AMD’s Nano video card is just six inches long and arriving this August

By Jon Martindale Published July 17, 2015

rumor the fury nano beats r9 290x at half size and power consumption nano1 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Graphics cards have become giants in recent years. The boards themselves have lengthed, the heatsinks have thickened, and memory chips coat the PCB. AMD’s latest generation of GPUs bucked this trend, however, and they are about to get even smaller, thanks to the impending launch of the R9 Nano this August.

Although not much is known about the card just yet, we can confirm that AMD plans to make it just six inches long and it should have a maximum thermal design power (TDP) of just 175 watts. That should make it far cooler and quieter than the air-breathing version of the high-end Fury GPU.

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However, it will also be less of a performer too. The question is, by how much?

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Related: AMD officially reveals new Radeon 300-series, R9 Fury at E3 2015

Presumably the card will still be aimed at enthusiasts, since it is part of the new Fiji lineup of GPUs. It is expected to take a sizeable hit to its clock speed however.

WCCFTech believes that it will still be worth the upgrade for AMD fans. By having such a small form factor it will be a great choice for those with mini-ITX cases or those worried about excess heat, and it’s performance is suggested to be significantly above the 290X, AMD’s flagship from the last generation.

That would make this a very interesting card, since it would be the first that was competitive with Nvidia’s TDP figures in a long time. While it seems unlikely to beat out the green rival on a watt/performance basis, it will likely represent more of an upgrade than the re-branded versions of the last generation that have fleshed out most of the 300 series.

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Evergreen writer

Jon Martindale is a freelance evergreen writer and occasional section coordinator, covering how to guides, best-of lists, and…

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