Nvidia: Few PCs Capable Of Powering Oculus Rift

Megalith

Megalith

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For those of you running systems below spec, is VR interesting enough to get you to upgrade?

The graphics chip maker estimates that only 13 million PCs worldwide will be powerful enough to push the Rift and other serious VR headsets. Research firm Gartner notes that Rift-capable machines will account for less than one percent of the 1.43 billion computers expected to be in use this year.
 
I'd imagine if they're an enthusiast that hangs out here.. their PC is already close or over that spec. Mine for instance, is well over those listed. :p
 
Yeah, I'm not particularly worried. Software will prompt serious users to upgrade their hardware.
 
In other news expert warns that next Corvette will be huge flop due to very low towing capacity. "I don't think people realize that just how little towing capacity the next generation Corvette has" said the expert. He went on to say "Customers will likely find very little reason to purchase the vehicle in light of this over sight".
 
I run two main rigs. One is a 5960x, TitanZ, 16 gigs of DDR4 (MITX mobo), and two 1 terabyte SSDS in RAID 0. The other rig (build in progress) is 4-way SLI TitanXs, 5960x, 64 gigs of DDR 4, ASUS Rampage V Extreme mobo, two 1 terabyte SSDS in RAID 0 (picture is just testing hardware before actual build)

6VwK4W.jpg


My sons rig (will be in CPU Magazine Jan edition - goes live at CES) has 3-way SLI 980 Tis then the same specs as my 4-way SLI rig but also has four WD Black 6 terabyte drives for 24 terabytes of storage.

rldbtd.jpg


Hope I am ok . . .
 
A small handful of people on a site like this doesn't equal everyone in the average public. Sure many here will have the hardware, but Joe Public, the ones they are trying to sell to will not.
 
By the Shawn Knight is so clueless when in the hell did we jump to HDMI 3.1 ??? funny thing is we just bearly got on HDMI Version 2.2, Beside thoses Oculus Rift are useless to me any way as I'm 100% blind in left eye
 
Quick! Crank up the marketing machine!

Need to sell bigger GPUs, which coincidentally is shrinking nodes this year... Hmm... !

Curious to see how the PS4 works out with VR this year.
 
shspvr said:
By the Shawn Knight is so clueless when in the hell did we jump to HDMI 3.1 ??? funny thing is we just bearly got on HDMI Version 2.2, Beside thoses Oculus Rift are useless to me any way as I'm 100% blind in left eye
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Actually the head tracking is quite compelling, don't need stereoscopic vision for that. Most 3d apps don't utilize that much separation anyway (to keep things comfortable for many people), as (natural) stereoscopic vision normally falls off at distance so you're not missing much. Get it so you can just look wherever you want in your environment with minimal latency, probably helps reduce neck tension from staring straight at your monitor all day.
 
Nope, VR is not worth upgrading. I'd MUCH rather just the latest super cool running Bay/Cherry Trail CPUs with their integrated graphics than ever touch anything that needs even a low end dedicated graphics card. It's so much nicer to have something that doesn't require a cooling fan or air vents and can get carried pretty much anywhere without any fuss about plugging into an outlet just to do several hours of computing work.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Nope, VR is not worth upgrading. I'd MUCH rather just the latest super cool running Bay/Cherry Trail CPUs with their integrated graphics than ever touch anything that needs even a low end dedicated graphics card. It's so much nicer to have something that doesn't require a cooling fan or air vents and can get carried pretty much anywhere without any fuss about plugging into an outlet just to do several hours of computing work.
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Meh, I have done some gaming on my bay trail tablet. Battery life still plummets when doing anything other than browsing. Same with my note 5 and oculus (it actually overheats after a long session of 3d gaming). What you're looking for (modern games with low power envelope) doesn't really exist right now, unless we're talking about early 2000s quality mobile style games. Then i might as well play a roguelike and forego the graphics. VR and high end go hand in hand, I don't think anyone wants just a low-latency virtual boy in 2016. If you've already sunk you $1-$2k on a PC, and $2k+ in software, a $300 headset is just buying another monitor, hardware is so much cheaper than software in terms of bang/$.
 
Exavior said:
A small handful of people on a site like this doesn't equal everyone in the average public. Sure many here will have the hardware, but Joe Public, the ones they are trying to sell to will not.
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I suspect the next gen of h/w will meat the spec at the gtx 960 price point. The only question is will there be games/apps that make it compelling and will the hardware be comfortable?
 
I'm pretty sure the Rift will work on a lot of systems, they just may not be running the latest games or on high settings.
 
I believe Nvidia estimates since they know the sell through rates of their own products. If the rift would have used display port instead, I'm sure a lot of 780 series and previous generation Radeon rigs would have qualified. Maybe 3x as many potential customers? I think they're just using this article to remind us to upgrade our cards even though they are perfectly fine for our current needs.
 
DarthBeavis said:
I run two main rigs. One is a 5960x, TitanZ, 16 gigs of DDR4 (MITX mobo), and two 1 terabyte SSDS in RAID 0. The other rig (build in progress) is 4-way SLI TitanXs, 5960x, 64 gigs of DDR 4, ASUS Rampage V Extreme mobo, two 1 terabyte SSDS in RAID 0 (picture is just testing hardware before actual build)

6VwK4W.jpg


My sons rig (will be in CPU Magazine Jan edition - goes live at CES) has 3-way SLI 980 Tis then the same specs as my 4-way SLI rig but also has four WD Black 6 terabyte drives for 24 terabytes of storage.

rldbtd.jpg


Hope I am ok . . .
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I think you'll need new hardware.
 
Miikun said:
Meh, I have done some gaming on my bay trail tablet. Battery life still plummets when doing anything other than browsing. Same with my note 5 and oculus (it actually overheats after a long session of 3d gaming). What you're looking for (modern games with low power envelope) doesn't really exist right now, unless we're talking about early 2000s quality mobile style games. Then i might as well play a roguelike and forego the graphics. VR and high end go hand in hand, I don't think anyone wants just a low-latency virtual boy in 2016. If you've already sunk you $1-$2k on a PC, and $2k+ in software, a $300 headset is just buying another monitor, hardware is so much cheaper than software in terms of bang/$.
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When I'm playing a game, I'll play one that works well with the hardware that I have available. I'm not really seeking any particular sort of graphics quality since I don't think graphics really are what makes a game interesting. There's a lot more that matters waaay before what something looks like and there are some very fun games out there that don't need anything more than a the lowest end computer. Besides that, home computers for me are mostly about being a good place for creative writing, browsing the web, shopping online, and fetching e-mail. Gaming falls way further down on the list of stuff that matters to me to the point where it's the last thing I really think about when I'm shopping for a new laptop.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
When I'm playing a game, I'll play one that works well with the hardware that I have available. I'm not really seeking any particular sort of graphics quality since I don't think graphics really are what makes a game interesting. There's a lot more that matters waaay before what something looks like and there are some very fun games out there that don't need anything more than a the lowest end computer. Besides that, home computers for me are mostly about being a good place for creative writing, browsing the web, shopping online, and fetching e-mail. Gaming falls way further down on the list of stuff that matters to me to the point where it's the last thing I really think about when I'm shopping for a new laptop.
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you mean to say pRon is not GPU dependent
 
DarthBeavis said:
you mean to say pRon is not GPU dependent
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LOL, I guess not. It's just displaying image files isn't it so that really doesn't take much computer power. Though I have read the occasional post from guys here who point out they need a lot of storage space for their "work" folder.
 
I wouldn't say that, I'm pretty sure custom maid 3d has more realistic particle effects and fluid physics simulation with SLI Titans. Not that I'm saying I know anything about that. .
 
They seriously should have thought of having something to help offload the processing or something needed for the VR resolution and things, just have a box that it goes to before the headset that can offload some of the power needed to process it for the headset to cut down on how powerful the hardware you need on your pc to run it well.
 
/shrug
Why should anyone even care since the final product hasn't even shipped yet?
 
Stiler said:
They seriously should have thought of having something to help offload the processing or something needed for the VR resolution and things, just have a box that it goes to before the headset that can offload some of the power needed to process it for the headset to cut down on how powerful the hardware you need on your pc to run it well.
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Well usb 3.1 technically allows you to run multiplexed PCIE lanes over the wire so by the time it is prevalent, they could just in-line a GPU letting you run it on anew ultrabook. 1st Gen is bound to be a bit clunky.
 
Tweak42 said:
/shrug
Why should anyone even care since the final product hasn't even shipped yet?
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They started shipping the retail oculus to developers already, I'm hoping we get one at the office shortly. I haven't tried their latest prototype so I'm hoping for greatly reduced screen door since DK2, which was still pretty grainy.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Suuuuure you don't! :D
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Gentlemen never kiss and tell :cool:

Seriously though one thing about the VR experience without fancy GUI and controls is that it has a very different mind space than other types of gaming, almost like reading a book and getting immersed. I think that's the promise though I expect the software and design techniques will need a year or two to really get caught up. A good game is fun on any platform, but VR has a really unique natural feeling when done right because there's less of an artificial interface between you and the story.
 
Good. I'm happy about this. Give me some killer apps to give me reason to upgrade. Give Intel a reason to have a bigger upgrade.

When OR is released, I will probably upgrade my machine for it. I have a 2600K and a 7950 GPU. I'm fine with running anything I want, sometimes at 4K. If I had a reason to upgrade (the desire is definitely there), I'd do it. But, I don't have any pressing reason to spend $1000 to upgrade my CPU, GPU, RAM, MB. I WANT a reason. OR is definitely something I want to buy, given the software releases that support it.
 
Let the preorder commence. Doom and Alien Isolation is going to be amazing on the Rift.
 
trudude said:
Let the preorder commence. Doom and Alien Isolation is going to be amazing on the Rift.
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I'm looking forward to Elite Dangerous and the like on high resolution Oculus.
 
Miikun said:
I wouldn't say that, I'm pretty sure custom maid 3d has more realistic particle effects and fluid physics simulation with SLI Titans. Not that I'm saying I know anything about that. .
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The last place I expected to see any reference to Custom Maid 3D. That being said, most of those games (especially anything made by Illusion) run off of terrible engines.
 
I have three 290x's in my main rig, and a fourth 290x in my HTPC that I could slam into the main chassis if I upgrade my PSU. Like Battlestar Galactica, she's older tech, but she's still got it.
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
The last place I expected to see any reference to Custom Maid 3D. That being said, most of those games (especially anything made by Illusion) run off of terrible engines.
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I remember this being one of the first games that came out with an oculus patch. And they even came out with their own VR controller before Oculus could get theirs out of the door.
 
Haven't spend much time at all researching VR tech. How does it affect those with impaired vision? I am legally blind in my right eye. Would that be a dealbreaker?
 
Well VR is a head mounted display and motion plus position tracking. Stereoscopic vision would be impacted as it would in real life, but other than that, no real difference. The big deal about the oculus is less about the HMD portion than minimizing the latency for head tracking and in the rendering path so you get most of the benefits with monocular vision.
 
I used a VR headset at Oxford University about a year ago and I found it very isolating and don't think I would really enjoy it for gaming except maybe for short novelty sessions. I have Nvidia 3Dvision and it looks cool but causes eye strain and I expect the same with VR.
 
Virtual reality PC gaming is an expensive niche within an expensive niche. I don't see game developers and publishers investing time and money retooling their games for VR in order to cater to such a limited audience.

It's hard enough encouraging devs and publishers to put effort into PC game development as it is now. I doubt VR will go anywhere beyond a costly plaything for semi-affluent techies.

VR movies seem more accessible to the mainstream though.
 
It's not the resolution that's the problem with the VR stuff, it's that the frame rate target for vr games/experiences is 90fps to help achieve "Presence", as they call it, (basically the combo of low latency and smoothness) necessary to make the VR effect work for more than a few minutes at a time without inducing motion sickness.

That's going to be a challenge for even higher end current systems.

Also, VR doesn't work great with SLI/Crossfire, while they may be great on monitor, it introduces artifacts and latency that mess up the VR (dx12 and HBM might help a bit though), even when Occulus is showing off their stuff, the current "best case" hardware setup they use is a single 980ti.
 
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