AMD delays dual-GPU Fury card to Q2 2016 to realign with VR ecosystem

AMD's dual-GPU Fury card should have been available before the end of the year, but as you may know, the card got delayed. The folks from French tech site Hardware.fr got in touch with AMD and managed to get a replay about the launch situation of the R9 Fury X2 (or whatever it will be called).

It's a bit hard to believe, but AMD is suggesting that they want to align the launch of the dual-GPU card with the launch of head-mounted display (HMD) VR products like the Oculus Rift. AMD claims that because the VR ecosystem is delayed, they decided to readjust the Fiji Gemini launch schedule. Working samples of the dual-GPU card were shipped to AMD partners in Q4 2015, but cards are not expected to hit retail shelves until around Q2 2016.

Q. On the E3 Livecast, Lisa committed to shipping Fiji Gemini by Xmas. What happened? Is Fiji Gemini delayed?

A. The product schedule for Fiji Gemini had initially been aligned with consumer HMD availability, which had been scheduled for Q415 back in June. Due to some delays in overall VR ecosystem readiness, HMDs are now expected to be available to consumers by early Q216. To ensure the optimal VR experience, we're adjusting the Fiji Gemini launch schedule to better align with the market.

Working samples of Fiji Gemini have shipped to a variety of B2B customers in Q415, and initial customer reaction has been very positive.

So why exactly is AMD delaying the card for a seemingly trivial reason? AnandTech has a nice writeup about why they're glad that the card is delayed. It may not have been the original plan, but at the moment it may make sense to position Gemini as a card for the VR market because that's one of the only use cases that consistently benefits from multi-GPU setups. The reviewer explains the poor state of alternate frame rendering (AFR) compatibility, and notes that the dual-GPU Fiji card wouldn't make a lot of sense for traditional gaming.