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AMD Radeon R9 Nano vs. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970: Which is better for your mini-ITX system?

By Koh Wanzi - 25 Mar 2016

Conclusion

The mini-ITX card wins the day

The AMD Radeon R9 Nano holds quite a large advantage over the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970. (Image Source: Sapphire)

Ultimately, it’s pretty clear that the Radeon R9 Nano trumps the GeForce GTX 970 in almost every area when it comes to putting together a mini-ITX system. The only thing the GeForce GTX 970 has going for it is its price – it is considerably cheaper than the Nano, which might appeal to casual gamers who want to build a more cost-effective small form factor PC. Because the GeForce GTX 970 performs more favorably relative to the Nano at the less graphically demanding settings (typically 1080p resolution), it also looks like the attractiveness of the NVIDIA card depends on the resolution and settings you intend to game at, and by implication, the resolution of your monitor.

Here’s a table with the prices of the Radeon R9 Nano and a competing mini-ITX version of the GeForce GTX 970 to give you a better picture:

Model Price (S$)
Sapphire Radeon R9 Nano $848
Gigabyte GeForce GTX 970 mini-ITX $569

There is also a mini-ITX version of the card from ASUS, the GeForce GTX 970 DirectCU Mini. We’ve yet to get word on local pricing and availability of the card, but we’d expect it to cost around the same as the Gigabyte card, if not slightly more.

The ASUS GeForce GTX 970 DC Mini could be an alternative to the Radeon R9 Nano. (Image Source: ASUS)

As it turns out, the Radeon R9 Nano has around a S$300 premium over the GeForce GTX 970. Is its better performance worth the extra dollars? If the GeForce GTX 970 were just released last month, we’d be more inclined to argue that you could get away with saving the money and building a system that would still deliver playable frame rates in most games. However, the GeForce GTX 970 first debuted in 2014, and we are now on the cusp of the release of Pascal, NVIDIA’s next-generation GPU architecture. If that wasn’t enough to convince you of the GeForce GTX 970’s diminishing value moving forward, also remember that so far, its performance in DirectX 12 isn’t encouraging.

On the other hand, the Radeon R9 Nano just became available in late August, and its low power consumption, compact size, and stellar performance make it a very attractive option for a powerful mini-ITX system. Polaris may be releasing in the middle of the year, but that will be a mobile-focused GPU, and there’s no word when AMD will be releasing a follow-up to the Nano (we expect that to happen sometime in Q3 this year). As far as graphics cards go, the Nano is in a class of its own, having been expressly designed for compact systems and low power consumption.

Then there is the huge tilt in AMD’s favor when it comes to DirectX 12 performance, or even getting the game to work with the new API at all. While it might be premature to conclude based on just a single game (Ashes of the Singularity) that the Radeon R9 Nano (and other AMD cards with ACEs by extension) benefits more than the GeForce GTX 970 from the shift to DirectX 12, it is certainly looking that way at this point. Of course, we’ll still need to run further comparisons on more games as they become available to be really sure.

If you’re looking to build a small and powerful PC today, the Radeon R9 Nano is probably your best bet. It also certainly doesn’t hurt that the card is rather easy on the eyes with its sleek design. If you have a smaller budget and you don't intend to upgrade your 1080p resolution monitor anytime soon, a GeForce GTX 970 is still a good option, just that it's not class leading.

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