Alright folks, this one is hot off the mill. Whispers have reached us of AMD planning toannounce its fastest Radeon graphics card ever. The fabled dual Fiji "Gemini" board, otherwise known as the R9 Fury X2 in press circles. This VR and 4K gaming behemothfeaturing two Fiji GPUs with nearly 18 billion transistors isthe company's latest creation and the last ever high-end 28nm graphics board to launch on the desktop before Polaris. AMD's next generation 14nm FinFET graphics architecture powering the company's next generation of Radeon graphics cards coming this summer.

Console-sized Virtual Reality and DirectX12 Radeon powered mini-supercomputers from MAINGEAR

We've already discussed AMD's "Gemini" board at length many times in the past. From its original announcement at E3 last year, to its latest appearance at VRLA inside the console-sized Falcon Northwest Tiki box and the many teases of said box on twitter by Roy Taylor.The Tiki is AMD's idea of the perfect virtual reality and DX12 developer box. Packing the highest performance graphics board in existence with 9 times the compute power of the XBOX ONE inside a form factorthat's just as compact.

AMD's Fastest Graphics Card Yet To Debut At GDC - Radeon Gemini "Fury X2"

Burn in success 100%, shipping soon! @FalconNW @AMDRadeon #DX12 #VR @AMDDevCentral pic.twitter.com/qSHcgMQi6T

— Roy Taylor (@Roy_techhwood) February 28, 2016

AMD will be shipping these systems out to developers very soon and they will also be showcased at the company's upcoming red hot "Capsaicin" press event at GDC. An event thatsources close to AMD have indicated will include a "very special" product launch. One that willculminatethe company's graphics efforts into the last and most powerful 28nm Radeon product to date. In a sense it will be a celebration and a finale paving the way to Polaris.

Prepare to have your technology senses tantalized with #AMDCapsaicin at #GDC16: https://t.co/6YmMQc2jxC pic.twitter.com/gfcI4RLikc

— AMD (@AMD) March 7, 2016

Capsaicin Press Release@AMD

AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) today announced that it will webcast live from the historical landmark, Ruby Skye, during the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. This marquee developer and press event, entitled "Capsaicin," will be hosted by Radeon Technologies Group's Senior Vice President and Chief Architect Raja Koduri on Monday, March 14 at 4:00 PM PT (6:00 PM CT/7:00 PM ET), and showcase AMD's world-class hardware, software and gaming partners.

Named after the compound that delivers a pepper's spicy kick, "Capsaicin" will explore the inner essence of the graphics processing unit (GPU) and how it powers innovations in gaming and virtual reality. The webcast will feature an inside look at the latest technological advancements affecting the enthusiast and developer communities as they approach the burgeoning virtual reality market.

A real-time video webcast of the event will be accessible on AMD's Investor Relations home page: ir.amd.com. A replay of the webcast can be accessed a few hours after the conclusion of the live event and will be available for one year after the event. A replay of the webcast will be accessible on the AMD YouTube channel.

The launch will include the announcement of the fabled dual Fiji "Gemini" graphics card as well as the launch of several Gemini powered, compact, extreme high-performance systems. Of which the Tiki from Falcon Northwest will only be one. Boutique system builder MAINGEARis also said to announce similar Gemini powered systems which are even smaller than the XBOX ONE. AMD's"Capsaicin" event will be live-streamed. So if you haven't found reason to tune in before, well... you just have.

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The Secret BehindAMD's Dual GPU Contraptions

In 2013 AMD introduced a brand new Crossfire hardware implementation by adding a DMA engine to the Crossfire composting block on the GPU die. This was first introduced with the Hawaii GPUs in September of 2013, and each subsequent GPU that AMD introduced also had this technology which AMD dubbed XDMA, short for Crossfire DMA.

AMD RADEON™ R9-­‐290X, ONE BIG DGPU MIKE MANTOR

NEW AMD CROSSFIRE™ TECHNOLOGY -­‐ XDMA

- XDMA is a modern approach to negoIaIng the communicaIon of mulIple GPUs for peak gaming performance with the ultra-­‐high-­‐resoluIon displays of tomorrow.

- Radeon™R9-­‐290X includes a Hardware DMA engine in the AMD CrossFire™ composiIng block

- Designed for AMD Eyefinity and UltraHD resoluIons via DisplayPort™ ‒

- Allows for direct access between GPU display pipelines over PCI Express®

- No external connector required

- CompaIble on AMD Catalyst™ frame pacing technologies

- No performance penalty versus external bridge

XDMA, Crossfire DMA Engines, EnableExceptional Multi-GPU Performance Scaling

The technology enables faster, lower overhead communication between multiple GPUs, this in turn translates to better Crossfire scaling. And that's what we're seeing take effect here. It also enables graphics cards in Crossfire setups to inter-communicate through the PCI Express interface which eliminates the need for a Crossfire bridge. But most importantly is that it enables more effective and efficient multi-GPU scaling. Allowing the performance of Crossfire, TriFire and QuadFire GPU setups to scale significantly better.

We've taken an in-depth look at Crossfire and SLI scaling in a previous article which you should check out if you want to learn more about how this technology can affect your gaming experience as well as reduce frametime variance, which is what causes the perceived micro suttering that gamers sometimes notice from multi-GPU setups.

AMD Radeon Graphics Architectures