Back in March during GDC 2013, AMD revealed that it entered the cloud gaming platform market with the launch of its Radeon Sky passively cooled graphics cards for cloud gaming servers. They're built from the ground up on the company's Graphics Core Next architecture, and powered by RapidFire, PowerTune and Full DirectX 11.1. These cards include the dual-slot, dual-GPU (Tahiti) Radeon Sky 900, the dual-slot (Tahiti) Radeon Sky 700 and the single-slot (Pitcaim) Radeon Sky 500, all three of which are capable of supporting up to six HD game streams at once.
Since then AMD's cloud gaming initiative has popped up at several conventions including E3 2013 in June and most recently Gamescom. The company is currently demonstrating how streamed games such as Crysis 3, Deus Ex Human Revolution and other recent games can run on a tablet at maximum settings using the Radeon Sky 700 graphics card and CiiNOW's Cumulus technology.
"It’s all about maximizing existing infrastructure and resources," AMD said in its blog. "AMD understands what gamers want in a great playing experience – great performance, amazing quality and virtually no latency. If you are attending gamescom, be sure to stop by the AMD booth and give cloud gaming a try. Let us know how it transforms your game play style."
Meanwhile, CiiNOW CEO and co-founder Ron Haberman reports that multiplayer gaming on CiiNOW's Cloud Gaming network has lower latency than playing a game locally on an Xbox 360. Why? He explains that the game experience is no longer tied to the level of the person with the worst connection. The network is a closed delivery loop: each player’s sessions are connected to one another in the data center. As an example, streaming Borderlands on Xbox 360 via CiiNOW Cumulus Cloud Gaming tech had 25 percent less latency than if playing locally instead.
"CiiNOW’s latency findings are significant for another reason; they have been, and will continue to be, a primary factor in service provider and cable operator’s selection of CiiNOW over other Cloud Gaming technology companies," he said.
AMD and CiiNOW first revealed their cloud gaming solution during CES 2013 in January. They streamed Dishonored, Dragon Age 2 and other "console-class" titles to a screened device of the player's choice: tablet, desktop or notebook. Radeon Sky wasn't actually officially introduced until two months later.
"Cloud gaming is soaring to new heights. New AMD Radeon Sky Series graphics cards and AMD RapidFire Technology bring the full AMD Radeon gaming experience to the cloud," AMD said. "With consideration for performance, quality and latency, AMD Radeon Sky Series with AMD RapidFire technology helps enable cloud gaming service companies to stream PC and console-quality gaming experiences to any device."
For more information about AMD's cloud gaming solution, the Radeon Sky Series, head here.