AMD’s Polaris Graphic Cards Will Make The ‘Minimum VR Spec’ More Affordable For Everyone – Targeting Price Points Below $349

[Mr_Troll]

AMD’s Polaris Graphic Cards Will Make The ‘Minimum VR Spec’ More Affordable For Everyone – Targeting Price Points Below $349
 

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Not much is known about the upcoming 14nm FinFET architecture from AMD: Polaris. What little we know comes from the revealed press decks and presentations at events like VRLA. AMD’s Roy Taylor discussed the Polaris Architecture at the expo and talked about how easily Polaris GPUs can target the VR market. As most of you know, the Oculus VR headset requires a “minimum specification” of GPU to run it. This specification is currently listed as a GTX 970/R9 290 GPU and it looks like Polaris will be aimed to bring this minimum spec within reach of more people.

 

AMD Polaris GPUs aiming to offer minimum spec VR under the $349 mark
 

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Before we go any further, a little bit of context is in order. Running virtual reality headsets such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive requires quite a bit of horsepower, which in the case of the Oculus Rift is 2k resolution at 90 frames per second. This graphical horsepower can be produced by GPUs equivalent (or more) in power to the GTX 970 or the Radeon R9 290. Both these GPUs cost $349. So if we take a look at the sales data of these GPUs as well as the GPUs above this mark, we will be able to calculate something called the total available market for VR – which is the number of users that can actually run any VR product on these headsets. AMD believes, that Polaris architecture will be efficient enough to address this problem

 

Now I would like to address a different challenge for us – and that is what is called a Total Available Market. One of the issues we have is the minimum spec for the PCs which will run the Occulus and the HTC headset ant 90 fps and 2k resolution. Now to do that you need either a Radeon 290x or the GTX 970 both of which retail for $349. The challenge that we have is if you look at the total numbers of these GPUs that have been sold, according to JPR, that’s an install base of just 7.5 Million units. Now that’s an issue because it means you can only sell 7.5 Million of anything – because that’s the number that can run those headsets. I am very pleased to tell you that we have invented something called Polaris which we think will address this problem. – AMD’s Roy Taylor

 

 

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The shift to 14nm becomes highly significant in this aspect. Not only does the die shrink allow for more transistors to be placed on the same surface area, it increases economies of scale – lowering cost. Not only that but the maturity of the process (14nm LPP has a 20nm backbone) would allow good yields and more volume to be shipped. AMD hopes to exercise this advantage by lowering the cost of “minimum spec VR” to a point below the $349 mark – making VR available to everyone and increasing the Total Available Market for VR.

AMD has just completed the shrink to 14 nanometer [with Polaris Architecture]. What this means is, and this is where it comes home to everyone in this room, is that we can produce GPUs that will run the minimum spec of VR at a lower cost, in larger volume, consuming less power and running faster. That means in the second half of this year and going forward more people will be able to run those headsets which will make a larger for everybody in the room [VR Industry]. – AMD’s Roy Taylor
 

This has interesting implications. This will almost certainly mean that AMD is going to be shipping Polaris GPUs that are at least in equivalent in power to the R9 290 at a cost much lower than the $349 MSRP of the original.

 

AMD dont u want to release Polaris a bit sooner?...dont wanna wait till summer.

 

Source:http://wccftech.com/amd-polaris-architecture-vr-minimum-spec/

[The Benjamins]

The new AMD line is sounding really good.

[Coaxialgamer]

at first , it sounded like amd was going to ship gpus the power of a 970/290 for 349$. If they do that , i'm not impressed to say the least....

[Coaxialgamer]

Just now, huilun02 said:

If they do that, no one would buy.

Because then everyone would just get the 390 for $300

 

So no, AMD wouldn't be that daft to do such a thing.

i know , that's why i misread the title

[Kinda Bottlenecked]

Might mean that they just start selling those GPUs cheaper :B

[DocSwag]

I'm assuming these would be around the price of the r9 380/380x. Of course an added bonus would probably be that they would consume very little power (possibly only around 100 watts!). I mean look at the Polaris GPU they demoed. It consumed half of GTX 950, which is Maxwell. If we look at a GTX 970 and halve that we get around 75 watts... of course I'm not sure it would be that great but 100 watts and lower sounds plausible.

[carolkarine]

Well, if we follow past pricing trends the 390 perf equivalent will be priced at about 200, the 390x equivalent around 250. Pretty fair IMO, and that's the serious bracket where a large number of people are.

 

Until we have igpus or apus capable, we won't see SERIOUS adoption, but if the price to entry is 200 for a gpu, that's much more acceptable.

[ivan134]

This is vague and doesnt really say anything.

[Doobeedoo]

Awesome to hear. I know VR is in starts and all, still great news.

Hoping to see higher resolution and refresh rate gaming be playable with more affordable hardware in future to. Higher refresh rate just feels so good! And also on top of that higher resolution

[MEC-777]

It's going to be quite the fight in this next round of GPU wars this year. I think AMD needs to work on their drivers though. 

[SteveGrabowski0]

Wow, GTX 970 performance for less than $349? I can already get that by buying a GTX 970.

[Sunako]

This somewhat sounds like AMD trying to make up for the other day when none of their CPUs were on the VR ready list. Which they then came out with their own list with CPUs such as the 9590 and8350 on there. They have to try and stay relevant in people's eyes until Zen and Polaris hit the market.

[Eroda]

it would be killer if AMD just dropped an entire 14nm finfet lineup right down to the 150 market 

[Humbug]

2 hours ago, ivan134 said:

This is vague and doesnt really say anything.

they are saying that people on lower budgets will have access to R9 290 and GTX 970 levels of performance

and they are saying that it means more gamers will be able to afford GPUs which can drive HTC Vive and Oculus Rift

Kind of expected though... from both AMD Polaris and Nvidia Pascal.

[Riccardo]

This sounds like a cheap ad: 'New AMD graphics card, now better than the last one!'. I mean, how could they not be cheaper than $350?

 

Anyway, hyped to see what Amd and Nvidia bring to the table

[Memories4K]

48 minutes ago, Sunako said:

Which they then came out with their own list with CPUs such as the 9590 and8350 on there. 

I laughed so hard when i saw that AMD put that out.

 

VR's going to have a goal of 2160x1200 @90fps 

Not happening on a 9590 w/ a 290 level performance.

[Watermelon Guy]

3 hours ago, Coaxialgamer said:

at first , it sounded like amd was going to ship gpus the power of a 970/290 for 349$. If they do that , i'm not impressed to say the least....

Or gpus at 980 level, for that price would be pretty sweeet.

[Watermelon Guy]

21 minutes ago, Memories4K said:

I laughed so hard when i saw that AMD put that out.

 

VR's going to have a goal of 2160x1200 @90fps 

Not happening on a 9590 w/ a 290 level performance.

The gpu is the bottleneck in this case, a 9590 with a fury x or 980 ti would be fine.

[Coaxialgamer]

Just now, Watermelon Guy said:

Or gpus at 980 level, for that price would be pretty sweeet.

still would be pretty lame , that's ,like worse than standard generation upgrades on the same process

[azurezeed]

Yes, *whishes for a disruptive price*

[Snadzies]

What's that?

AMD will release new hardware and the cards at their common price points will be more powerful that the previous card at the same/similar price points they released?

Shocker!

 

This has to be the most inconsequential statement a hardware maker can release, that their new hardware will be better than their previous hardware and for about the same price.

 

Also, it is funny because their are already cards out that fit into the statement about being minimum VR ready for under $349 as the 390 (better than the 290) and the GTX970 are both are under $349 by a fair bit (usually starting at $290-$320)

[Swndlr]

Too bad VR really isnt anything to boast about right now, the market for hardware and VR on top of most people's lack of desire to actually own and frequently use it is just not lining up right.

This is why most of us are just keeping our Kepler 7XX cards.

[Sharkyx1]

On 2/12/2016 at 1:15 PM, Eroda said:

it would be killer if AMD just dropped an entire 14nm finfet lineup right down to the 150 market 

Well i mean normally AMDs full lineup is 3 GPUs and 3 cut down models, and they've confirmed 2

[Misanthrope]

On 2/12/2016 at 9:40 AM, Mr_Troll said:

AMD dont u want to release Polaris a bit sooner?...dont wanna wait till summer.

I wouldn't rush the slow cooking of them AMD drivers any more, they're coming out of the oven pretty damn raw already.