AMD HD3D is a technology designed to enable stereoscopic 3D support in games, movies and/or photos. Additional hardware (e.g. 3D enabled panels, 3D-enabled glasses/emitter, Blu-ray 3D drive) and/or software (e.g. Blu-ray 3D discs, 3D middleware, games) are required for the enablement of stereoscopic 3D. Not all features may be supported on all components or systems - check with your component or system manufacturer for specific model capabilities and supported technologies.
AMD HD3D technology is enabled on ATI Radeon HD 5000 Series GPUs and above using Catalyst 10.10 or later, however Blu-ray 3D playback is only supported on AMD Radeon HD 6000 series GPUs and above.
While NVIDIA 3D Vision technology is a combination of Graphics Processor Units (GPU), specialized 3D glasses, software, and certified displays and projectors, AMD HD3D technology doesn't force you to use proprietary glasses, not does it have specific display technologies.
AMD HD3D technology allows to use a 3D HDTVs or a 3D projector supporting HDMI 1.4. Then if you want to play a Blu-ray 3D (BD3D) disc, you'll need to buy Blu-ray 3D playback software, such as
PowerDVD 10 Ultra or TotalMedia Theatre 3. If you want to play games 3D (even if the original games are 2D), you'll need to buy DDD Tridef 3D or iZ3D driver software.
Note that if your graphics hardware supports AMD HD3D technology, then you can purchase TriDef 3D for AMD HD3D or iZ3D 3D Driver for 50% off the retail price.
If you have
HP Envy 17 3D Notebook, then you can get TriDef 3D for FREE!
Also note that HDMI 1.4a specification has a maximum TMDS throughput of 10.2 Gb/s. So you can either play games in the 1080p24, or 720p60, 720p50 modes. You can overcome this limit by using Display Port 1.2.