At the Virtual Reality Los Angeles (VRLA) event, AMD along with a few gaming PC manufacturers demonstrated their desktop builds featuring the company's upcoming dual-GPU graphics card driven by a pair of "Fiji" GPUs. Among the desktops demoed include a prototype Falcon Northwest Tiki compact gaming desktop with a dual-Fiji graphics card, and HTC Vive HMD. Falcon Northwest commented that the dual-GPU "Fiji" graphics card is small enough to squeeze into its 4-inch thick Tiki, indicating that the card will be super-compact. AMD is expected to launch the dual-GPU "Fiji" graphics card some time in Q2 2016.

EVGA announced its first "VR Ready" graphics card that comes with preparation for HMD VR headsets out of the box. The GeForce GTX 980 Ti VR Edition includes a 5.25-inch/3.5-inch front-panel that gives you a front-facing HDMI 2.0 port (letting you easily plug in your HMD), and a second mini-HDMI 2.0 port on the card's rear panel that helps with certain kinds of headsets. The front panel also throws in a couple of USB 3.0/3.1 ports with a standard USB 3.0 header that plugs into your motherboard. EVGA is offering two kinds of cooling solutions, ACX 2.0+ and a blower-type custom-design cooler. The GTX 980 Ti sticks to reference clock speeds.

Oculus, makers of the popular Oculus Rift VR HMD, announced that it will open the gates for pre-orders for its upcoming Rift CV1 HMD on the 6th of January, 2016, at 08:00 Pacific Time. You'll be able to take it for a spin right out of the box, on the bundled games Lucky's Tale, and EVE: Valkyrie, two games built almost entirely around VR, by leveraging the Oculus SDK.

2016 is shaping up to be the year VR takes off in a big scale, with consumer electronics giants planning to launch their VR headsets; game developers building their games around major VR SDKs, and graphics hardware companies like AMD and NVIDIA making major moves in the VR industry. AMD is sitting on a treasure-chest of IP with its LiquidVR technology, while NVIDIA recently announced a VR-ready certification program.

NVIDIA today unveiled a VR-ready program to help gamers navigate their way to great virtual reality experiences. The company has partnered with PC and notebook makers and add-in card providers to deliver "GeForce GTX VR Ready" systems and graphics cards that deliver an immersive VR gaming experience. The program minimizes confusion regarding which equipment is necessary to play the range of VR games and applications increasingly coming to market.

Delivering a great VR experience demands seven times the graphics processing power of traditional 3D games and applications -- driving framerates above 90 frames per second (fps) for two simultaneous images (one for each eye). "For customers, navigating an emerging technology like VR can be daunting," said Jason Paul, general manager of emerging technologies at NVIDIA. "We're working with trusted partners worldwide to simplify the buying process with a GeForce GTX VR Ready badge that will let customers quickly identify PCs or add-in cards that are capable of handling the demands of VR." NVIDIA GPUs are at the heart of the VR ecosystem and are powered by the award-winning NVIDIA Maxwell graphics architecture, which was created with VR in mind.

AMD today released its completely reimagined graphics software suite, Radeon Software Crimson Edition, giving users an exceptional new user experience, 12 new or enhanced features, up to 20 percent more graphics performance, adjustability that can nearly double generational energy efficiency2, and rock-solid stability across the full spectrum of AMD graphics products. The release is the first from the Radeon Technologies Group, which recently announced a renewed focus on software placing it on par with hardware initiatives.

"As the primary way that people interact with our products, our software deserves to be viewed as a top priority, and going forward that's exactly what we're doing, delivering easy-to-use software that is packed with real user benefits, starting with Radeon Software Crimson Edition," said Raja Koduri, senior vice president and chief architect, Radeon Technologies Group. "Radeon Technologies Group is laser-focused on the vertical integration of all things graphics, propelling the industry forward by driving performance per watt, creating innovative technologies and ensuring that the software supporting our GPUs is world class."DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition for Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 32-bit | Windows 8.1 64-bit | Windows 8.1 32-bit | Windows 7 64-bit | Windows 7 32-bit

In this episode of TechPowerUp News, we talk about the spectacular Surface Book, one of the most talked about products launched at the unexpectedly awesome Surface launch event; plus get our take on the brand new Oculus VR-ready gaming desktops co-designed by AMD and Dell.

AMD today announced a collaboration with Oculus and Dell to equip Oculus Ready PCs with AMD Radeon GPUs, starting at $999 USD. The powerful PCs are designed to deliver stunning gaming performance and enable spectacular VR experiences for consumers around the world by leveraging AMD VR leadership with LiquidVR and Graphics Core Next architecture.

"It's an exciting time to be at the heart of all things Virtual Reality," said Roy Taylor, corporate vice president, Alliances and Content, AMD. "I'm confident that with Dell and Alienware, we can enable a wide audience of PC users with extraordinary VR capabilities powered by AMD Radeon GPUs."

Razer, a world leader in connected devices and software for gamers, is working with Intel to deliver a consumer-ready desktop and VR-enabled camera based on Intel RealSense technology for a wide range of experiential applications.

With Intel RealSense technology incorporated into a new Razer product design, users can expect to enjoy significantly enhanced game broadcasting and VR gaming capabilities. Among the novel features of this technology is automatic background removal, which allows game streamers and video conferencing users to remove or replace backgrounds for a more entertaining and immersive experience.

Intel RealSense Cameras are also capable of 3D scanning, motion and gesture recognition, allowing product designers to bring real-world objects and bodies into virtual spaces easily. Many more features and related applications are anticipated for the Intel RealSense technology-enabled Razer device.

Organizers of Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR), a software platform designed to set an open standard for virtual reality devices, today released the OSVR Hacker Developer Kit (HDK) production file and the OSVR development roadmap.

The OSVR HDK is a hackable head-mounted display offering high-quality optics that work to reduce distortion in virtual environments. Any user can view production files of the OSVR HDK and the developer roadmap, streamlining the efforts of those that want to make their own hardware based on its design.

"With the release of the OSVR development roadmap, the process for creating new VR hardware and software on the platform can be accelerated significantly," says Michael Lee, VP of software at Razer. "We welcome the support of VR enthusiasts everywhere."