AMD launches Radeon R9 Nano - full-featured Fiji in mini format

In June, AMD revealed that the lavish graphics processor Fiji will not only be used in the flagship Fury X but will also appear in more versions. One of these is a small but powerful graphics card for extremely compact gaming machines. Now the famous Radeon R9 Nano is “soft-launched”.

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1 Specifications: – AMD Radeon “Fiji”

2 No sharp launch

3 Related posts:

Specifications: – AMD Radeon “Fiji”

	Radeon R9 Fury X	Radeon R9 Fury	Radeon R9 Nano
GPU	Fiji XT	Fiji Pro	Fiji XT
Technical	TSMC 28 nm	TSMC 28 nm	TSMC 28 nm
Family	Pirate Islands	Pirate Islands	Pirate Islands
Architecture	GCN 1.2	GCN 1.2	GCN 1.2
Streamproc.	4 096 st.	3 584 st.	4 096 st.
Texture units	256 st.	224 st.	256 st.
Raster units	64 st.	64 st.	64 st.
Memory bus	4 096-bit	4 096-bit	4 096-bit
Memory amount	4 GB	4 GB	4 GB
Minnestyp	HBM	HBM	HBM
GPU frequency	Up to 1,050 MHz	Up to 1,000 MHz	Up to 1,000 MHz
Memory frequency	1 000 MHz	1 000 MHz	1 000 MHz
Memory bandwidth	512 GB/s	512 GB/s	512 GB/s
TDP	275 W	275 W	175 W

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As expected, the Radeon R9 Nano does not include a scaled-down variant of Fiji. Like the Radeon R9 Fury X, the entire circuit is utilized, ie 4,096 computing units and 4 GB of HBM memory on a 4,096-bit memory bus. Among other things, this results in a memory bandwidth of a record high 512 GB / s.

To reduce energy consumption and dot the TDP value of 175 W, the clock frequencies are regulated according to power output and heat generation. AMD sets the graphics processor’s ceiling at 1,000 MHz, but states that the clock frequency during normal gaming drops to around 900 MHz.

It still provides lots of performance. AMD states that the Nano is as much as 30 percent faster than the Geforce GTX 970 in Battlefield 4 at 4K resolution and in most cases also beats the Geforce GTX 980 on the fingers. With the right cooling and a bit of overclocking, there is potential to achieve more or less the same performance as the Fury X.

The fact that there is more performance to be gained will probably be noticed when AMD’s partner manufacturers are given the opportunity to launch their own models, which deviate from the current reference design. However, these are not expected to arrive until November or December.

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The graphics card itself is more or less an air-cooled and also abbreviated version of the water-cooled flagship Fury X. The newcomer measures only 15.5 centimeters and thus particularly suitable for computer boxes in the form factor Mini ITX (17 x 17 cm).

On the connection front, three Displayports and a single HDMI are provided. Power is supplied via an 8-pin PCI Express connector, which provides access to a total power outlet of 225 W. The graphics card is in turn connected to PCI Express 3.0 x16 and takes up a total of two slots.

To handle the heat development, a very compact cooler with a centered axial fan, heat conduction pipes and double steam chambers is used. In addition, for the first time ever, one of the pipes has direct contact with the voltage regulation.

The covered radiator directs the airflow of the fan both towards the ventilation grille of the connection panel and the rear edge of the graphics card. A lot of hot air thus ends up inside the computer case, but AMD still dares to promise that the newcomer maintains a significantly lower temperature and sound level than its predecessor Radeon R9 290X.

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No sharp launch

Today’s presentation of the Radeon R9 Nano is a so-called soft launch and some independent performance tests may not be published until September 10. During the same week, the official sales start will also begin.

The recommended price amounts to 649 dollars, which can probably be translated to approximately 6,990 kronor including VAT at Swedish retailers.