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VRLA kicked off over the weekend and it seems that both AMD and Nvidia showed up with prototype hardware. Nvidia went to the event armed with a Light Field Display headset while AMD and PC builder Falcon Northwest came to the event with PCs featuring the long-awaited dual-Fiji GPU.
Nvidia's Light Field Display is a prototype and while the company is currently showing off the device rarely at events like VRLA, it isn't disclosing many details so we don't actually know anything about it. We do have the following picture from Nvidia's Twitter account though:
AMD on the other hand has once again teased its upcoming GPU, which is codenamed ‘Gemini'. This is AMD's upcoming dual-GPU card featuring two Fury X chips on one PCB. This particular graphics card was announced alongside the Fury and Fury X last year but unfortunately, it has seen some delays to release.
Right now, the current rumour is that AMD will finally release the Fury X2 (or whatever AMD does decide to call the card) around March or April in order to position it as the card for those looking to pick up one of the first wave of virtual reality headsets, such as the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift.
KitGuru Says: We don't really know anything about Nvidia's prototype head display yet but we have heard quite a lot about AMD's new dual-GPU card. Are any of you currently waiting on AMD to release Gemini/Fury X2? What do you think of Nvidia experimenting with its own head-mounted display?
If the Fury x2 is around a $1000, that will still be a good value considering a Titan X is $1000 and the Fury X in crossfire offers nearly double the performance of a Titan X or a 980ti…if AMD is smart, they’ll keep the price under $1100, and if they do, it’ll be hard to justify anyone buying a Titan X for $1000 ever again.
I would definitely pick one up for 999$!
Seeing how both Fury X and 980Ti are around $600 and both are pretty close in sli/crossfire performance, it will be a good move if they do release Fury x2 at around $1000, but sadly I don’t think it will be release at that price point, more like $1100-$1150.
Here’s everything we know about the light field displays:
“This light-field-based approach to near-eye display allows for
dramatically thinner and lighter head-mounted displays capable of
depicting accurate accommodation, convergence, and binocular-disparity
depth cues. The near-eye light-field displays depict sharp images from
out-of-focus display elements by synthesizing light fields that
correspond to virtual scenes located within the viewer’s natural
accommodation range. While sharing similarities with existing integral
imaging displays and microlens-based light-field cameras, the displays
optimize performance in the context of near-eye viewing. Near-eye
light-field displays support continuous accommodation of the eye
throughout a finite depth of field; as a result, binocular
configurations provide a means to address the accommodation-convergence
conflict that occurs with existing stereoscopic displays. This
demonstration features a binocular prototype and a GPU-accelerated
stereoscopic light field renderer.”
https://research.nvidia.com/publication/near-eye-light-field-displays
Here’s an article that simplifies it a bit:
http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/24/nvidia-research-near-eye-light-field-display-prototype/
“The light field that’s constructed directly over the pupil allows the viewer to focus at multiple depths and create a field of view of about 70 degrees.
Despite being situated so close to the eye, the unit still provides some sharp images.
One pretty neat aspect to this whole system is that software tweaks can be made to account for someone’s glasses or contacts prescription”
Unfortunately the video explaining the tech has been taken down. Am I an investigative journalist yet? 😀
I can’t wait to see the performance of one of these bad boys at full throttle. Guess they’ll go water-cooled for standard again?