Righto so the reverb arrived this morning 
Only took 4 different USB ports till it picked up (motherboard USB A via adaptor) and connected all in nicely, fortunately because I was coming directly from the lenovo explorer I already had all of WMR set up barring the controllers so no other issues almost simply plug and play.
Just spent 30 mins or so testing it out and this is where I've gotten to so far....
Steam had set the global resolution to 32% by default whereas it had set the lenovo to 150%, I think this is just steam basing it off the hardware configuration.
Pushed the global resolution up to 70% and booted up HL:A, set the app specific render to 100% and it's running 8-10ms frametimes and it's buttery smooth, testing both high and ultra fidelity didn't massively affect the frametimes, I think that the dynamic resolution thing they have going on is playing a part in that though. Either way, it looks great and is smooth, clarity is better than the lenovo particularly at distance but up close looks similar - don't forget that I was running the lenovo at 300% supersampling and I was always happy with the performance in HL:A though.
Jumped into DCS, left the global at 70% and set app specific to 70% and loaded up the A10C instant action that I've been using as a performance testing reference, all other settings were as per what I was using with the lenovo which would get around 40-45 fps fairly consistently. Initially, the clarity is better with far less aliasing visible in the cockpit, yes I could wind it up and get better but it's already better than the lenovo was when running shedloads of supersampling; the picture is much crisper. Fps is running from 45-60 which is absolutely fine.
So my theory was largely correct, it's improved clarity due to native resolution, it's improved performance by not smashing SS to try to achieve clarity with the lower resolution of the lenovo and it's sharper all round because it's not a smudging with the SS antialiasing. It's a little heavier than the lenovo but still exceptionally comfortable, the sweet spot is much larger so I don't have issues with my right eye going out of focus*, the audio is fantastic from what I've experienced so far and makes a nice change from the jabra 65ts I was using previously.
All in all I'm very pleased and achieved what I've set out to do which was to improve the clarity first and foremost in DCS, I could not have done that with a GPU upgrade as you can't really brute force more detail into the lenovo screens. The 1070 appears to hold up quite nicely with the slightly lower res, I dare say there will be times when it starts to struggle but for a card that I paid 200 quid for three years ago I'm very happy with it
*highsided a motorbike 15 years ago and faceplanted the floor, since then it doesn't focus quite as well as the left so the small sweet spot of the lenovo meant I had to readjust by a couple of mm every so often, the reverb is much more stable with the full strap which helps.
Only took 4 different USB ports till it picked up (motherboard USB A via adaptor) and connected all in nicely, fortunately because I was coming directly from the lenovo explorer I already had all of WMR set up barring the controllers so no other issues almost simply plug and play.
Just spent 30 mins or so testing it out and this is where I've gotten to so far....
Steam had set the global resolution to 32% by default whereas it had set the lenovo to 150%, I think this is just steam basing it off the hardware configuration.
Pushed the global resolution up to 70% and booted up HL:A, set the app specific render to 100% and it's running 8-10ms frametimes and it's buttery smooth, testing both high and ultra fidelity didn't massively affect the frametimes, I think that the dynamic resolution thing they have going on is playing a part in that though. Either way, it looks great and is smooth, clarity is better than the lenovo particularly at distance but up close looks similar - don't forget that I was running the lenovo at 300% supersampling and I was always happy with the performance in HL:A though.
Jumped into DCS, left the global at 70% and set app specific to 70% and loaded up the A10C instant action that I've been using as a performance testing reference, all other settings were as per what I was using with the lenovo which would get around 40-45 fps fairly consistently. Initially, the clarity is better with far less aliasing visible in the cockpit, yes I could wind it up and get better but it's already better than the lenovo was when running shedloads of supersampling; the picture is much crisper. Fps is running from 45-60 which is absolutely fine.
So my theory was largely correct, it's improved clarity due to native resolution, it's improved performance by not smashing SS to try to achieve clarity with the lower resolution of the lenovo and it's sharper all round because it's not a smudging with the SS antialiasing. It's a little heavier than the lenovo but still exceptionally comfortable, the sweet spot is much larger so I don't have issues with my right eye going out of focus*, the audio is fantastic from what I've experienced so far and makes a nice change from the jabra 65ts I was using previously.
All in all I'm very pleased and achieved what I've set out to do which was to improve the clarity first and foremost in DCS, I could not have done that with a GPU upgrade as you can't really brute force more detail into the lenovo screens. The 1070 appears to hold up quite nicely with the slightly lower res, I dare say there will be times when it starts to struggle but for a card that I paid 200 quid for three years ago I'm very happy with it
*highsided a motorbike 15 years ago and faceplanted the floor, since then it doesn't focus quite as well as the left so the small sweet spot of the lenovo meant I had to readjust by a couple of mm every so often, the reverb is much more stable with the full strap which helps.
