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AMD Radeon R9 Nano CrossFire

Kanan

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What they said at the Fiji event is probably true (There is a video somewhere). They didn't see HDMI 2.0 necessary because there focus was on DisplayPort which could do it better and it has FreeSync.
Well thats exactly what I'd say too, if I didn't want or can add HDMI 2.0 support to my cards. I still think they didn't do it because they lack money.

Edit: or space in the die/on PCB (as someone else has written).
 

cadaveca

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They're never going to put DisplayPort-to-anything (except miniDisplayPort to DisplayPort in the case of Eyefinity cards) adapters in the box because they're too expensive. DVI-I to VGA is as simple as changing the pin out (<$1 adapter) which is why they're all over the place. There is no native backwards compatibility in DisplayPort.

Z170 only supports HDMI 2.0 through Thunderbolt via Alpine Ridge chip (achieves it by converting a DisplayPort signal).

Article about MegaChips (it is 7 x 7 mm):
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/15/megachips-hdmi-chip-idUSnPn5PfYPz+96+PRN20150615

DisplayPort to HDMI 2.0 requires a level-shifter and active-protocol converter (LSPCON).
I ran Eyefinity before it was officially supported. I have more than one active DP-DVI adapter. I do understand the cost, but I'm also willing to pay more to have that convenience. To me, it's like the fabled MST hubs for Eyefinity that never did sell in the NA market that might have fixed the "broken cursor" issue.

You do need to keep in mind that even a GTX980 locally is $900. A nano, fury, they cost about $20 less locally. FuryX is about $50 more, just touching over 1k. What's 10% of the cost to ensure I can use things properly? minor, in my books.

It's that experience dealing with active adapters and AMD cards that has me a bit pissed that Nano isn't going to provide HDMI 2.0, since I think the cards are great, even @ $1000.
 
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They're never going to put DisplayPort-to-anything (except miniDisplayPort to DisplayPort in the case of Eyefinity cards) adapters in the box because they're too expensive. DVI-I to VGA is as simple as changing the pin out (<$1 adapter) which is why they're all over the place. There is no native backwards compatibility in DisplayPort.

Z170 only supports HDMI 2.0 through Thunderbolt via Alpine Ridge chip (achieves it by converting a DisplayPort signal).

Article about MegaChips (it is 7 x 7 mm):
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/15/megachips-hdmi-chip-idUSnPn5PfYPz+96+PRN20150615

DisplayPort to HDMI 2.0 requires a level-shifter and active-protocol converter (LSPCON).

The dongle is part #
MCDP2850-BB
MCDP2850 (64 LFBGA, 7x7mm) – USB Type-C / DisplayPort to HDMI2.0 accessory application solution

Maybe just too costly to make no-one wants to fork over the HDMI fees with a very limited potential buyers.
 
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FordGT90Concept

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I think they're coming; it is just too soon. That announcement was 3 months ago. I think it takes longer than that to take a chip, design a PCB, manufacturer, and test it. I wouldn't be surprised if there's some prototypes behind closed doors. We should be seeing converters available for purchase by the end of the year.
 
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Excellent review , good 1 :lovetpu: From my opinion the Nano x 2 is Expensive but if your cashed up and love gaming its a good option
 
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Yeah, that's always an option, but that doesn't save the card from being criticized for not including this feature out of the box, it would've cost AMD literally a few cents to add this feature to this "premium card" considering it costs exactly the same as a full AIO water cooled Fury X.

Adding HDMI 2.0 into GCN for the Nano would have required a time machine and adding several dollars to the BOM. AMD was far too deep in designing Fiji by the time the HDMI 2.0 specification was close to finished. Current implementations on Maxwell, to my knowledge, don't support the latest versions of HDCP fully, either. So neither company is completely on board with HDMI 2.0 support.
 
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980 ti SLI needs to be added to the comparison. It is more common than nano Crossfire and it is the most relevant to the card comparison since the price point is the same.....
 
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Adding HDMI 2.0 into GCN for the Nano would have required a time machine and adding several dollars to the BOM. AMD was far too deep in designing Fiji by the time the HDMI 2.0 specification was close to finished. Current implementations on Maxwell, to my knowledge, don't support the latest versions of HDCP fully, either. So neither company is completely on board with HDMI 2.0 support.

Adding HDMI 2.0 to GCN? I think you might be confused, GCN is the 3D geometry and rasterizer architecture used in the actual rendering engine of the GPU, and as such, it doesn't handle the display interface the video card will utilize to connect to a particular monitor or TV, this is a separate part in the overall architecture of a video card, and as explained before (or even suggested by certain people) is a limitation that could be "easily" overcome by utilizing a DP to HDMI adapter or, in the case of having this feature enabled out of the box for this card in particular, by adding a converter chip such as the ones utilized in said converters between the actual GPU and the display interface connector, no need to mess with the architecture inside the GPU itself.

What you're saying is akin to proposing GCN is incapable of rendering HDMI 2.0 because its rendering engine cannot output a game at 3840x2160 and 60 frames per second, something we know this card is very capable of, one thing is not related to the other.

Also, I want to bring to your attention the fact that the HDMI 2.0 protocol was finalized as such in September of 2013, a full two years ahead of the release of the Nano.

As for HDCP 2.2, once again, I believe you might be confused about the real purpose of this especification, which refers to the ability of your video card to display protected content using HDCP 2.2 protocol. This has absolutely nothing to do with the ability of your video card to be able to display games to any given 4K display at 60Hz, in fact, as of Sept 2015, there's no content available that utilizes this protection protocol, and it is expected that by this holiday season, the first UHD bluray movies or HDR enabled content that will require the use of this protocol will be released, which as mentioned before, is only utilized for protected media content, and not for gaming.

Also, you are not correct in saying neither Nvidia, nor AMD are completely on board with HDMI 2.0, in fact Maxwell based 960 and 950 cards fully support HDCP 2.2, as well as the IGP found in Intel's Skylake processors, Nvidia has said they'll tentatively enable this feature to more of their Maxwell based GPUs as more protected content media is released next year, whether this is true or not, is not even pertinent to the topic we are discussing.

Hope this helps clear up some of your doubts, in reality, I think this topic should be dropped already, as it seems we are going in circles, and I'm sure, the majority of our forum members must be tired of the ongoing debate, and of the constant derailing of the original purpose of this review and its thread.

Truth is Nano is a very nice card, in fact, there's nothing out there quite like it, and I don't believe the green team expected this card to even exist, and I can't think of how their engineering team will respond to it, as I think they got caught with their pants down

It's such a shame that a few features were not included by AMD, which would have truly made this card shine in certain situations; also, in my personal opinion, the decision to price the card as they did, only opened them to further criticism when you take into consideration that for $650, Fury X is a much better card.
 
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Prices will probably go down as more Fiji GPUs come out of the factory. AMD had two options
- Put high prices and slowly sell whatever they make.
- Put lower prices, sell everything in a couple of days/weeks and also risk Nvidia responding with lower prices for 980/980Ti.

I think in the end everyone in their place would go with the first option.
 
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Adding HDMI 2.0 to GCN? I think you might be confused, GCN is the 3D geometry and rasterizer architecture used in the actual rendering engine of the GPU, and as such, it doesn't handle the display interface the video card will utilize to connect to a particular monitor or TV, this is a separate part in the overall architecture of a video card, and as explained before (or even suggested by certain people) is a limitation that could be "easily" overcome by utilizing a DP to HDMI adapter or, in the case of having this feature enabled out of the box for this card in particular, by adding a converter chip such as the ones utilized in said converters between the actual GPU and the display interface connector, no need to mess with the architecture inside the GPU itself.

What you're saying is akin to proposing GCN is incapable of rendering HDMI 2.0 because it's rendering engine cannot render a game at 3840x2160 and 60 frames per second, something we know this card is very capable of, one thing is not related to the other.

Also, I want to bring to your attention the fact that the HDMI 2.0 protocol was finalized as such in September of 2013, a full two years ahead of the release of the Nano.

As for HDCP 2.2, once again, I believe you might be confused about the real purpose of this especification, which refers to the ability of your video card to display protected content encoded using HDCP 2.2 protocol. This has absolutely nothing to do with the ability of your video card to be able to display games to any given 4K display at 60Hz, in fact, as of Sept 2015, there's no content available that utilizes this protection protocol, and it is expected that by this holiday season, the first UHD bluray movies or HDR enabled content that will require the use of this protocol will be released, which as mentioned before, is only utilized for protected media content, and not for gaming.

Also, you are not correct in saying neither Nvidia, nor AMD are completely on board with HDMI 2.0, in fact Maxwell based 960 and 950 cards fully support HDCP 2.2 decoding, as well as the IGP found in Intel's Skylake processors, Nvidia has said they'll tentatively enable this feature to more of their Maxwell based GPUs as more protected content media is released next year, whether this is true or not, is not even pertinent to the topic we are discussing.

Hope this helps clear up some of your doubts, in reality, I think this topic should be dropped already, as it seems we are going in circles, and I'm sure, the majority of our forum members most be tired of the ongoing debate, and of the constant diversion to the original purpose of this review and its thread.

Truth is Nano is a very nice card, in fact, there's nothing out there quite like it, and I don't believe the green team expected this card to even exist, and I can't think of how their engineering team will respond to it, as I think they got caught with their pants down

It's such a shame that a few features were not included by AMD, which would have truly made this card shine in certain situations; also, in my personal opinion, the decision to price the card as they did, only opened them to further criticism when you take into consideration that for $650, Fury X is a much better card.


Dude I respect u , though do u Work for AMD or a Development Component company ? I mean what you are Bringing to the table is serious I know what im talking about programing and hardware genius Words from my opinion ....... so is it just trolling info or the real deal ? I don't mind , just thought id ask.
 

Fx

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W1zzard, I enjoyed this information. Thank you.
 
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Um yes Wizzard I enjoyed your review too , I forgot :oops:
 
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See https://community.amd.com/thread/189771 - BF4, W10, R9 Xfire - Oct 2015

R9 Nano prices have dropped. GTX1080 is out. I have one R9 Nano already (for video editing). Cheap 4K for me is add another R9 Nano.
 
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