Compare SpecsThe Best Graphics Cards for VR in 2021 Decades after the 1992 flick The Lawnmower Man got our hopes up (and the ill-fated Nintendo Virtual Boy dashed them a few years later), virtual reality (VR) is finally happening in a big way. (Really, this time! We mean it.) The simplistic, though still impressive, Google Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR platforms have both been around since 2014. And Google's updated Daydream View landed in late 2016, upping the sophistication and comfort factor, while delivering a more robust environment for developers. These modest VR setups had you strap your smartphone into a viewer fitted with lenses, allowing your phone to become both the screen and the graphics-rendering device charged with creating an immersive world.