GPU Upgrade for VR

[johnhaines]

I have a "Titan Envy Duo DC" bought here about 3 years ago:
Intel Core i7 4790K (Devil's Canyon) @ 4.6GHz Overclocked
Asus TUF Sabertooth Z97 Mark 2 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard
GeForce GTX 970 OC Silent "Infin8 Black Edition"
Kingston HyperX 16GB (2x8GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit
SuperFlower Leadex GOLD 1000W Fully Modular "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply

I have an Oculus Rift with two hand controllers that I want to use primarily seated for sims, e.g. Elite Dangerous, X Plane etc

I find that the GTX 970 copes in Elite Dangerous while in space but as soon as I approach planets the frame rate drops and I start feeling sick. I get the same issue in flight sims and pretty much any other VR game I try. Obviously a GTX 970 is the absolute minimum card for VR.

I do not have a massive amount of money to play with, maybe a budget of £500. My current thoughts are to get a GPU upgrade ... maybe stretching to an RTX 2070. This is based solely on wanting to get the best performance increase for my budget, especially in VR.

Is a 2070 my best option for the budget? If so, what brands/models can anyone recommend?

I have seen a few headlines about RTX cards failing / catching fire. Is this truly an issue or only something that occurs when pushing overclocking too far?

NB - I would rather have kit that works straight from the box than have to spend a lot of effort trying to overclock for small gains. Especially as I am never quite sure what I am doing when trying to overclock .

Thanks in advance for any help you can give,
John

 

[Nasher]

Even my RX480 was fine for VR in most of the games and the Vega64 I have now is more than enough.

 

[Davanius]

I have used a GTX 1070, 1070ti and a GTX 1080ti on my Rift. The 1070 was fine.

I am now using a RTX 2070 which runs VR without any issues at all.

I didn't run any AMD cards so I can't comment on them for VR but I don't see why a Vega 56 couldn't be an option.

If your going to get a Nvidia RTX 2070 then get a factory overclocked card and just stick it in and forget about overclocks.

I can recommend the EVGA XC Ultra 2070 which is what I have. Fast, cool and quiet.
It's a 3 slot card though.

 

[johnhaines]

Thanks for the quick replies. I'll start reading up on the Vega64, I am completely out of touch on AMD cards. I am going to look up the EVGA XC Ultra card as well; I like recommendations where people have used the kit. Three slots shouldn't be an issue as the only thing I use the slots for is the GPU.

 

[bigmike20vt]

i love my 1080ti when using my rift and am confident it will be ok for what ever hmd i get next (possibly the valve index)

am sure high end AMD cards are ok too, but i am confident my 1080ti will see me through the current generation (what a bargain those folk who bought a 1080ti at launch got!!!!)

if i was buying today, i think i would get a RTX2080 or a Radeon VII

(probably the 2080 to see what RTX is all about as well as metro looks fantastic)

£599 with 3 games. not a great price really but better than we have seen up till now.

 

[Slinky69]

I had a 980ti which ran my Vive well - It died, I got an RTX 2060, that did not run it as well as the old card, so I sent it back and replaced with an RTX 2080 - Only got that yesterday, but thus far seems to perform a bit (not a lot) better than the 980ti.

So based on that I would recommend something better than an RTX 2060.

It was the Asus Phoenix model I had, in case that makes a difference...

 

[johnhaines]

Thanks, Slinky69.

Looking at the GPU hierarchy on the tom's hardware site it seems to suggest:

2080ti > 2080 > 1080ti > radeon7 > 2070 > Vega64 > 1080 > 1070ti > 2060

What I am not sure of is whether this hierarchy holds true with VR as well. Of the chipsets listed above, the 2080 and Radeon 7 are £150+ over my budget and the potential performance drop too much for me to consider the 1070ti or 2060. That seems to only leave the Vega 64 or 2070 as my real options. Does that sound correct?

What I haven't found in my searches is a review that focuses on VR performance to help me decide.

 

[HummuH1]

I went for a 1070Ti to use with my Rift after my 970 died. I mainly play Elite Dangerous and it's been flawless so far, using settings tweaked in ED Launcher.

Other titles I've played (Skyrim, Moss, Beat Sabre etc) have been fine also.

Based on that, I'd suggest anything equal or better than a 1070Ti should be fine for the Rift but if you plan to go with a higher res headset in the future I'd think 2080 as a minimum.