Looks like AMD marketing tries to sell the nano by comparing it to a mini 970. Unfortunately for them, reviewers are probably going to place it price wise against the 980.
That's not how I am reading it. They are not discussing price but are addressing power in a certain form factor. In their own slides they use R9 380 and 970 as points of reference but it doesn't mean the Nano will be priced at 970/380's levels.
What they are talking about is how they've been able to cram so much GPU power in such as mall form factor.
Since the mini GTX970 is the fastest miniITX card out today and the Nano is aimed to compete in this space (i.e., mini ITX), that's why they are comparing it to the best product available in that form factor.
This is going to be downplayed as usual like R9 295X2/Fury X CLC, how HBM is downplayed -- all because NV didn't do it first. Everyone objective knows if GTX980Ti/Titan Z came with factory CLC, if GTX980Ti had HBM1, if 980/980Ti could be made in this miniITX form factor, it would be more beneficial for PC gaming community but of course it's AMD so it doesn't count.
And using 4K with very selected settings
Pretty sure if NV made a card this powerful and this small this generation, you would break the F5 key on your keyboard.
Even has an actively cooled VRM section, something not present on some premium cards. They really paid attention.
It's also interesting to note that the
Gigabyte minITX GTX970 is getting destroyed for user satisfaction due to running hot, loud and having stability/crashing issues.
That means the only true direct competition in this space is the Asus miniITX 970 that costs
$355 and a rebate.
If the Nano is only 5-7% faster than the R9 290X, it will have no competition in its intended space.
If it comes in at 192-195 on this chart, it'll be uncontested at $429-449.
For someone with a very small case, having the flexibility of full Fury X performance at 1.05Ghz clocks and yet the flexibility of running a cool and quiet card is unique. Waiting for overclocking, temperature and power usage results.