AMD's 'Radeon VR Ready' GPU Certification Program Designed To Simplify Choice For VR Systems

By Kevin Carbotte
published

AMD revealed the "Radeon VR Ready" GPU certification program designed to make selecting a VR ready PC easier. AMD has classifications that it said will help consumers and creators easily make informed decisions.

AMD said its “Radeon VR Ready” GPU certification program is an easy way for OEM PC manufacturers, boutique system builders and AMD add-in board partners to show that their products meet the necessary requirements for VR gaming and development.

The “Radeon VR Ready Premium” designation certifies that the product in question is capable of handling VR. AMD said that all systems with this seal will have an R9 290-class GPU or better and will generally be ready to deliver a good experience on the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. HP revealed that it is embracing the Radeon VR Ready program and is planning to sell VR-ready Envy gaming systems.(This answers the question we had a few weeks ago.)

"HP is working with AMD to deliver the VR-ready HP ENVY Phoenix tower for a seamless out-of-the-box experience. With the Radeon VR Ready Premium program, it will help customers to take the guess work out of selecting the right VR capable graphics,” said Kevin Frost, vice president and general manager, consumer personal systems, HP Inc.

AMD also revealed the “Radeon VR Ready Creator” designation, which is aimed at content creation professionals. AMD said the creator seal “signifies unprecedented performance and industry-leading innovation” for VR content creation. The company said that systems and GPUs with this seal include the AMD Liquid VR SDK.

The first board with this certification is the newly-announced Radeon Pro Duo.

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Kevin Carbotte

 Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years. 

9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • turkey3_scratch
    I just think it's unnecessary personally. If someone is designing a computer and needs a "VR ready" seal to tell them that the graphics card is within recommended spec for VR, then I can only ponder what type of power supply that person might put in his machine. It makes more sense for pre-built computers, because the people purchasing these are not expected to be tech-savvy at all. But putting them on graphics cards alone, kind of scary, because that means somebody did not do their research. And what about in the future when games become more intense? Will the VR seals on these cards go away?

    Then again I'm overthinking a stupid sticker :P
    Reply
  • derekullo
    But the 295x said it required 400 watts so I bought a 400 watt power supply.

    Why it catch fire?

    /sarcasm
    Reply
  • kcarbotte
    17660970 said:
    I just think it's unnecessary personally. If someone is designing a computer and needs a "VR ready" seal to tell them that the graphics card is within recommended spec for VR, then I can only ponder what type of power supply that person might put in his machine. It makes more sense for pre-built computers, because the people purchasing these are not expected to be tech-savvy at all. But putting them on graphics cards alone, kind of scary, because that means somebody did not do their research. And what about in the future when games become more intense? Will the VR seals on these cards go away?

    Then again I'm overthinking a stupid sticker :P

    This is not for people who have done thier homework. These are for consumers that hear about VR and want to get into it. It's much easier to put a label on it that says "yes, this PC will play VR games."
    Reply
  • utgotyplayer
    Cool card. I like that it will have pro features enabled in the driver.
    Reply
  • alidan
    17660970 said:
    I just think it's unnecessary personally. If someone is designing a computer and needs a "VR ready" seal to tell them that the graphics card is within recommended spec for VR, then I can only ponder what type of power supply that person might put in his machine. It makes more sense for pre-built computers, because the people purchasing these are not expected to be tech-savvy at all. But putting them on graphics cards alone, kind of scary, because that means somebody did not do their research. And what about in the future when games become more intense? Will the VR seals on these cards go away?

    Then again I'm overthinking a stupid sticker :P

    This is not for people who have done thier homework. These are for consumers that hear about VR and want to get into it. It's much easier to put a label on it that says "yes, this PC will play VR games."

    just because your card should be powerful enough does not mean its capable. i can't remember off the top of my head what it is, but some cards even though they are less powerfull perform better in areas that are required for vr then the more powerful older ones.

    i cant remember because i lost interest in vr due to the price and how no computer can do vr without heavily compromising visuals, ill wait till a good chinese knock off comes out with 720p60 per eye. that way ill have a nice, crisp video without any of the scaling crap that makes it look like hell, and a resolution that doesn't require an absolute monster to push.

    as for needing 90fps or you will get sick... yea, i get sick playing games now, and when i was a kid, you give it around 3 hours you are over feeling sick, i have no reason to believe this isn't the same.
    Reply
  • beetlejuicegr
    Hopefully the prices will drop down immensely in 2 years with new competition and new innovation coming in. The problem is the world wide economic hmm "crisis" or well not flurishing as few years ago and that the first VR sellers will need more money to cover the research adn the initial productions.
    On the other hand i can't wait to have a vr gear myself that will be capable of full 360 degree movement along body movement and body tracking without cables and joysticks.
    Reply
  • turkey3_scratch
    17661045 said:
    But the 295x said it required 400 watts so I bought a 400 watt power supply.

    Why it catch fire?

    /sarcasm

    Cause the unit you bought is an absolute junk turd and you did not do your research. The 295X2 is a 550W rated GPU, and it can draw more current that merits more power even. Apparently your power supply unit did not have working OCP or OPP and sucked.
    Reply
  • beetlejuicegr
    Turkey, he wrote /SARCASM lol. :)
    Reply
  • kcarbotte
    17662641 said:
    17660970 said:
    I just think it's unnecessary personally. If someone is designing a computer and needs a "VR ready" seal to tell them that the graphics card is within recommended spec for VR, then I can only ponder what type of power supply that person might put in his machine. It makes more sense for pre-built computers, because the people purchasing these are not expected to be tech-savvy at all. But putting them on graphics cards alone, kind of scary, because that means somebody did not do their research. And what about in the future when games become more intense? Will the VR seals on these cards go away?

    Then again I'm overthinking a stupid sticker :P

    This is not for people who have done thier homework. These are for consumers that hear about VR and want to get into it. It's much easier to put a label on it that says "yes, this PC will play VR games."

    just because your card should be powerful enough does not mean its capable. i can't remember off the top of my head what it is, but some cards even though they are less powerfull perform better in areas that are required for vr then the more powerful older ones.

    i cant remember because i lost interest in vr due to the price and how no computer can do vr without heavily compromising visuals, ill wait till a good chinese knock off comes out with 720p60 per eye. that way ill have a nice, crisp video without any of the scaling crap that makes it look like hell, and a resolution that doesn't require an absolute monster to push.

    as for needing 90fps or you will get sick... yea, i get sick playing games now, and when i was a kid, you give it around 3 hours you are over feeling sick, i have no reason to believe this isn't the same.

    It makes a tremendous difference actually.
    I did some recording of Vive gameplay with fraps and it made the framerate drop to 60fps from 90, I couldn't last 5 minutes in the game. At the normal 90fps I've played more than a solid hour with no issues whatsoever.
    If you want to test the limits of the suggested minimums, be my guest, but don't complain if the experience isn't very good.
    Reply