GTX 970 enough with these specs?

[Dielos]

Hello all,

I have been considering VR for a long time now, but the costs to upgrade were horrendous and I have been postponing it for quite a while. At the same time, I have been seeing new technologies come out, although none yet fully fleshed out, but gave me hopes that waiting a bit I might be able to jump directly to second generation.

But... The drop on price of the Rift has brought doubts now...

I had a 5 year old PC that didn't pass min specs except the GPU (GTX 970). Luckily, a lightning hit our building a couple of months ago and fried quite a bit of electronics, which were promptly replaced by newer versions by the insurance company. This included the PC, but they left out the GPU as it didn't fry [sad].

With the money they gave me for the old high spec machine, I could easily replace everything, so have now this build:

Intel Core i7-6850K CPU @ 3.60GHz, 3601 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s)
16GB Ram (plus extra 16 lying around)
Old GTX 970
​

Would the Rift run well under these specs? Or do I need to upgrade the GPU first?

One of the reasons that I haven't gone VR yet is the GPU. I want my first experience to be great, and I fear it might not be with these specs. But although I can justify the cost of the Rift alone, it's very difficult to justify to my wife dishing 1.500€ (Rift+1080) for fancy sun glasses.

She thinks I'm a freak already with the Delan Clip attached to my headphones...

 

[Hell Razor5543]

I am using my Rift CV1 on a pair of Asus Strix GTX970 cards, with no major issues (except when there are several players, and was are close to the planets). Be aware that Oculus just dropped their prices as of this month (I got the Touch hand controllers for £99, instead of £189 last month), so you might want to check your prices.

 

[Nara]

I'm probably not the right person to answer but....

I have a Vive and I upgraded to a GTX 1080 at the same time I got the Vive. I had to spend a fair amount of time playing with the graphics config to get something that I am now very happy to play. It's clear enough and runs smoothly enough, but I had to make compromises. Initially I was quite disappointed with how pixally the screen door effect makes everything look.

With the Rift I've heard that it is less demanding (hence why I may be the wrong person to answer), but I'd still say it's going to be very tough to get everything looking good and running smoothly on a 970. I personally would wait to get better graphics card. Perhaps you can buy the Rift now and then in a month justify the graphics card to the missus?

 

[Dielos]

Thanks for the reply. The price drop is what is making me reconsider. Here in Spain the Rift without the controllers goes now for 689€, the Vive for 919€. Purchasing from the Oculus store the Rift is only to be seen with controllers for a price of 708€ + shipping costs. Might be worth getting it from the Oculus store anyway for that difference...

- - - Updated - - -

I'm probably not the right person to answer but....

I have a Vive and I upgraded to a GTX 1080 at the same time I got the Vive. I had to spend a fair amount of time playing with the graphics config to get something that I am now very happy to play. It's clear enough and runs smoothly enough, but I had to make compromises. Initially I was quite disappointed with how pixally the screen door effect makes everything look.

With the Rift I've heard that it is is less demanding (hence why I may be the wrong person to answer), but I'd still say it's going to be very tough to get everything looking good and running smoothly on a 970. I personally would wait to get better graphics card. Perhaps you can buy the Rift now and then in a month justify the graphics card to the missus?

Yes, something along those lines were my initial thoughts. Don't want a junky experience the first time...

 

[Alec Turner]

When I first got my Oculus (back in November if I remember correctly) I too had a GTX 970 (with an i5 4690k CPU). I was absolutely blown away by it to be honest. The ONLY thing (and the whole experience was so amazing that, for me at least, it was not that big a deal) was that I did have to wind the graphics quality settings down a fair bit in ED to get a decent framerate (I guess I should also say that I'd already tried an Oculus at Lavecon and was prepared for the lower resolution and worse aliasing effects compared to a decent hi-res monitor). Now actually (and this was before Oculus added their ASW software) I initially made do with a lower framerate (maybe 60-70fps). I couldn't visually tell the difference and figured it was fine. However, driving the SRV around made me want to hurl! I only figured out a fair while later that if I got my framerate up to 90 this feeling went away. So, that's the first tip - don't skimp on the framerate, it really matters.

The next thing to mention is ASW - this is Oculus software that spots when your game isn't hitting 90fps, locks it to 45fps instead and then generates its own in-between frames to fill in the gaps. This works really well and has basically lowered the minimum requirement for VR even below the 970.

So, as to settings for the 970, I can't remember exactly (and ASW has probably changed this somewhat) but for starters I'd suggest: turn off bloom, blur, ambient occlusion and anti-aliasing; turn shadows down to low (or off), set SS to 1.0 (maybe even 0.75), set HMD Quality to 1.25 and set everything else to high. I'd also recommend turning down the HUD brightness and gamma a bit (to make space a bit blacker) and picking a clearer set of HUD colours (see the "Spiritual Teal" set in "Ed Profiler" - which I'm just coming to).

I'd also recommend installing drkaii's "ED Profiler". It's a great little utility that lets you create multiple ED graphics profiles (which include all the graphics settings, the control bindings and the HUD colours) and then switch between them. One reason to do this is that it means you can have VR and non-VR profiles. A lot of people will say you can never go back once you've tried VR. For me this isn't true. VR is STUNNING but ... there's no getting around the fact that the graphics aren't as crisp or as clear as on the monitor. Sometimes I just want to do a screenshot or video session, or just want to relish the beautiful clear sharp hi-res (but flat) graphics once again.

Once last thing (for full disclosure) - I now own a GTX 1080. It's a LUDICROUS amount of money to spend on a GPU, especially after the Oculus purchase but ... my work gave me a bonus, I didn't have anything else to spend it on and I just decided to close my eyes to the price and pretend like my work bought me a 1080. It's great. It's still not perfect but it does let me crank those old 970 settings up a fair way. Was it worth the money? If I'm being really honest - probably not . It is great tho!

Anyway, in conclusion your 970 will be fine and you're going to be blown away by VR!

 

[CMDR Heisenberg B. Damned]

Here in Spain the Rift without the controllers goes now for 689€

That's after the price drop? In the UK it's £500 which is more like 580 euro's (again that's without touch controllers).

 

[Dielos]

Thanks Alec! Nice write-up and sure gives me confidence!

That's after the price drop? In the UK it's £500 which is more like 580 euro's (again that's without touch controllers).

Well, at least where I looked. I'll check Amazon. But the Oculus Store doesn't seem to offer the Rift without controllers. Wasn't that supposed to be available?

I don't think the controllers will do me any good in ED.


Another interesting thing. The Oculus Check app doesn't seem to recognize my CPU. I guess it's good anyway, right?

 

[Dielos]

Well, as I'm flying next week for work to Germany, I decided to check prices there. As it happens, I found it in stock in a shop 50m from the Hotel I have booked for 589€. It's going to be difficult not to come back with it, so I better check if the box fits in my luggage!

Still worried about the CPU though, although it's supposed to be vastly superior as the recommended one.

 

[Iron Body]

I am currently using a 970 with my rift. No problem at all, even with high settings. Agree that Dr Kails tool is essential, especially if you swap between rift and 33" screen as I do.

 

[CMDR Heisenberg B. Damned]

Still worried about the CPU though, although it's supposed to be vastly superior as the recommended one.

Good news

And your CPU will be fine - I'm running an old i7 that doesn't even meet Oculus specs. Not seen any issues in Elite but not tried any other games yet. As ever YMMV but I think you'll be fine.

 

[ziddan]

Im running a slower system than that, i5-4690k, 16Gb ram and 970 GPU and im quite happy with how Elite runs on my Vive.

I want to eventually get a 1070 or 1080 but not until i find one on a big discount somewhere.

 

[TheChafing]

Well, as I'm flying next week for work to Germany, I decided to check prices there. As it happens, I found it in stock in a shop 50m from the Hotel I have booked for 589€. It's going to be difficult not to come back with it, so I better check if the box fits in my luggage!

Still worried about the CPU though, although it's supposed to be vastly superior as the recommended one.

If you're using a 6850K, you'll have way more than enough CPU.

 

[DragonIV]

using an i5-6600 with a 1060gtx and dk2, and it looks pretty good (near-max settings, framerate is fine). 1060 is the much cheaper than the 1070 or 1080.

 

[Dielos]

Thanks to all of you! Yes, I guess the CPU will be ok. Let's see if the GPU holds up though. Its going to be hard sitting 50m from the Rift and not purchasing, so hopefully I'll have one by next week!

 

[VR StarLightPL]

Thanks to all of you! Yes, I guess the CPU will be ok. Let's see if the GPU holds up though. Its going to be hard sitting 50m from the Rift and not purchasing, so hopefully I'll have one by next week!

Admit it, the purchase decision is already made

As for min specs, I was able to run Elite without major hiccups on both DK2 and Vive using a 4 years' old computer running i5-3570k and a GTX 670. This of course on VR low settings and min details, but I was too blown away to see the jagginess. So if my old specs could run that, your computer could run it too.