AMD Radeon R9 Nano Review: Small But Mighty Fiji Unleashed
Introducing The Radeon R9 Nano
Today, we can finally answer your questions. Although specifications were released a few days back, they don’t tell the R9 Nano’s complete story. Strictly looking at the numbers makes this tiny graphics card appear to have some impressive specifications, mostly in-line with AMD’s current flagship, water-cooled wunderkind the Radeon R9 Fury X. As you’ll learn on the pages ahead, however, the Radeon R9 Nano is a different sort of animal—part beauty, part beast.
Let’s lay some foundation and cover the back-story before we dig in. Here are the AMD Radeon R9 Nano’s full specifications, in comparison to its two closest cousins, the air-cooled Radeon R9 Fury and the top-of-the-line Radeon R9 Fury X...
![radeon r9 nano angle 2](https://hothardware.com/ContentImages/Article/2365/content/small_radeon-r9-nano-angle-2.jpg)
The Tiny, AMD Radeon R9 Nano
The initial release of the Radeon Software Crimson Edition has caused some issues with fan speed states on some Radeon graphics cards, but an update is due to hit the web today to address the problem.
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R9 Nano | R9 Fury | R9 Fury X | |
Process | 28nm | 28nm | 28nm |
Stream Processors | 4096 | 3584 | 4096 |
Compute Units | 64 | 56 | 64 |
Engine Clock | Up To 1GHz | Up To 1GHz | Up To 1.05GHz |
Compute Performance | 8.19 TFLOPS | 7.2 TFLOPS | 8.6 TFLOPS |
Texture Units | 256 | 224 | 256 |
Texture Fill-Rate | 256 GT/s | 224 GT/s | 268 GT/s |
ROPs | 64 | 64 | 64 |
Pixel Fill-Rate | 64 GP/s | 64 GP/s | 67.2 GP/s |
Z/Stencil | 256 | 256 | 256 |
Memory Configuration | 4GB HBM | 4GB HBM | 4GB HBM |
Memory Interface | 4096-bit | 4096-bit | 4096-bit |
Memory Speed / Data Rate | 500 MHz / 1.0 Gbps | 500 MHz / 1.0 Gbps | 500 MHz / 1.0 Gbps |
Memory Bandwidth | Up To 512 GB/s | Up To 512 GB/s | Up To 512 GB/s |
Power Connectors | 1 x 8-Pin | 2 x 8-Pin | 2 x 8-Pin |
Typical Board Power | 175 W | 275 W | 275 W |
PCIe Standard | PCIe 3.0 | PCIe 3.0 | PCIe 3.0 |
API Support | DX12, Vulkan, Mantle | DX12, Vulkan, Mantle | DX12, Vulkan, Mantle |
FreeSync Support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Virtual Super Resolution | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Frame Rate Target Control | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Yes, the GPU powering the Nano is a fully functional Fiji like the Fury X’s with all of its functional blocks enabled, and its peak frequency is only 50MHz lower than the Fury X, but that more restrictive power envelope, coupled with the smaller, single-fan air cooler means the R9 Nano is less likely to run at full tilt, all of the time and remain within its target power envelope. In fact, here’s what the Nano’s frequency scaling looks like according to GPU-Z when running 3DMark Fire Strike.
![gpu z data](https://hothardware.com/ContentImages/Article/2365/content/gpu-z-data.png)
We’re making this point early because understanding how the GPU clock scales on the Radeon R9 Nano with help explain the benchmark numbers you see a little later.
Before we get down and dirty, though, there’s lots of other information to cover. Since we’ve already detailed many aspects of the AMD Fiji GPU, we’re not going to run through it all again here. We would recommend checking out some of our recent coverage though:
- AMD Radeon R9 Fury X Review: Fiji And HBM Put To The Test
- AMD Radeon R9 Fury Review: Fiji On Air Tested
- AMD Details High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) DRAM Tech, Pushes Over 100GB/s Per Stack
- AMD Touts Asynchronous Shader Technology In Its GCN Architecture
- AMD FreeSync And LG 34UM67 Widescreen Monitor Review
- Asus STRIX Radeon R9 390X Review: Hawaii Gets 8GB
- AMD Shows Off Dual Fiji GPU Powered Graphics Card
- PowerColor PCS+ Radeon R9 390 8GB GDDR5 Review