At the Computex trade show in Taiwan, AMD unveiled the Radeon RX 480, which is the first graphics card that is based on the company's new Polaris design.
The Radeon RX 480 is capable of delivering performance similar to what the current $500 graphics cards in the market offer, which include AMD's own Radeon R9 390X and Nvidia's GeForce GTX 980.
The real news, however, is that the Radeon RX 480 will be sold at only $200 once it is launched on June 29.
AMD is looking to help reduce the base cost of virtual reality-capable PCs, and with the $200 Radeon RX 480, the cost of such computers could be dragged down from over $1,000 to as low as $799.
The cost of setting up a virtual reality system begins with the headsets, which come with price tags of $599 for the Oculus Rift and $799 for the HTC Vive, and then followed by the need for a capable PC. Fewer than 1 percent of PC owners have virtual reality-capable systems, said Raja Koduri, AMD's senior VP and chief architect for its Radeon unit.
AMD is hoping that the Radeon RX 480 will greatly reduce the currently very high entry point for virtual reality. Patrick Moorhead, the founder and principal analyst for Moor Insights & Strategy, believes that the new GPU can increase accessibility into virtual reality, leading to better penetration for both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
Nvidia currently does not have a response to the Radeon RX 480, though the company could either try to rush out a GPU to combat it in the market or drive down prices for some of its current offerings. However, the one sure thing is that for gamers everywhere, the $200 price tag for AMD's Radeon RX 480 is a good sign for things to come in a world soon to be dominated by virtual reality.
