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OS Neutral Is the Oculus Rift going to require a monster PC?

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whitedragon101

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Sep 11, 2008
1,349
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Something just occurred to me after watching all the VR demos of the rift. I was thinking excellent I can plug the Rift into my MBP. Then I recalled the words that are mentioned for the Rift but no-one really talks about what that means :

"At least 60fps, minimum."

Basically 60fps is the absolute bare minimum speed you need to use the Rift. Preferably higher.

That kind of counts out all but the most fire breathing gaming tower PCs. They haven't really talked about that aspect of it.

Here is the performance chart for the most powerful desktop GPU there is. It can't hit 60fps for over half the games. Yes its at 1600p and max settings but its the top end £800 ($1300) graphics card. Also the rift may ship at launch with a 1400p display.

http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-titan-black/performance
 
I wouldn't worry about it. We will be lucky to see it this side of 2015. And when it is out it will be worth an upgrading for.
 
R1PPER said:
I wouldn't worry about it. We will be lucky to see it this side of 2015. And when it is out it will be worth an upgrading for.
Click to expand...

Also keep in mind 2015 is going to see a spike in system requirements anyway as we see more games developed for the new generation of consoles from the start. If you want to use a rift for those games I don't think any MBP will cut it, but we'll see. I'll be upgrading my card next year, that's for sure!
 
Going from Maximum to almost maximum is a huge difference in many games.
Take Metro:LL on my system, everything maxed -> 15 FPS
Turn off SSAA -> 60 FPS.
(running 3x 22 inch displays at a total of 5040x1050 res)

Will a macbook pro be a good system for Rift? Probably not, but current gaming rigs with something like Nvidia 680/770 (or better) or AMD 7970/280 (or better) will be just fine.

I heard in an interview with a rift dev that the final version would have 90hz refresh rate, so ideal you want 90 FPS+ for the best experience
 
And this is why Kickstarter is a bad deal. Thousands of people invested, created the buzz and got that company off the ground, but they don't share in any of the subsequent good fortune.
 
R1PPER said:
Facebook just bought OR for 2 Billion. Push that date back to 2016. QQ
Click to expand...

Why do you say that? If anything, this could accelerate Occulus' plans, as they have practically unlimited resources now.

Don't get me wrong, I think Facebook owning Occulus is a terrible thing for consumers because FB makes its money on ads, and FB will always care more about the "social" aspect of VR more than the games. But I don't think this means we'll see a delay necessarily, beyond 2015.
 
cluthz said:
Going from Maximum to almost maximum is a huge difference in many games.
Take Metro:LL on my system, everything maxed -> 15 FPS
Turn off SSAA -> 60 FPS.
(running 3x 22 inch displays at a total of 5040x1050 res)

Will a macbook pro be a good system for Rift? Probably not, but current gaming rigs with something like Nvidia 680/770 (or better) or AMD 7970/280 (or better) will be just fine.

I heard in an interview with a rift dev that the final version would have 90hz refresh rate, so ideal you want 90 FPS+ for the best experience
Click to expand...

I have started perusing the high end graphics cards benchmarks. It seems a high end card like the 780Ti is what the doctor ordered. I'm starting to think a gaming PC may be in my future. However with a new frame rate floor of 60/75 or maybe as you say 90, it is already barely able to cope with current games let alone future ones.

Spencer Lucky is always saying the best VR experiences will be made specifically for VR not 2D ports. I think the frame-rate issue might be partially solved by the VR developers. If you are designing a game exclusively for VR you would know it needed to be run at 60fps and you would need it to be accessible to more people than just those owning dual SLI/Crossfire setups. For VR graphical effects might have to jump back a generation to get to the high frame rates.
 
RE : the Facebook stuff. This is Palmer on Reddit


"We have not gotten into all the details yet, but a lot of the news is coming. The key points:
1) We can make custom hardware, not rely on the scraps of the mobile phone industry. That is insanely expensive, think hundreds of millions of dollars. More news soon.
2) We can afford to hire everyone we need, the best people that fit into our culture of excellence in all aspects.
3) We can make huge investments in content. More news soon."
 
whitedragon101 said:
RE : the Facebook stuff. This is Palmer on Reddit


"We have not gotten into all the details yet, but a lot of the news is coming. The key points:
1) We can make custom hardware, not rely on the scraps of the mobile phone industry. That is insanely expensive, think hundreds of millions of dollars. More news soon.
2) We can afford to hire everyone we need, the best people that fit into our culture of excellence in all aspects.
3) We can make huge investments in content. More news soon."
Click to expand...
4) The OR API will now be linked to your Facebook account, so that every time you use it, a corresponding status update will appear on your Facebook page.
5) We will now record everything you do with the OR, so we (read: Facebook) can shove you more targeted ads in the face and can sell even more of your personal data.
 
I can't wait to play Farmville on VR.:roll eyes: In all seriousness, I do hope Facebook doesn't screw it up. But there is always Sony's Morpheus or whatever Microsoft and Valve come up with.
 
I've found that refresh rate trumps resolution and fidelity when using the Oculus Rift. The display is just a single, normal screen (for all intents and purposes) that just so happens to be small, close to your eyes but split in half so each eye sees a different half. If each eye received a 1920x1080 image then you'd need a powerful computer. But 1920x1080 at 60fps? That's possible on todays low end hardware, and the resolution + fps I run games at on my 2011 iMac.

So no. Unless you're running very high fidelity games like Crysis, Battlefield where you'll likely need to turn settings down if you want a smooth 60fps.
 
whitedragon101 said:
Something just occurred to me after watching all the VR demos of the rift. I was thinking excellent I can plug the Rift into my MBP. Then I recalled the words that are mentioned for the Rift but no-one really talks about what that means :

"At least 60fps, minimum."

Basically 60fps is the absolute bare minimum speed you need to use the Rift. Preferably higher.

That kind of counts out all but the most fire breathing gaming tower PCs. They haven't really talked about that aspect of it.

Here is the performance chart for the most powerful desktop GPU there is. It can't hit 60fps for over half the games. Yes its at 1600p and max settings but its the top end £800 ($1300) graphics card. Also the rift may ship at launch with a 1400p display.

http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-titan-black/performance
Click to expand...

I have a pair of 670s in SLI and a single 670 can break 60FPS in most games at 1080p

http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-670/performance

my whole PC is not a "fire breathing gaming rig" in fact it cost less, including the two GPUs than the iMac i am typing this on now.. Macs are just not gaming systems..
 
Nightarchaon said:
I have a pair of 670s in SLI and a single 670 can break 60FPS in most games at 1080p

http://www.geforce.co.uk/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-670/performance
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. Good to know. Most benchmarks dial AA and all the settings up. Its hard to know what fps can be achieved at medium with AA off.

I am thinking I might need to get a gaming rig but am not sure yet (I'll wait to see what mobile Maxwell brings). The price would be about £950 for gaming system with a 780Ti which is not too bad. Also I am hoping even if I do get a gaming rig that I could get a high end Maxwell based GPU. If the performance per watt is double on mobile it might be double on the high end desktop GPUs too (hope).
 
whitedragon101 said:
Thanks for the response. Good to know. Most benchmarks dial AA and all the settings up. Its hard to know what fps can be achieved at medium with AA off.

I am thinking I might need to get a gaming rig but am not sure yet (I'll wait to see what mobile Maxwell brings). The price would be about £950 for gaming system with a 780Ti which is not too bad. Also I am hoping even if I do get a gaming rig that I could get a high end Maxwell based GPU. If the performance per watt is double on mobile it might be double on the high end desktop GPUs too (hope).
Click to expand...

The best advice i can give is run at your panels native resolution, and turn AA off, your milage may vary but i find native res with no AA is such that AA isn't needed because you can't "create pixels to fill in the gaps between pixels" if that makes any sense, if i run at non-native res the jaggies are appalling and i need to whack AA up, but native, i find i don't need it.
 
whitedragon101 said:
That kind of counts out all but the most fire breathing gaming tower PCs. They haven't really talked about that aspect of it.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't be so sure of that. I spent an hour viewing SONY's GDC unveiling of their VR for the Playstation 4 and while also still in development it is very impressive what they are doing with that console hardware.

I think concessions in areas like resolution to get the desired steady FPS required will help. If I recall what I just watched yesterday, I think they are going with 1080p for the PS4 VR. I haven't been following OR closely but they are going to need to keep hardware requirements reasonable if they want to achieve adoption on any significant scale. I think they probably want this tech to be more than just a niche product for enthusiasts who can and will afford high end computers to use it. Maybe I am wrong but I would expect getting this technology down to consumer level pricing is key to adoption and a clear design goal.

So, I wouldn't worry about it too much until it's ready and real specs are released at that time.
 
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