CPU choice for VR

[foop]

I'm building a new gaming machine, partly because I'm planning to get a Vive and my old machine is a little long in the tooth for VR.

Like a lot of people at the moment, I'm struggling to make a choice between one of the Ryzen chips and a 7700K. Is there much difference between VR gaming and flat gaming in terms of CPU usage? Are VR games better optimised for multi-core CPUs or is it a mixed bag like all other games?

Any advice very welcome.

 

[ArmitageShanks]

No real difference - it depends on the application and the engine used, as with 2D gaming. Some VR applications (I think stuff like Google Earth VR) benefit from having more cores and fast memory available so Ryzen may be better here.

 

[LordFeste]

I was running a 2700k overclocked a little to aroudn 3.8ghz. It was showing signs of not particularly liking VR when looking at the timing monitor from Steam VR. It also didn't seem to be ideal to pair that CPU with a 1080 either, so I upgraded to a 6700k. However, my point is that as long as you get a CPU that outperforms a 2700k, you should be fine. It's all about the graphics card. I would consider cutting back a bit on the CPU if budget is an issue and going all out on the GPU.