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Due to the city-centre positioning of our test location, constantly high ambient noise makes it very difficult to accurately measure the difference in the noise level of each graphics card. As such, we have instead decided to record a short video to show how the fan speed of AMD's R9 Nano operates when it is housed inside a SFF chassis.
The R9 Nano is barely audible when operating at its idle fan speed level (19-22%) in our testing. Once the card's fan moves towards 40%, the noise output is clearly more noticeable, although it's not intrusive. I would be hard pushed to notice the load fan speed when sat 2m+ away from a large screen TV and the SFF gaming system.
Subjectively, I found the loaded R9 Nano slightly quieter than the loaded GTX 980 Ti reference inside the SFF test system. However this is only a subjective point (not scientifically tested) and the real-world difference is very small.
What was noticeable was the coil whine that our R9 Nano sample exhibited. As soon as a GPU load was applied, the inductors would put out a high-pitched squeal that was undeniably frustrating to hear. Did this act as an annoyance during the gaming experience? Without headphones on, in my opinion, yes it did. But that is just my opinion and you may have different tolerance levels.
We must point out that we only have one sample to test – other reviewers' R9 Nano cards may not suffer any coil whine. It's worth noting that retail samples or revisions may alleviate the coil whine that we heard. My colleague Allan heard coil whine on his early R9 Fury X card, however the newer Sapphire R9 Fury X that I tested with did not output any noticeable whine.
Price!! AMD… I know it’s unique but you had a good opportunity to fight NVIDIA but you priced yourself too high (again).
And with their yield issues it will be priced even higher at retailers lol.
Who are you kidding?
I can’t see how they can charge the same as a Fury X and the Fury X has the added cost of watercooling.
Don’t matter on price, Gaming enthusiast’s will buy it just because of the size and performance it give’s, If people are willing to spend like 1500 for a titan X, I’m sure people will pay 1/3 of the price for the nano.
Can you cram Fury x into SFF case?
^ This, it delivers very well for the size/form factor in spades. But if anyone has the space/non ITX case to house longer cards the Nano isn’t for them, people just need to realize this and move on.
yes. Read a review somewhere (Hexus?) where they mentioned you could cram a Fury X into some mITX cases 🙂
Most mITX cases are long, to incorporate a full sized GFX card, you can for example get a Strix 980 into a Fractal Node 304. It’s only when you get down to stuff like the Coolermaster Elite 110 that an mITX card becomes necessary.
For £515 you can buy a 980Ti, unless you really needed a smaller card why would you purchase this ?
Indeed. Most of the people complaining about the niche this card lives in wouldn’t be buying one anyway, they’re just more interested in complaining about it.
Most of the complaining is from nvidia fanboys, trolls or paid shills. There is no way a sane consumer can be totally blind to the value proposition this card gives in ultra SFF compared to useless value the titan X gives when it is so overpriced for any form factor.
Of course there are some legitimate voices of dissatisfaction among those who really wanted to buy this card thinking it will be a more cut down version of Fiji chip and could be had for like 400-450 USD, those people have legit reasons to be slightly miffed but given the performance this thing shows they will quickly realize this card isn’t for them, the $549 R9 Fury is.
I would buy it with no hessitation, and I’m a full tower user.