Help - Oculus link on old graphics hardware... possible?

[Lee Cramman]

My first post...

I received an Oculus Quest 2 as a gift. As a cynical (and slightly geriatric) PC gamer I didn't expect much from it but was blown away by the value and fun of it all.

I've caught the bug a bit and want to use my PC via the Oculus link cable so that I can play Steam VR games and also so I can play with other people in the room who can spectate without the horrible lag that casting introduces (esp in pacey stuff like BeatSaber).

I was waiting for Nvidia 3000 series cards to arrive to upgrade my venerable but dependable R9 280x and... well, we can all guess how that went for me .

The old card can still handle 1080p for most things I want to play (although not at high frame rates).

Ideally I my plan is to maybe play some VR stuff on the 280x with the quality dialled down until I can get a new GPU or maybe sell a kidney. I realise R9 280x is 'not supported' but I had assumed it would still work but would just be a bit 'sub-optimal'.

However, I've had zero luck with it. My link cable is in place and the USB test says my speed is 1.1Gbps. The Quest shows up in the Oculus Windows app without issue.

However, if I try to launch anything I get a black window on the PC and absolutely nothing on the Quest. Nothing, nada, zup, bupkis... If I try something on Steam VR it can see my headset but not my controllers and it keeps telling me to wake the headset even though it is awake.

Also, if I try to buy an Oculus app it tells me that I don't have touch controllers (I do, the app says they're connected).

Drivers look good, cable being connected is recognised (as allow / deny pop-up appears), the Quest shows up correctly under Windows drivers and, as I said before, the Quest is recognised by the Windows Oculus app.

Am I just barking up the wrong tree here? Will this simply never work at all or is some part of my install borked and, if I put the effort in, I'll be rewarded with something that at least works. I can't find an answer to this anywhere.

I can get a (supported) GTX 970 for £160 to tide me over but I don't really want to pour more GPU money down the drain than I have to.

Answers on a postcard please. Particularly interested in anyone who has got this working on an older, unsupported AMD GPU.

Cheers

 

[Lee Cramman]

@Lee Cramman It's just not possible. Sorry.

The 280X is not just sub optimal, it just won't work with the Quest 2. Even if you could somehow get it to work, the experience would be terrible. It's not like running games on a PC. You need to maintain a consistent FPS or else it will make you very, very sick.

I wouldn't bother with a GTX 970 either. It's going to work, but, it will be pretty bad.

Any more questions, just ask.

Cheers bud. Good to know. Guess the idea will just have to go back on the shelf for 6-12 months.

 

[Lee Cramman]

Thanks guys.

Could always pickup a 1070ti/1080 to tide you over? The way the market is you probably wouldn't lose out that much selling it once you get a 3000.

Assuming I could find one for something vaguely approaching sensible money, I'm guessing that once availability / price of current gen cards is somewhere approaching 'normal' the current inflated prices of those cards will disappear (as the market will start to become flooded) so it would probably end up being sold for a considerable loss when I finally can upgrade.

The alternative is that this is the new reality, things will never be 'normal' again and the financial threshold of entry for decent quality PC gaming has seen a vast and permanent cost increase. In which case, I'm out .

 

[Lee Cramman]

Plus some great side-loaded games like Doom 3, RTCW, and Half-Life

I think the prices will return to more sane levels. It's just a matter of when. If I was you, I wouldn't buy any overpriced second hand card. They just aren't worth it at the moment. It's also the advantage that the Quest 2 has. You can play without been attached to PC.

You should do what @Ravenger said above. Get Sidequest and sideload some games. Doom 3 is excellent.

I hope you're right about sane levels of pricing...

I've got sidequest but only used it to so far to sideload stuff to mod Beat Saber... I hadn't realised you could do much else with it so thanks for that, time for some Googling (and some self-congratulating myself for buying the unit with more onboard storage)!

I've had a look at options for tethered casting to PC to help with latency but sound is the real issue, esp in Beat Saber. I could live with Oculus onboard only gaming for a while if I could make it a batter shared experience...