclocked rx580/1060

This will left 1060/580 in the dust.

Hm, not a full chip like in R9 Nano. Well, 56 isn't that much slower and it has much lower power consumption.

 

[StrayKAT]

How can people get excited about those Intel NUC's, and then suddenly be skeptical about this?

 

[iO]

And now team up with Arctic to put an Accelero Mono on it.

 

[Th3pwn3r]

How can people get excited about those Intel NUC's, and then suddenly be skeptical about this?

For me it's the price. I bought my 1080 for a bit over $500 so I'd never buy this considering I don't need something small.

 

[Fatalfury]

somebody said it had a TDP of -150W.. is that true???
if its so..its good else...bad

 

[jabbadap]

somebody said it had a TDP of -150W.. is that true???
if its so..its good else...bad

It has power delivery for 300W so most probably not a 150W tdp card(Albeit powercolor site says two 8-pin thus 375W delivery, but all pics have 8-pin and 6-pin) .

 

[iO]

somebody said it had a TDP of -150W.. is that true???
if its so..its good else...bad

It has the same 165W ASIC power just like a regular 210W Vega 56. In the video it even goes up to around 300W with increased power limit...

 

[kastriot]

My my, most failed gpu of the year VEGA Amd, shit prices, shitty miners and frustrated desktop gamers..

 

[Vya Domus]

most failed gpu of the year VEGA Amd

And essentially sold out , still is in some places actually. It was anything but a failure.

 

[Casecutter]

They went up on Newegg for $450, and whatever they got as stock is sold-out, gone...
If there was one to buy at that price I wouldn't have hesitated to slap down a CC on one. Ev3en before a review just get one in my hands and not even un-wrap it! If the reviews aren't super great I can just return it or if good and what I expect keep it... even better it's not going to remain at $450, just make like 25% selling it...

 

[hastalabs]

ugly card ... we need more RGB card

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Why build a full card when you can half it's size for twice the power consumption?

 

[Th3pwn3r]

And essentially sold out , still is in some places actually. It was anything but a failure.

That depends on how you look at it. Things are often products of good timing. If there were any other options these might not have sold half as much. Being realistic ALL cards wouldn't have sold like they did if not for miners. Miners aside, VEGA was mostly a flop although 56 is the better of the two all around.

 

[Caelestis]

PowerColor Radeon RX Vega 56 Nano Edition for: € 449,-

And now team up with Arctic to put an Accelero Mono on it.

I don't think this will happen. I asked Arctic last year about a GPU cooler for Vega via Twitter and they replied, that there are currently no plans for it.

 

[Vya Domus]

Miners aside, VEGA was mostly a flop although 56 is the better of the two all around.

And yet , go around and look at people's system specs on this site alone, there have been plenty who bought Vega to game on on launch day. Everyone is denying it in what looks like a wired form of frustration against AMD which I can't understand.

Everyone hates AMD and thinks Vega is an absolute failure , yet AMD announces increasing numbers of sales and people actually do game on their cards. And I should point out that Vega didn't even had the best ROI among all the cards , GTX 1060 and RX 480/580 formed the true bubble of cards sold to miners.