Hi there
We are getting many enquiries about VR and what graphics cards and CPU's will actually power it. As such here is a short guide as to what Overclockers UK recommend for Virtual Reality when it comes to HTV Vive or Oculus Rift for example.
First of all, check the performance of your PC with the Steam VR benchmark tool that looks very like Half Life, could be a hint towards Half Life 3 but that is another story all together:
https://steamdb.info/app/323910/
If your system scores around 6-7 or higher you are good to go!
OcUK is recommending as follows:
Absolute minimum for VR experience: A NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD R9 390 or higher or in Steam VR Benchmark terms a score of 6-7.
Optimal VR experience: A NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 or AMD R9 390X/NANO/FURY with a Steam VR benchmark score of 8-9.
Best VR Experience: If you want to play a title such as Elite Dangerous with all visuals enabled and maximum quality you need a score of 10+ in the Steam VR Benchmark as such you will need a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980Ti or Titan X and from AMD were talking NANO/Fury Crossfire or an overclocked Fury X.
When it comes to Virtual Reality the graphics card is the single most important factor of your PC and Overclockers UK recommends a GeForce GTX 980Ti for the best VR experience.
Processor wise is not nearly as important, infact processors such as an Intel i3/i5 or AMD FX processor are more than adequate for Virtual Reality.
Memory wise again you should ideally have an absolute minimum of 8GB of DRAM and this is enough, of course with how cheap memory is these days it will do no harm to have 16GB or even 32GB but the benefits are more RAM are minimal.
Power supply, it just needs to be powerful enough with correct power connectors for your graphics card of choice.
Virtual Reality is indeed very exciting I myself have played several games and demo's using both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, my personal favourite is the HTC Vive as I felt the built quality was superior and the built in camera is very useful. Also nothing blew me away more than playing Elite Dangerous on a Titan X with the HTC Vive, it was truly sensation experience, a real game changer.
I really do hope Valve release Half Life 3 heavily optimised for VR in the near future because I feel it is the game we are all truly waiting for and could be a totally unreal experience playing it in VR.
For those wondering why VR is so demanding graphics card wise is simply because the combined resolution is 2160x1200 and you need ideally to be averaging 90fps at this resolution and in an ideal world you actually want your minimum FPS to be 90 and not lower. This requires a hugely powerful graphics cards which previous generations simply cannot muster or simply are not supported or optimised for VR.
We are getting many enquiries about VR and what graphics cards and CPU's will actually power it. As such here is a short guide as to what Overclockers UK recommend for Virtual Reality when it comes to HTV Vive or Oculus Rift for example.
First of all, check the performance of your PC with the Steam VR benchmark tool that looks very like Half Life, could be a hint towards Half Life 3 but that is another story all together:
https://steamdb.info/app/323910/
If your system scores around 6-7 or higher you are good to go!
OcUK is recommending as follows:
Absolute minimum for VR experience: A NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or AMD R9 390 or higher or in Steam VR Benchmark terms a score of 6-7.
Optimal VR experience: A NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 or AMD R9 390X/NANO/FURY with a Steam VR benchmark score of 8-9.
Best VR Experience: If you want to play a title such as Elite Dangerous with all visuals enabled and maximum quality you need a score of 10+ in the Steam VR Benchmark as such you will need a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980Ti or Titan X and from AMD were talking NANO/Fury Crossfire or an overclocked Fury X.
When it comes to Virtual Reality the graphics card is the single most important factor of your PC and Overclockers UK recommends a GeForce GTX 980Ti for the best VR experience.
Processor wise is not nearly as important, infact processors such as an Intel i3/i5 or AMD FX processor are more than adequate for Virtual Reality.
Memory wise again you should ideally have an absolute minimum of 8GB of DRAM and this is enough, of course with how cheap memory is these days it will do no harm to have 16GB or even 32GB but the benefits are more RAM are minimal.
Power supply, it just needs to be powerful enough with correct power connectors for your graphics card of choice.
Virtual Reality is indeed very exciting I myself have played several games and demo's using both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, my personal favourite is the HTC Vive as I felt the built quality was superior and the built in camera is very useful. Also nothing blew me away more than playing Elite Dangerous on a Titan X with the HTC Vive, it was truly sensation experience, a real game changer.
I really do hope Valve release Half Life 3 heavily optimised for VR in the near future because I feel it is the game we are all truly waiting for and could be a totally unreal experience playing it in VR.
For those wondering why VR is so demanding graphics card wise is simply because the combined resolution is 2160x1200 and you need ideally to be averaging 90fps at this resolution and in an ideal world you actually want your minimum FPS to be 90 and not lower. This requires a hugely powerful graphics cards which previous generations simply cannot muster or simply are not supported or optimised for VR.
