VR Ready Performance Test Comes To Valve's Steam Gaming Platform

Would you like to know how your current gaming rig fares when it comes to handling virtual reality gaming? Considering that the Oculus Rift is priced at $599 and that HTC Vive is priced at an eye-popping $799, we’d expect that only well-heeled gamers would be taking the VR plunge this early, which in turn means that they can likely afford to tout a beefy gaming rig.

But what about the rest of us? We can dream, right? Well, head on over to Steam where you will be able to install the SteamVR Performance Test to see if your rig can past muster. As explained by Roy Taylor, AMD VP for Alliances, Technology and VR, the SteamVR Performance Test is built around the Aperture Science Robot Repair demo, which was designed with the HTC Vive in mind.

As for the test itself, Taylor explains:

The test employs a technique called dynamic fidelity, which automatically adjusts image quality as required to avoid dropped frames that can break the sense of presence critical to VR experiences. CPU and GPU hardware is then assigned one of three categories (VR Recommended, VR Capable, or VR Not Ready) based on the average fidelity level attained.

Taylor also confirms that AMD’s Radeon R9 390 series and Fury products achieve a “Recommended for VR” label. Preliminary testing shows two Radeon R9 Nanos in CrossFire mode maxing out the score with a rating of 11, which coincidentally is the same score as the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 Ti.

However, AMD is working to ensure that its GPUs have the have the best possible performance in VR titles thanks to its LiquidVR initiative; more specifically the Affinity multi-GPU functionality who essentially works as “CrossFire technology for VR” giving each it own own GPU to work with.

So what are you waiting for, install the SteamVR Performance Test and report back how your rig fares.