Skip to main content

AMD's Radeon R9 280 is now the most affordable VR-ready graphics card

Image used with permission by copyright holder
Virtual reality has some of the highest recommended specifications for a platform in recent memory, easily beating out most contemporary games – especially considering that “recommended” is really more like a recommended minimum. To try and solve that, Valve has been working on lowering the requirements for its Vive headset. And it seems to have done so, making it possible to get on with just a R9 280.

Previously the recommended specs for the Vive were almost identical to that of Oculus’ Rift CV1 headset: a i5 4590 or better, 8GB of RAM or more and a GTX 970 or R9 290 or better. That’s quite a tall order for many and in-fact less than 15 percent of all Steam gamers have a set up that powerful.

Recommended Videos

However the number of applicable VR gamers is now that bit lower, thanks to the adjustment of the Vive’s recommended specifications. Looking at the Vive site, it appears that a R9 280 is all that is required now.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

That is great news for anyone who already owns a 280, but also for those looking to upgrade their systems to a VR ready state. Although a little hard to come by, R9 280s can be found for well under $200, meaning a ‘VR Ready’ system is now a whole lot cheaper.

Specifically if you go with AMD, it seems, as the HTC Vive’s specifications still suggest a GTX 970 if you go the Nvidia route. Although a far newer and more powerful card than the R9 280, it is also much more expensive, upwards of $300.

That means an AMD based system is certainly the cheapest way to get yourself ready for VR right now. While a stronger GPU might be recommended according to tests like Steam’s VR performance benchmark and it would certainly give you a better visual experience in VR games, the bar for entering into that virtual dimension certainly just became a lot lower.

Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale is a freelance evergreen writer and occasional section coordinator, covering how to guides, best-of lists, and…
Nomad’s genius cable may have just solved my travel charging conundrum
The Nomad Universal Cable for Apple Watch being used to charge Apple devices.

I have a very niche confession to make: I hate packing charging cables when I travel. Yes, I know, that isn’t exactly the most pressing problem that the world is facing right now. But that doesn’t mean it’s not an annoying chore every time I head away from home.

All of the devices I take with me are USB-C. My MacBook has been for years, as has my Apple Watch’s charging puck. And thanks to the magic of the European Union, my iPhone now comes with a USB-C charging port too. You’d think that would make my cable packing simple: just grab a few USB-C ones and off I go.

Read more
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D accounts for nearly all Zen 5 sales
The Ryzen 7 9800X3D sitting on a motherboard.

Recent sales data from German retailer MindFactory highlights a striking trend in AMD’s Zen 5 CPU lineup, with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D accounting for nearly 90% of all Ryzen 9000-series sales. The latest figures indicate that consumers overwhelmingly prefer this gaming-optimized processor over other models in the lineup.

In January 2025, MindFactory recorded 25,625 total CPU sales, with AMD capturing 92.16% of the market—equivalent to 23,615 units. Intel, by contrast, managed to sell just 2,010 processors, reinforcing AMD’s dominance in the consumer market.

Read more
Google puts military use of AI back on the table
First step of Gemini processing a PDF in Files by Google app.

On February 4, Google updated its “AI principles,” a document detailing how the company would and wouldn’t use artificial intelligence in its products and services. The old version was split into two sections: “Objectives for AI applications” and “AI applications we will not pursue,” and it explicitly promised not to develop AI weapons or surveillance tools.

The update was first noticed by The Washington Post, and the most glaring difference is the complete disappearance of any “AI applications we will not pursue” section. In fact, the language of the document now focuses solely on “what Google will do,” with no promises at all about “what Google won’t do.”

Read more