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AMD hones in on VR with ‘Radeon VR Ready’ program and other partnerships

By Koh Wanzi - on 15 Mar 2016, 11:47am

AMD hones in on VR with ‘Radeon VR Ready’ program and other partnerships

At GDC 2016 today, AMD announced its “Radeon VR Ready” program, an initiative designed to certify GPUs as VR-ready and make it easier to choose and build a VR-ready PC. We’re only a short time away from the launch of the first wave of VR headsets from the likes of Oculus and HTC, and the “Radeon VR Ready” program will help gamers and creators get their systems up and running more easily.

With the new program, AMD effectively joins NVIDIA in labeling hardware as VR-ready, making it easier for OEMs, boutique system builders, and add-in card partners to mark their products as ready for VR gaming and content development.

The designation will apply to the Radeon R9 290 series cards or better, including the Radeon R9 390 series, the R9 Nano, and of course the R9 Fury cards. One of the first manufacturers to embrace the program is HP, which revealed at the event that it was planning a major launch of VR-ready Envy gaming systems later in the year.

In addition, AMD announced a second designation – the “Radeon VR Ready Creator” label – which is targeted at professional content creators. As of now, the recently-announced Radeon Pro Duo is the only card that qualifies for the certification, although we might reasonably expect the list to grow in the future.

Finally, the company talked about its efforts to empower the next generation of designers, engineers and programmers to create new and more compelling VR experiences. It is doing this with a partnership with Crytek, which will see both firms spearheading VR education at universities around the globe.

This ties in with Crytek’s VR First initiative, in which AMD’s Radeon Technologies Group is the exclusive partner. AMD is already working with over 10 global universities on VR initiatives, including Purdue University, the University of Florida, and the Vancouver Film School.

Source: AMD

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