With 3DTVs becoming more popular and Nvidia having a multiyear head start in PC stereoscopic 3D, we were eager to find out what AMD had in store. While it’s not mainstream by any means, several laptop and desktop PCs now support 3D for both video (including 3D Blu-ray) and games–primarily through the use of Nvidia’s 3D Vision platform, which combines an Nvidia GPU with a compatible display and Nvidia-branded IR emitter and active-shutter 3D glasses.

If you expected AMD to respond with its own dedicated 3D platform, complete with branded 3D glasses, think again. The company is calling its approach AMD HD3D, and says it is “Stereo 3D for everyone,” and is “focused on enabling the 3D stereo ecosystem for the broadest choice and flexibility.”

That essentially means AMD is offering support for existing 3D standards, without producing its own 3D glasses/emitter hardware, leaving that up to OEMs to provide.

Laptops with the higher-end Radeon 6870 and 6850 GPUs will be able to play 3D Blu-ray discs, but you’ll have to have a compatible laptop with glasses, or output via HDMI to a 3DTV (and use the glasses that came with your TV). The entire new Radeon 6000M line supports 3D gaming, photos, and 2D-to-3D conversion, but again, you’ll need a laptop from a PC maker that bundles in the necessary glasses and other hardware. So far, compatible PCs include the HP Envy 17, MSI Wind Top AE2420, and Lenovo IdeaPad Y560d.