AMD Chose to Delay R9 Fury X2

Originally set to debut before the holiday season, it’s no surprise now that AMD is delaying their R9 Gemini Fury X2 to 2016. AMD is officially confirming that the delays in shipping and launching the Fury X2 are not due to supply issues but rather due to their perceived market being unready.

According to AMD, the Fury X2 is meant to be targeted towards VR (Virtual Reality) users like those using Oculus Rift or Steam VR. Those project however, have faced delays that pushed them into 2016. Because of this, AMD has decided to hold back Fury X2 so they can launch their dual-GPU at the same time as VR headsets are released. AMD probably wants some of the synergy the VR headsets will bring since it requires a higher level of graphics power to properly utilize VR. AMD has confirmed that various press and engineering samples are already in circulation.

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.

While AMD undoubtedly did their own calculations, it seems that holding back Gemini may hurt AMD int he long run. The firm has been bleeding market share for the past while and a new launch with Fury X2 could have given them vital sales. A late Gemini  launch also runs smack into Pascal and Greenland, both set to feature copious amounts ofHBM2, while Gemini remains limited to the 4GB of HBM1. With this in mind, it really seems that AMD should have launched Gemini earlier if they could and when VR did launch, there would be nothing stopping users from picking up Fury X2 then as well.