The AMD Radeon R9 Nano Review: The Power of Size
by Ryan Smith on September 10, 2015 8:00 AM ESTFar Cry 4
The next game in our 2015 GPU benchmark suite is Far Cry 4, Ubisoft’s Himalayan action game. A lot like Crysis 3, Far Cry 4 can be quite tough on GPUs, especially with Ultra settings thanks to the game’s expansive environments.
Far Cry 4 continues to favor AMD cards, which puts the R9 Nano in a comfortable position. Compared to the R9 Fury we’re looking at 90-95% the performance of AMD’s cheaper Fiji card, and compared to NVIDIA’s lineup there’s a comfortable lead over the GTX 980 and GTX 970 Mini, giving the R9 Nano the edge in both the power and size based comparisons.
The one risk for AMD here is at 1920x1080. We appear to be CPU limited on AMD cards again, and that’s letting NVIDIA quickly take the lead. Given the R9 Nano’s tendency towards overkill at 1920x1080 I don’t expect too many users to pair such monitors with this card, but it’s a reminder that DirectX 12 can’t come soon enough for AMD.
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D. Lister - Friday, September 11, 2015 - link
It is interesting how the ratio of AMD fans on every tech website is about 50/50 with Nvidia fans, yet AMD's market share has dropped below 20%. What's up with that? Either a lot of you AMD guys aren't putting your money where your mouth is, or it's like the same 3 fanboys posting their stuff everywhere with multiple accounts. :pMathos - Friday, September 11, 2015 - link
Not really a fanboy of either side. I'm usually a fan of whatever will give me the best performance at the price point I can afford. Though currently I'm running an AMD HD7850 2GB, because thats what was best at below 200$ at the time I bought it.itproflorida - Friday, September 11, 2015 - link
coincidence I am replying to your post, but of course your not a fan but you will buy another amd card, good for you.Mathos - Friday, September 11, 2015 - link
Look I've probably been building and upgrading computer systems, longer than you've been alive there buddy, I've own more video cards than you'll probably ever know. Many of which predate both nVidia and ATI. I'm buying the R9 Fury, because at 550$, it's faster than similarly priced GTX 980's in the games that I have and play. Don't get me wrong, if I could afford more, I'd buy a 980ti. Unlike you, I apparently read bench marks and multiple reviews on such things. Plus I'm not one of these dumb people who buy x brand because they have the fastest top end card.... even though another brand has something faster at the price point I'm looking at.And speculation you say? Even though I've already been using said features with my 7850? Mostly just the frame rate limit settings to save power at the moment. Also.... have you not seen the performance difference with the DX 12vs11 benchmarks on other sites?
D. Lister - Friday, September 11, 2015 - link
@MathosI think there is a misunderstanding here - my statement was based on a general observation, not pointed at anyone in particular. You could attach a hamster wheel to your gpu slot and I wouldn't mind as long as you feed the hamster, not to mention it would work nearly just as well for Project Cars or Witcher 3 for less money. Sorry, couldn't resist. :D
Mathos - Saturday, September 12, 2015 - link
Oh no, wasn't replying to you, was responding to that Florida person on that harsh reply. As far as your's yeah I figured that. It was kind of ironic, that a fan boy came out to attack my choice on the other post though. I'll have to check out the project cars and witcher 3 bench's. Don't play many racing games, other than Grid and Dirt. I still haven't finished Witcher 1, not worried much about Witcher 3 for a while.Beany2013 - Sunday, October 4, 2015 - link
Anyone who publicly describes themselves as a 'pro', and subsequently can't even manage basic grammar and punctuation needn't be listened to. Simple as that.medi03 - Saturday, September 12, 2015 - link
That's because most of the uneducated public with little clue buys nVidia.HollyDOL - Saturday, September 12, 2015 - link
Funny enough, I started to buy nVidia after I become educated in 3D graphics. At that time ATI provided such a terrible developer experience I doubt I'd be able to forgive&forget yet in next few years.medi03 - Sunday, September 13, 2015 - link
nVidia outsold AMD even in Fermi times, with slower, more expensive, more power hungry chips.So, nope, sorry to bust your bubble.