PCPer AMD R9 Nano review

[Guest Kloaked]

Looks very good. It seems like people don't understand that this is a card made for tiny builds. There are no other cards at this form factor, that can handle this, especially in DX12. So much fanboy in here, damn. This is a niche market product. Treat it for what it is.

 

Only issue is that they still haven't dealt with capacitor buzz. Either they don't know how or they are skimping out. Could be an issue with HBM.

 

So it's okay for AMD to screw up, but not Nvidia right?

 

Yeah, so much fanboyism here.

[The Benjamins]

yes, they kinda' are - it's about the operating ambient temperatures in the volume of air it operates in

 

 

 

If you are talking about thermal issues then that is up to the system builder to keep in mind how to keep the system cool. its not impossible and that picture you originally link was a case were it was running with in its capacity. so their will only be issues IF the person who put the system together mess up.

 

[zMeul]

Power limited

funny how AMD sells it with up to 1000Mhz, but can't actually do it unless you use a feature that automatically voids the warranty 

 

good job AMD, well played!

[The Benjamins]

funny how AMD sells it with up to 1000Mhz, but can't actually do it unless you use a feature that automatically voids the warranty 

 

good job AMD, well played!

 

Overclocking a AMD GPU dose not void the warranty that is only for Nvidia cards ( as far as I know)

[Misanthrope]

AMD has made 1 slot coolers for servers, but they sure will not be quiet. you have to find a trade off somewere.

 

they could try and engineer this for the extra 25W and make it shorter

http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/graphics/workstation/firepro-3d/7100

I have a pretty noisy card myself I personally don't mind since I drown it out with really loud speakers but not sure if it would be a popular choice, I'd love to have that option though.

[zMeul]

Overclocking a AMD GPU dose not void the warranty that is only for Nvidia cards ( as far as I know)

then you haven't owned AMD powered video cards

 

the 1st thing when enabling OverDrive is a prompt that tells you exactly that

[WereCat]

funny how this little detail is ignored - it has the same price point!!!!!! and perf wise is under R9 Fury

Of course they are expensive! There is so little of those cards that they could most likely sell them all even for $800. Titan Z was also expensive as hell and it performed worse than two separated titans which were $1000 cheaper. It was also throttled and running under 1000MHz... It was also very loud and hot yet people were still buying it. What makes you think that people won't buy Nano?

[xAcid9]

funny how AMD sells it with up to 1000Mhz, but can't actually do it unless you use a feature that automatically voids the warranty 

 

good job AMD, well played!

They will never know.

[zMeul]

It was also very loud and hot yet people were still buying it. What makes you think that people won't buy Nano?

of course people will buy it, the same thing can be said about overpriced Apple crap that people continue to buy

[zMeul]

They will never know.

you'd be surprised how many people will answer yes when asked if they enabled AMD's OverDrive feature 

[Notional]

So it's okay for AMD to screw up, but not Nvidia right?

 

Yeah, so much fanboyism here.

 

Are you referring to the capacitor buzz? I mentioned it as an issue; that is indeed criticism. I can't stand electrical high pitch noise (witch granted is coil whine, not cap buzz), so I would not buy it, but get a third party vendor version. So no double standards or fanboyism here.

 

The 970 suffered from this, yet is the most popular high end card on the market now. Does not seem to be such a large issue for most people.

[Guest Kloaked]

Are you referring to the capacitor buzz? I mentioned it as an issue; that is indeed criticism. I can't stand electrical high pitch noise (witch granted is coil whine, not cap buzz), so I would not buy it, but get a third party vendor version. So no double standards or fanboyism here.

 

The 970 suffered from this, yet is the most popular high end card on the market now. Does not seem to be such a large issue for most people.

 

My point is in the post I quoted from you, you are making a valid argument.

 

Yet when the valid arguments for Nvidia's 970 were made, despite the obvious fuck ups that was common knowledge with literally everyone with a fully functioning brain, you and others were combating us, claiming we're fanboys.

[Prysin]

then you haven't owned AMD powered video cards

 

the 1st thing when enabling OverDrive is a prompt that tells you exactly that

except you cannot brick your card through overdrive (anymore), as you cannot overvolt it at all.

 

Overdrive is 100% automatic response to a manual "request".... hell, if you keep hitting TDP or power limits, Overdrive will automatically downclock to SAVE your GPU, and no matter what you try, you CAN NOT push it past that safety point.

 

 

So yeah, that prompt doesnt mean shit.

[Notional]

My point is in the post I quoted from you, you are making a valid argument.

 

Yet when the valid arguments for Nvidia's 970 were made, despite the obvious fuck ups that was common knowledge with literally everyone with a fully functioning brain, you and others were combating us, claiming we're fanboys.

 

Coil whine/cap buzz sucks either way. Not sure what comment I made you are referring to. It was like a year ago the card launched? My primary concern with 970 was the gimped memory. The VRM noise just made it worse.

 

Honestly the entire Fiji/fury card range is to me more like a proof of concept. I predict that all AMD/NVidia cards sporting HBM2, will in fact be quite small, like the Fury X and Nano. Right now it's difficult to know whether this is an HBM issue (half hz speed compared to GPU) or if it's just underpowered VRM causing this. The components seems to be of high quality on the PCB shots.

[Guest Kloaked]

Coil whine/cap buzz sucks either way. Not sure what comment I made you are referring to. It was like a year ago the card launched? My primary concern with 970 was the gimped memory. The VRM noise just made it worse.

 

Honestly the entire Fiji/fury card range is to me more like a proof of concept. I predict that all AMD/NVidia cards sporting HBM2, will in fact be quite small, like the Fury X and Nano. Right now it's difficult to know whether this is an HBM issue (half hz speed compared to GPU) or if it's just underpowered VRM causing this. The components seems to be of high quality on the PCB shots.

 

You're missing the point. Lol.

[Notional]

You're missing the point. Lol.

 

Care to elaborate then?

[Guest Kloaked]

Care to elaborate then?

 

 

My point is in the post I quoted from you, you are making a valid argument.

 

Yet when the valid arguments for Nvidia's 970 were made, despite the obvious fuck ups that was common knowledge with literally everyone with a fully functioning brain, you and others were combating us, claiming we're fanboys.

[Doobeedoo]

It performs really good seen in that vid, specially for that TDP though.

[Dabombinable]

AMD: Stop fucking up what's left of ATI. Its bad enough that you effectively killed all of your CPU off (5-6 years between Vishera and Zen. 5-6!!!!!).

[Nena Trinity]

 

Disgusting.

Digitalfoundry claimed their Nano was silent.

[Lunerio]

Oh dear (this is turning into a joke now), zMeul, you just linked a video you didn't watch? (Your thread opening, PCPer video)
Or you simply lack the ability to fucking UNDERSTAND. That's what you're showing off here constantly. You understand nothing and you're just deaf and blind at the same fucking time.

Look. The R9 Nano has 2 limits.
Thermal limit, which is set at 85°C (which is set in BIOS and can't be changed)
or power limit, which is set at 175W (which can be tweaked with CCC by changing the power limit)
Now depending on how the GPU workload actually is, for example not using all units for whatever reason, they can work faster (means higher clock speed), as long as it doesn't reach 175W.
Furmark is a well known benchmark that is THE expert of creating a GPU workload that just uses everything a chip has, using everything means they have to be slower be in the 175W range.
Some games will run with higher speed and some with lower, depending on how the GPU has to work.
Now if the card reaches 85°C, regardless of any W, it will throttle, the cooler can't deal with higher than 85°C. This case is NOWHERE to be seen with every test we saw.
I'm done with you.

Now for everything else:
As for the price. It could cost 800 freaking dollars and it would be still ok. You know why guys? As long as AMD can't deliver a reasonable amount of graphicscards and as long as it's sold out because of that, there is no fucking reason, to set this card at a lower price.
As for why it's more expensive than lets say a Fury X is the exclusivity, if you don't want this exlusivity (which is the size), you can buy pretty much any other card that deliver you a better price/performance, because the Nano is simply NOT FOR YOU IN THIS CASE BUT YOU DON'T SEEM TO UNDERSTAND.
God... I can't comprehend on how much ppl fail to THINK.

And regarding coil whine:
Not all reviews show off coil whine (also some are ok-ish and some are absolutely brutal (hearing at HardwareCanucks' sample literally makes my blood boil, lol)). Some coil whine goes away after a few days of use. Some coil whine exist not solely because of the GPU and can be a problem with the whole system and PSU used combined. It's not entirely safe to say that the Nano is generally fine, but it's also not safe to say that it's a bust.

I'm done now. Hopefully.

[Lunerio]

Edit: accidentally made a double post, sorry.
 

[Sparviero]

Yeah I don't get some of the responses. I thought it was pretty well laid out it was going to be a card that throttles well short of 1000 MHz due to limitations of the form factor. And honestly I found PCPer's theatrics with the fury x to have been a bit boorish. Having said that give up the apple type control AMD and let the vendors go hog wild.

[Mahigan]

LOL

Coil whine happens when a capacitor is discharging quicker than it is recharging. This can be due to a weak 12v rail or it can be due to a power limit being set by the card.

In this case, probably the latter. As for folks claiming that Nano "thermal throttled", no... It is power throttling. That's the point of the card.

As for the price, Nano has highly binned Fiji chips. Look at the extremetech review and you'll notice that while delivering the same performance as a fury-x, achieved by raising the cards power limit, the coil whine disappeared and the card performs like a fury-x, doesn't power throttle, while consuming less power than a fury-x.

As for the fans speeds. The sites reporting a loud fan set the fan speed to 100%, under gaming scenarios and automatic fan control... The fan doesn't spin higher than 40%.

So what's left now as an argument? That some SFF cases, large ones, can fit a full length card? Then what's the point of the mini-GTX970?

This card is for the same scenarios, true mini ITX cases, as the mini Asus GTX 970.

No more arguments left.

Peace.

[Dabombinable]

LOL

Coil whine happens when a capacitor is discharging quicker than it is recharging. This can be due to a weak 12v rail or it can be due to a power limit being set by the card.

In this case, probably the latter. As for folks claiming that Nano "thermal throttled", no... It is power throttling. That's the point of the card.

As for the price, Nano has highly binned Fiji chips. Look at the extremetech review and you'll notice that while delivering the same performance as a fury-x, achieved by raising the cards power limit, the coil whine disappeared and the card performs like a fury-x, doesn't power throttle, while consuming less power than a fury-x.

As for the fans speeds. The sites reporting a loud fan set the fan speed to 100%, under gaming scenarios and automatic fan control... The fan doesn't spin higher than 40%.

So what's left now as an argument? That some SFF cases, large ones, can fit a full length card? Then what's the point of the mini-GTX970?

This card is for the same scenarios, true mini ITX cases, as the mini Asus GTX 970.

No more arguments left.

Peace.

AKA, the watercooled version blows in comparison with its shitty AIO water cooler (that bad pump....)