AMD will release the video card with two Fiji GPUs at the beginning of the second quarter of 2016. The manufacturer is dropping the release in line with the availability of VR glasses. AMD has stated this to a French technology site and AnandTech.
AMD announced in June that it would introduce a video card with two Fiji GPUs at the end of 2015, and the French site Hardware.fr asked the manufacturer whether there was a delay, now that the card does not seem to be in sight yet. AMD then stated, “The product launch for Fiji Gemini was initially aligned with the availability for consumer HMDs, which was scheduled for June 4th quarter 2015.” Hmd stands for head mounted display.
“Due to delays in the VR ecosystem, HMDs are now expected to be available to consumers in the early second quarter of 2016. To provide the optimal VR experience, we are adjusting the launch schedule for Fiji Gemini accordingly to make it better. in line with that of the market,” AMD said in the statement. According to the manufacturer, several business customers have already received the card and are very positive about it.
AMD therefore seems to be waiting with the video card until VR glasses such as those from Oculus, Sony and HTC are available and to focus on use for virtual reality calculations, among other things. AMD released the LiquidVR SDK early this year to reduce latency when rendering VR content with Radeon cards. The SDK was developed together with Oculus.
Update, 20.30: AnandTech has also received the statement, which is not speculation. The article has been adapted accordingly.