AMD recently went back on its CPU requirements for Oculus Rift and explained that APU processors are not yet compatible with the virtual reality headset.
Only last month, Nvidia told the media that a mere 13 million PCs equipped with its products are VR ready. This pushed AMD into revealing its own set of Oculus Rift compatible hardware, with the notable difference that while Nvidia listed the GPUs, AMD focused on the CPUs.
As AMD is the more affordable option compared to Intel, the manufacturer has a solid fan base that will benefit from the information.
So far, Oculus' official list of requirements does not contain any AMD-branded CPUs. The reason for it is that Rift starts its minimum CPU requirement with a Core i5-4590, but does not provide any AMD equivalent.
Forbes initially reported that the FX and APU processor series play nice with headsets, Rift included. However, an update to the article points out that AMD revised its initial list and noted that only the FX CPUs are sure to work with the Oculus Rift. The APU chips are still in the testing phase, and until things are certain, it is better to remove them from the list.
The initial list of AMD chips that were purportedly Oculus Rift compatible contained nine items.
This is far from saying that APU chips are unable to run VR, but they may provide a laggy performance if they do.
ExtremeTech underlines that even high-end chips from AMD, such as the A10-7890K, do not hold a candle to Intel's Core processors in terms of raw horsepower.
To compensate for the difference in single-core CPUs, AMD usually pits its multi-core hardware against Intel processors.
This means that, if you plan on matching your VR headset with a CPU from Intel, you should at least go for the Core i5-4590. This model of Intel CPU consists of 3.3 GHz quad-core that is paired with a 3.7 GHz Turbo clock, 6 MB of L2 cache and has no Hyper-Threading.
Should you go for AMD, your best bet is choosing any eight- or six-core CPU that runs at 3.9 GHz.
Until further developments surface, AMD only swears by its FX-branded CPUs for VR compatibility.
With the Oculus Rift launch rapidly approaching, we look forward to seeing more CPUs from AMD join the compatibility list.
