AMD releases VR-friendly Radeon RX 480 cards for $329 in Australia

AMD is offering VR enthusiasts a cheap way to upgrade their PC graphics.

AMD senior vice president Raja Koduri with the Radeon RX 480 that supports VR & gaming.

Virtual reality enthusiasts can upgrade PC graphics less expensively with powerful cards announced by AMD.

The US chip maker is selling two graphics cards for VR enthusiasts. It says that in Australia, its 4 Gigabyte Radeon RX 480 will sell for $329 while an 8GB version will sell for $399. The GPUs so far are the cheapest that are VR-capable. They are available from today.

The relatively inexpensive cards are good news for consumers who face major system upgrades to run Oculus Rift and HTC Vive VR headset rigs. SteamVR systems also need to drive HTC headsets.

The required specs vary depending on which headset you use but generally you need graphics power equivalent of rendering two 1080x1200 displays at a fast 90 frames per second. This is beyond most everyday PCs.

The cards won’t get users out of the woods altogether; they’ll still need USB3.0 ports for connecting the headset rigs, HDMI 1.3 video output, a fast Intel or AMD processor and at least 8GB of memory.

The comparable Nvidia GTX 970 and GTX 980 cards recommended for VR systems typically cost about $450 and $650 locally.

AMD’s card is based on its Polaris architecture and the company says it will “democratise” the VR ecosystem.

It’s pricing will allow AMD to grab a slice of the VR gaming market until Nvidia matches it with a mid-range VR-capable product of its own.

AMD senior vice president and chief architect Raja Koduri said the RX 480 was the ideal product at an impeccable price. “We couldn’t be more grateful for the reception we’ve received from gamers, customers, and technology partners who see what our engineering team has accomplished,” he said.

AMD said Bethesda, EA, and Ubisoft, and VR headset makers Oculus and HTC were supportive of its graphics cards.

The RX 480 cards are available online and at retailers from today.