AMD’s new dual-GPU card is here, but it’s not built for gamers

By Gabe Carey April 26, 2016

amds 1500 radeon pro duo gpu is for vr content creators rather than consumers version 1458062480 img 3500 — Digital Trends / Gabe Carey

Update 4/26 6:00 AM: AMD confirmed the Radeon Pro Duo’s $1,500 price tag, at the same time announcing its availability from AMD product partners.

AMD had revealed that with its latest round of Fiji-based GPUs, it’s now aiming to focus not only on VR content consumers, but on its creators as well. Apparently, this starts with the massive Radeon Duo Pro, which was expected to launch by the end of last year, though the company delayed it to release around the same time as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Essentially, AMD’s Radeon Pro Duo is the GPU equivalent of two children on each other’s shoulders wearing a trench coat — except instead of children, they’re two Radeon R9 Fury X GPUs housed in a larger enclosure. Individually, each GPU boasts 4,096 stream processor, 256 texture units, and 64 ROPs, along with 4GB of HBM (each) on a 4,096-bit bus. The clock speed will be up to 1GHz. Performance-wise, we’re looking at 16.38 TFLOPS. That’s four times more than a PlayStation 4.

On the downside of having such a powerful card, however, is the Radeon Pro Duo demands a massive 8-pin PCI-E power connector, which is needed to meet the board power requirement of 350 watts (that’s just for the card — not for an entire system).

In terms of physical build, the Radeon Duo Pro takes advantage of a closed loop liquid cooling system featuring a 120mm radiator. The company states that “there is more than sufficient cooling for maximum performance, all while staying quiet.”

The Radeon Pro Duo will be the first product in AMD’s VR Ready Creator lineup. By marrying it with its LiquidVR SDK solution, AMD appears to be devising a sort of ecosystem to keep creators tied to both its hardware and its software in their VR game/app development pursuits.

AMD’s Radeon Pro Duo GPU is now available from AMD add in board partners and system integrator. AMD confirmed the $1,500 price tag in a statement today, which also included details of the release.

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A freelancer for Digital Trends, Gabe Carey has been covering the intersection of video games and technology since he was 16…

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