Mac owner with an Oculus VR dilemma

[PIXEL]

I’ve been a desperate Mac backer for Elite dangerous from Kickstarter/Alpha - lifetime pass - let down by offline mode and Horizons etc but now find myself in a quandary…


My better half (un-married long time partner of 13 yrs) has rounded up all my friends (as a surprise) to buy me the retail Oculus Rift out in April 2016 - allegedly.


What can I do? I have an iMac2013 with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4096 MB and an old Windows 7 pro on CD which I deleted from a nice SSD partition cos I hated the windows experience.


Obviously my iMac’s GPU (+ OSX) doesn’t’ cut the grass OR even if I ran windows on my iMac via bootcamp my graphics card wouldn’t cut it either.


Do I?:
1 take the Oculus and hope they downplay the recommended specs
2 take the Oculus and pray there’s a dedicated gaming machine (XB1/playthingy/wii) coming soon - tm
3 get a refund and buy a classic car and wait till VR is sorted
4 sell the iMac and go back to Win and tweaking drivers for the rest of my life!


4a there’s another option; my other half has to get a laptop but hey.. water cooling GPU’s (plus £1000’s) seem the only option for a GFX card that doesn’t have an ’M’ after it - are there laptop/notepad options on a budget?


Please don’t post to tell me Windows machines are better than Mac… boring, fed up with pointless argument + you'll be added to an adolescent ignore list in a sigh. I guess that cuts down the amount of replies here…


Help

 

[RiftFlyer]

The answer is 3 - Get a refund.

 

[SABER SKYWALKER]

I'm on xbox and after some upsetting research it appears oculus won't ever run on the damn thing, just not powerful enough now I have to try and get the money together for a beastly pc ready for oculus simply cause man I need to play this game in VR bad!!! So that's one option scratched of your list sorry. Always avoided a gaming pc simply because I've had loads of bad luck with pc's in general, every other day something else needs 2days of research trial and error to "fix" until next time :/ at least with a console I jus press the pad button an I'm away, curse you bill gates you could have made a 10x more powerful xbox and just took the loss simply not to loose to Sony over power but no you'd rather die with half the worlds money (rant over-FOR NOW)

good luck achieving your goal bro, jus gona bite the bullet myself

 

[PIXEL]

yes there seems to be some controversy regarding FDevs support for Oculus - been there done that with FDev if u know what I mean

Question; I forgot to put out there: is there a PC that can run as quiet as a Mac... I may be old school but one of things that really annoyed me about Bill's OS PC's was the noise they created as well as the incessant updates. I understand that Win7 u can turn off updates but 10 you can't - I just want to play ED

bit of a silly want really since headphones will be an attire but hey i need to know if I'm going to keep 'er in doors' up all night playing on a computer (-:

 

[Frank]

http://www.quietpc.com
I haven't used them for a long while but I remember the PSU they sold me was pretty nifty.

If I were you I'd go for the top option... Just get the headset without doing anything else. Try it out. You may find that you need to set every graphic setting to the lowest value, but it should give you an idea if you want to invest more into it.

If you decide that it's not worth all the hassle of Windows then stick it on Ebay. You'll be one of the few people who have one of the headsets. You might even be able to sell it for a profit.

 

[Sanderson]

Mac for pay, PC to play. Looks like it'll always be that way.

If you want a good VR experience (short of buying a new Mac) it's pretty much Windows PC or nothing.

So, I'd say, if you're serious about VR gaming, ED in particular, invest in a great Windows PC and HOTAS and call it a day.

 

[Spork]

You'll need a widows desktop pc to run it, so 3 and 4 are your only options. Laptops don't work.

I have a 780Ti + i7 4770 and have to run elite at pretty minimal settings to get it to manage 75fps for DK2. A 780M has no chance in hell of running the game at the required 90fps for CV1.

https://www.oculus.com/en-us/oculus-ready-pcs/

Re: noise. It's mostly down to the case fans. Larger fans make much less noise and water cooling also makes a big difference. I recently switched to this case with 120+140mm fans and installed water cooling on the cpu (no more difficult than installing a regular heatsink these days). I also switched to SSD's. I can't hear it when sitting next to it.

 

[JacoTheBad]

yes there seems to be some controversy regarding FDevs support for Oculus - been there done that with FDev if u know what I mean

Question; I forgot to put out there: is there a PC that can run as quiet as a Mac... I may be old school but one of things that really annoyed me about Bill's OS PC's was the noise they created as well as the incessant updates. I understand that Win7 u can turn off updates but 10 you can't - I just want to play ED

bit of a silly want really since headphones will be an attire but hey i need to know if I'm going to keep 'er in doors' up all night playing on a computer (-:

I Bootcamp Windows 10 on my late 2013 iMac. You can disable automatic updates. I had to do it after a Windows update ruined my Windows 10. Had to re-install and kill the auto updates in order to get it working again.

 

[megadonkeyx]

your 780m isnt so bad, i think it would run ED in low resolution well enough. just dual boot the imac into win7. then if you get a new mac in the future you have a nice hmd to attach to it.

 

[CylonSurfer]

I seem to recall that "M" series NVidia GPU's are not supported by Oculus and users have experienced issues when trying to use them. So using your Mac, even with Windows installed is a non starter.

My personal opinion, if you have any interest in playing Elite in VR is to buy a dedicated Windows gaming PC. Your option 3 - "Wait until VR is sorted"... well it is for anything half decent out there. Mac's just aren't gaming machines and by extension are not VR gaming machines. I doubt that will change.

Question; I forgot to put out there: is there a PC that can run as quiet as a Mac... I may be old school but one of things that really annoyed me about Bill's OS PC's was the noise they created as well as the incessant updates. I understand that Win7 u can turn off updates but 10 you can't - I just want to play ED

You end your original post politely asking that this thread does not become a Windows Vs Mac debate, which is understandable, but then then you undermine yourself by writing that rubbish? Seriously mate, you need a better understanding of computer hardware and what could be the source of any noise. HINT: It ain't down to the OS and Bill Gates has nothing to do with it. Maybe you could gain some clarity by over coming whatever problem you have with Bill to then see things for what they are.

 

[Hell Razor5543]

Well, I am not going to make any comments on a Mac as (barring using one at a friends' place) I have no experience of them. However, with reference to noise, the PC I built is very quiet (well, I think so), so I can have the music on low (so as to not disturb people in the other room) while getting whipped in HI RES points. The tricks are to have a very large case (so as to have an even airflow) and a couple of Arctic 120mm fans. Even with a CPU temperature over 70C, and graphics cards around the same, I don't have to turn up the music.

 

[PIXEL]

Well, I am not going to make any comments on a Mac as (barring using one at a friends' place) I have no experience of them. However, with reference to noise, the PC I built is very quiet (well, I think so), so I can have the music on low (so as to not disturb people in the other room) while getting whipped in HI RES points. The tricks are to have a very large case (so as to have an even airflow) and a couple of Arctic 120mm fans. Even with a CPU temperature over 70C, and graphics cards around the same, I don't have to turn up the music.

Thanks that's really helpful, I'll look into this.

and thanks everyone for all your replies.. it does look like I'd be better off building a PC (desktop gaming machine) after all - it's been a few years since I did that - but hey I like a challenge (-:
Cheers everyone

 

[Hell Razor5543]

If it is of any help, I can give you the specs of my PC. The only part you cannot get is the case I have. I got it over 10 years ago, and then it cost me over £250. Made by Freeway (IIRC), it is made with stainless steel and aluminium (and has not yet striped any of the threads on chassis or bolts), nearly 2' long, 10" wide and 18" high, room for 13 drives, and has a sub chassis for the entire motherboard assembly. Plenty of room for the air to move, in spite of all else that is in there.

Asus Maximus VII Ranger mobo,
Intel i7 4790K CPU (and I am using the fan that came with it),
32GB DDR3 RAM (not sure of the speed),
2 x Asus Strix GTX970 Graphics Cards, SLI linked,
4 x SSD drives (1 for the O/S + apps, 1 for media, 1 for games, 1 for Swap File),
Asus ROG dual header display unit (shows me CPU frequency, temperature and fan speed, amongst other things),
2 x LG Blu Ray re-writers.
Windows 8.1 Pro, 64b
Arctic Cooling F12 120mm fans (as the old ones were now getting noisy)

It takes under 20 seconds from turning on to password. Gaming has yet to stress it. Even under heavy load the fans are quiet (although I can hear them change speed if I listen for it).

 

[StarFarter]

You end your original post politely asking that this thread does not become a Windows Vs Mac debate, which is understandable, but then then you undermine yourself by writing that rubbish? Seriously mate, you need a better understanding of computer hardware and what could be the source of any noise. HINT: It ain't down to the OS and Bill Gates has nothing to do with. Maybe you could gain some clarity by over coming whatever problem you have with Bill to then see things for what they are.

Truth's


"Bill" doesn't make computer's, only software.

Resisting...so...hard...to...feed...factual...information...

 

[SABER SKYWALKER]

Truth's


"Bill" doesn't make computer's, only software.

Resisting...so...hard...to...feed...factual...information...

Well to be fair the xbox is a computer made by bills company, not entirely true on the software 'only' front but I get where your coming from, I jus have to be 'that guy' hehehe

 

[StarFarter]

Well to be fair the xbox is a computer made by bills company, not entirely true on the software 'only' front but I get where your coming from, I jus have to be 'that guy' hehehe

Actually..... jk

You are correct, now that I think about it, they have, or had, a whole hardware division, they just never made a PC. I wonder why...? Maybe something to do with that original monopoly lawsuit?
I remember having a Microsoft mouse back in the 90's, and after that in the 2000's I had that terrible split "ergonomic" keyboard that I could never learn to type on...

 

[PIXEL]

Wait for the VR dust to settle

...it's been an interesting few days - learnt so much about PC's and their hardware, new improved silent fans, water cooling, led lights that change colour etc etc so I'm going to stick with my iMac, hang on to the Rift (when it arrives in April ??) and wait till there's a dedicated machine/console for it without windows OS - maybe Bill will make one

Reason; The cost of buying or even making a real gaming PC is too much... esp since all it would be used for is VR games & the OS winds me up so much... Then there's all the Mac software that I use for work. To sell my iMac and to transfer (mostly buy) windows versions of those would be £££ and tragic.

Dilemma over - patience rules as ever...

....now where was that 1972 MG Midget I saw for sale (-: edit: just realized there's another option; an external GPU !

 

[RiftFlyer]

You could probably sell that rift if it arrives in April for a nice profit and treat your other half to something for her nice gesture. I fear you'll be waiting a long while for it to be Mac compatible.

 

[SABER SKYWALKER]

You could probably sell that rift if it arrives in April for a nice profit and treat your other half to something for her nice gesture. I fear you'll be waiting a long while for it to be Mac compatible.

Someone's got a great big box of brownie points

 

[CylonSurfer]

Then there's all the Mac software that I use for work.

edit: just realized there's another option; an external GPU !

You can run 'Hackintosh' on a home built PC and get the best of both worlds, after all it's only Apple playing silly buggers trying to lock their OS to their hardware builds. Its all work 'around-able'.

I'm not so sure that an external GPU is even an option for VR, I would guess it adds way to much latency for it to be usable.

There is a huge backlog of pre-orders for the Rift, seems a shame to hear of someone hanging on to a pre-order who has no intention of using it within the next 12 or more months (likely ever). Some poor VR enthusiast with the correct hardware to run the device will be going without while yours sits gathering dust. Still, that is the way of the world we live in so you are entitled to do just that.