Powercolor R9 nano couldnt resist!

Boomstick777 · 18 Feb 2016 at 10:56

JediFragger said:
Oh no watch it everyone, Boom is posting pics and recommending a card!! It'll be on the MM within a week

Hehe

They all go on there. I don't keep these cards forever. More of a one night stand than a long term relationship

This is the best GPU I have ever used. I will keep until something better arrives, Pascal / Polaris.

JediFragger · 18 Feb 2016 at 10:58

I know, I'm only ribbin' ya B

This had *better* be your last 28nm card though dude!!!

jenovat · 18 Feb 2016 at 15:31

What are people's views on Powercolor as a brand?

Dave2150 · 18 Feb 2016 at 15:38

Tute said:
To be fair, the 980 is also pretty pointless at it's current price point as well.

The 970 and 980 have been extremely bad value for money for many months now.

They still sell well, of course on this forum if you critizise Maxwell in any shape or form, you get pounced upon by the damage control team, who cannot accept that the 390, 390x, nano are superior cards at their price points.

The 980ti and TitanX are of course in a league of their own at the moment, not disputing that at all. But AMD has the superior products in the £200-350 range.

arc@css · 18 Feb 2016 at 15:42

jenovat said:
What are people's views on Powercolor as a brand?

If my thinking is correct, Powercolor is the TUL corporation's higher tier quality product. I've had one or two of their cards in the past and been quite happy with them.

JediFragger · 18 Feb 2016 at 15:42

Dave2150 said:
The 970 and 980 have been extremely bad value for money for many months now.

They still sell well, of course on this forum if you critizise Maxwell in any shape or form, you get pounced upon by the damage control team, who cannot accept that the 390, 390x, nano are superior cards at their price points.

The 980ti and TitanX are of course in a league of their own at the moment, not disputing that at all. But AMD has the superior products in the £200-350 range.

If I was buying a single card today for £270ish I'd be lean towards a 390 tbh. BUT the overclockability of the 970 makes it a tougher choice...

humbug · 18 Feb 2016 at 15:46

jenovat said:
What are people's views on Powercolor as a brand?

I had a Powercolor R9 290 PCS+ for two years.

A well made GPU with a full metal shroud, brushed alloy Back Plate, they glued the Chokes to stop Coil Whine, this is something very few vendors do and its a nice touch, it shows they thought about it.

I'd buy Powercolor again.

TheRealDeal · 18 Feb 2016 at 15:53

humbug said:
I had a Powercolor R9 290 PCS+ for two years.

A well made GPU with a full metal shroud, brushed alloy Back Plate, they glued the Chokes to stop Coil Whine, this is something very few vendors do and its a nice touch, it shows they thought about it.

I'd buy Powercolor again.

+1 my 290pcs+ is quality and speed wise one of the best cards i have owned. Build quality i can't fault. I don't know how there customer service is as i have never used it but there product is really nice and even better considering there prices.

humbug · 18 Feb 2016 at 16:01

TheRealDeal said:
+1 my 290pcs+ is quality and speed wise one of the best cards i have owned. Build quality i can't fault. I don't know how there customer service is as i have never used it but there product is really nice and even better considering there prices.

Yeah, 1040Mhz, i think the highest clocked 290 at the time, unfortunately mine was a rev-1 with Elpida IC's and they didn't clock well, 1400Mhz stable.
rev-2 all had Hynix and an extra VRM set to make 6+1

24/7 i ran mine 1150/1400, it was a fast GPU and pretty cool in the low 70's max, benching i could get it to 1200/1450, again i think among the highest clocking 290 at the time.

Good card.

Lokken86 · 18 Feb 2016 at 16:02

jenovat said:
What are people's views on Powercolor as a brand?

Owned 2 powercolors in the past. Both were great.

Kirby Wurm · 18 Feb 2016 at 16:17

If I hadn't gone down the G-Sync route a while ago this would have been the card to replace the 970 I gave to my wife. Not as fast as my 980 Ti but far cheaper and thus a better card as a stopgap until 16/14nm.

LoadsaMoney · 18 Feb 2016 at 16:25

Dave2150 said:
The 970 and 980 have been extremely bad value for money for many months now.

Hows that work ?, the cheapest 980 on here is £389, the cheapest Fury X is £499, thats £110 more for around the same performance, yet its the 980 thats extremely bad value :confused:

TheRealDeal · 18 Feb 2016 at 16:31

LoadsaMoney said:
Hows that work ?, the cheapest 980 on here is £389, the cheapest Fury X is £499, thats £110 more for around the same performance, yet its the 980 thats extremely bad value

Compared to the 390/390x and now the Nano the gtx970/980 are not great value. There is also the Fury to consider. I would say this Nano deal makes the 390x look like a worse deal. It does however have that 8gb of Ram going for it.

David Bisset · 18 Feb 2016 at 16:33

LoadsaMoney said:
Hows that work ?, the cheapest 980 on here is £389, the cheapest Fury X is £499, thats £110 more for around the same performance, yet its the 980 thats extremely bad value

The 970 is enough cheaper than the 980 to make the 980 bad value. It in turn is more expensive than the faster 390. The Fury X occasionally performs near the 980, but often is much faster so not really a comparable product.

humbug · 18 Feb 2016 at 16:41

David Bisset said:
The 970 is enough cheaper than the 980 to make the 980 bad value. It in turn is more expensive than the faster 390. The Fury X occasionally performs near the 980, but often is much faster so not really a comparable product.

+1 to this,
The 970 is 85 to 90% the performance of the 980 and 60% of its price.
The 390 is 105% the performance of the 970 at 100% the price.
The R9 390X is 100% the performance of the 980 at 85% of the price.
The 390 (None X) is close enough to the 980 for it to make no sense at £150 more. they are broadly in the same performance category.

The 980 is over priced.

GoogalyMoogaly · 18 Feb 2016 at 17:13

980 does have 4GB vram though, not 3.5+0.5 and I believe the specs were accurate/truthful at launch.

That's possibly the issue with the Nano (other than possible throttling), only 4GB vram which can be an issue in some scenarios, even though HBM may help.
At lower resolutions I believe the low speed of HBM can be a bit of a bottleneck, at higher resolutions where HBM can stretch its legs, 4GB is more likely to be exceeded.

humbug · 18 Feb 2016 at 17:32

GoogalyMoogaly said:
980 does have 4GB vram though, not 3.5+0.5 and I believe the specs were accurate/truthful at launch.

That's possibly the issue with the Nano (other than possible throttling), only 4GB vram which can be an issue in some scenarios, even though HBM may help.
At lower resolutions I believe the low speed of HBM can be a bit of a bottleneck, at higher resolutions where HBM can stretch its legs, 4GB is more likely to be exceeded.

The 3.5GB 4GB thing is Nvidia's problem tho, it shouldn't reflect the 980 pricing, besides that if you ask Nvidia they will tell you the 970 has 4GB.

I do agree the Fury-X (more than the Nano tho) has an issue with its 4GB Buffer, i think you can look at the Namo as a compact faster GTX 980, but the Fury-X is aimed at the 4K crowd, wich is where its at its best performance, and this is where 4GB is not enough Buffer.

GoogalyMoogaly · 18 Feb 2016 at 18:09

humbug said:
The 3.5GB 4GB thing is Nvidia's problem tho, it shouldn't reflect the 980 pricing, besides that if you ask Nvidia they will tell you the 970 has 4GB.

I do agree the Fury-X (more than the Nano tho) has an issue with its 4GB Buffer, i think you can look at the Namo as a compact faster GTX 980, but the Fury-X is aimed at the 4K crowd, wich is where its at its best performance, and this is where 4GB is not enough Buffer.

Phew! I thought the 970 vram thing affected theusers based on what I saw on these forums. Good to know it's just Nvdia's problem.

humbug · 18 Feb 2016 at 18:20

GoogalyMoogaly said:
Phew! I thought the 970 vram thing affected theusers based on what I saw on these forums. Good to know it's just Nvdia's problem.

lol

Its certainly not as bad as a lot of people like to make out but i have run into the problem.

Tute · 18 Feb 2016 at 18:54

What a nasty, whiney little fan this card has. If I can't find a way to shut it up it's going back.