ED Horizons with OR CV - seeking upgrade advice

[Arubeto]

I am playing ED with a 970 and an old CPU (Core i3) and only 2 GB RAM right now. Having constant 60 FPS on ultra settings.

Since I want to buy the OR CV when it comes, I am planning to upgrade my CPU and RAM anyway to meet the official requirements released by Oculus:

Oculus Rift Consumer Version Hardware Requirements:

CPU: i5-4590
RAM: 8 GB
GPU: GTX 970

This would be straight-forward as a guide for upgrading, but since the Horizons requirements have been released with the latest Newsletter I am not quite sure anymore:

Elite Dangerous: Horizons Hardware Requirements:

CPU: i7-3770K
RAM: 8 GB
GPU: GTX 770

Obviously I need to upgrade my RAM, so I am planning to upgrade to 16 GB (already bought but can't use it with my old mainboard at the moment), so that should be ok for both cases.

But what about the CPU? I was planning to buy an i5, since a colleague of mine who is quite well-informed about hardware developments told me that both - i5 and i7 - had just 4 physical cores and software normally wouldn't benefit very much from the 4 additional virtual cores of the i7. The i7 recommended by FD for Horizons seems to be quite old, too (the 37xx series is the the i7 variant of the Ivy-Bridge processor released three years ago), so I don't know if an i5 Skylake (newest generation) would together with my single 970 indeed be enough to play ED Horizons on the OR CV when it is released or not.

I know FD said they are going to release VR hardware requirements for Horizons very soon, but since the beta stars next Tuesday - and I very much intend to play it! - I plan to upgrade my system as soon as possible. Obviously I don't want to upgrade again for the OR when it is released, so I'd be very happy if some of you guys who have experience with the OR DK2 could give me some advice - in case FD doesn't release VR specs before the beta starts.

Thanks in advance!

 

[callezetter]

Any modern i5 processor with 16gb ram will do, really. I still use an old I5-2500k, thats 4 years old by now. And still its well over the Oculus spec, since its so easily overclocked.
If I would build a new pc right now, i would go with a skylake i5 and MB/ram to match that. Top if of with a SSD and keep the 970 for another year. Then upgrade the 970 when
next gen comes.

 

[Arubeto]

Any modern i5 processor with 16gm ram will do, really. I still use an old I5-2500k, thats 4 years old by now. And still its well over the Oculus spec, since its so easily overclocked.
If I would build a new pc right now, i would go with a skylake i5 and MB /ram to match that. Top if of with a SSD and keep the 970 for another year. Then upgrade the 970 when
next gen comes.

Thanks for the response. ED already runs from an SSD, so that's a "check".
I have to admit if it's not absolutely necessary to upgrade my GTX 970 to play the future seasons of ED (beginning with "Horizons") on the OR I would rather stick to it (not playing much on my PC apart from ED).
It's less the OR consumer version specs that that I worry about and rather the "i7" FD recommends for Horizons - and that's for the normal, non-VR version!

 

[callezetter]

yeah, And the 75>90 fps requirements, will take its toll on our GPUs too, thats for sure. Its not a small step.
Thats also why next gen GPUs really will come in handy. Those will crush the current ones on perf/dollar.

So to replace MB and RAM, keep the SSD and 970 to Q2, then take a new decision if you might want to sell it and
get one of the new cards. Its a good plan.

 

[Alec Turner]

I must admit that the "recommendation" of an i7 is bothering me slightly too. Just 3 days ago I purchased a new computer with a GTX 970, 16Gdb RAM and an i5 4690k. I'd done loads of research and my conclusion (from several reputable sources plus a hefty weight of circumstantial evidence) was that an i7 was unnecessary for a decent gaming PC. So the question is, are FD saying i7 just to be up with the times or is ED Horizons really doing some serious number crunching that requires an i7 for optimum performance?

 

[Arubeto]

I must admit that the "recommendation" of an i7 is bothering me slightly too. Just 3 days ago I purchased a new computer with a GTX 970, 16Gdb RAM and an i5 4690k. I'd done loads of research and my conclusion (from several reputable sources plus a hefty weight of circumstantial evidence) was that an i7 was unnecessary for a decent gaming PC. So the question is, are FD saying i7 just to be up with the times or is ED Horizons really doing some serious number crunching that requires an i7 for optimum performance?

Pretty similar to my line of thought, too. And those recommend specs are just for the normal version, not even the VR version.

I really hope FD will release their recommendation for ED:Horizons on Oculus Rift or VR in general rather sooner than later.

 

[Nightbringerx]

I have an I7 4790 running at 4.0ghz.
I was playing on my old machine which was running at 2.83.
The transition from i5 to i7 was a big boost(had the same type of video card in both).
While every one was talking about the poor performance in SC, I found my new cpu
only dropped maybe 2 fps. So I am guessing that the cpu is becoming more important.

Oh and I am only running a 960(my next upgrade is to the 970), but still
I don't mind the judder in DK2, when I turn down graphics it becomes even less.
I absolutely love love love the dk2 in CQC. It feels like cheating.

 

[Arubeto]

I have an I7 4790 running at 4.0ghz.
I was playing on my old machine which was running at 2.83.
The transition from i5 to i7 was a big boost(had the same type of video card in both).
While every one was talking about the poor performance in SC, I found my new cpu
only dropped maybe 2 fps. So I am guessing that the cpu is becoming more important.

Oh and I am only running a 960(my next upgrade is to the 970), but still
I don't mind the judder in DK2, when I turn down graphics it becomes even less.
I absolutely love love love the dk2 in CQC. It feels like cheating.

So you have occasional judder in the DK2, even though you use a i7 and a 960?

Wow, didn't expect that

 

[Nightbringerx]

I am not sure how often others get it, but I know it doesn't make me sick, and
I love it in CQC which is faster paced then regular Elite.

 

[Tettric]

Pretty similar to my line of thought, too. And those recommend specs are just for the normal version, not even the VR version.

I really hope FD will release their recommendation for ED:Horizons on Oculus Rift or VR in general rather sooner than later.

I'm pretty sure the I7 is recommended just because it's high spec, I doubt it'll have a huge bearing on your experience (Fallout 4 recommends and FX9350 on the AMD side, which is a chip next to nobody uses, just because it's the best AMD offering). The difference between playing the game in VR shouldn't be hugely dependent on the CPU as long as it's above requirements (it's still the same game the only thing is you'll have to process beyond the norm is headtracking). Instead the GPU will be the main thing for VR as it has to render a frame for each eye and at a much higher combined resolution than the standard 1920x1080.

An I5 at decent clocks with a GTX 970 ought to be fine as far as I can tell but I guess we'll have to wait and see...

 

[Logical Viking]

I hope they optimize for Crossfire/SLI so I can just pop in another R9-290x instead of having to sell the one I have and buy a Titan or something crazy.

 

[Oheck]

Got an i7 2600 running at 3.4. Looking forward to the Vive, i'll be picking up two GTX 970 4GB FTW+. (Got the wife getting one as a gift and I pick up the other). Figure SLI is going to be a big plus to rendering VR images in the near future.

 

[Arubeto]

Got an i7 2600 running at 3.4. Looking forward to the Vive, i'll be picking up two GTX 970 4GB FTW+. (Got the wife getting one as a gift and I pick up the other). Figure SLI is going to be a big plus to rendering VR images in the near future.

Picking up a second GTX970 to go SLI would be a last resort for me, too, but then I couldn't use my already bought DDR3 RAM, since there don't seem to be any 1151-boards with DDR3-slots supporting Nvidia SLI

So either the GTX970 is gonna be enough for Horizons on the Oculus Rift, or it's indeed going to be very expensive for me, again. I bought the 970 more or less solely for ED, after I read all the glowing reviews for the graphics chip. I am very, very pleased with its performance, too, but can't say anything about how fit it is VR.