How to Tell if Your PC is VR Ready

With the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive launching within two weeks of each other, VR is the talk of the town. For the gamers out there who are beginning to consider purchasing a headset, one major question marks the starting point on their journey to a decision: can my PC handle it? Here’s how to find out.

VR gaming is much more resource intensive than monitor gaming. In short, that’s because the render resolution (2560×1200 for first-gen headsets) is much higher than the 1080p displays used by most PC users today. Not to mention, VR games must also be rendered in 3D, and first-gen VR headsets require a constant demanding 90 FPS, otherwise the image insider will stutter uncomfortably.

Both Oculus and Valve/SteamVR/HTC have provided what they call a “recommended” hardware configuration for virtual reality gaming. This gives developers a baseline hardware target so that they can ensure the consistent 90 FPS requirement is met. If your hardware does not meet the recommended specification, you risk dropping under 90 FPS which generally results in a very uncomfortable VR experience.

Both specs are nearly identical, but let’s take at each one and the tool each company provides to check to see if your computer is VR ready:

Oculus Rift Recommended VR Specifications (2016):

• Video Card: NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater
• CPU: Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
• Memory: 8GB+ RAM
• Video Output: Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
• USB Ports: 3x USB 3.0 ports plus 1x USB 2.0 port
• OS: Windows 7 SP1 64 bit or newer

Check your PC: Oculus offers the Oculus Compatibility Check app to automatically check your computer’s specs against their recommendation.

Valve / SteamVR / HTC Vive Recommended VR Specifications (2016):

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 / AMD Radeon 290 equivalent or greater
CPU: Intel i5-4590 / AMD FX 8350 equivalent or greater
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Video Output: – HDMI 1.4 or DisplayPort 1.2 or newer
USB Port: – 1x USB 2.0 or greater port
OS: Windows 7 SP1 64 bit or newer

Check your PC: Valve offers the SteamVR Performance Test app which actually benchmarks your machine to see if it can handle VR games built to their spec in practice. Since the Oculus and Steam VR specs are so similar, running this app may be helpful to identify bottlenecks for either.

Looking for a PC that goes above and beyond the baseline specs? We partnered with AVA Direct to create the Exemplar Ultimate, our high-end VR hardware reference point against which we perform our tests and reviews. Exemplar is designed to push virtual reality experiences above and beyond what’s possible with systems built to lesser recommended VR specifications.

In celebration of the launch of the Oculus Rift and (soon) HTC Vive, you can save $150 off the Exemplar Ultimate using code ‘VRLAUNCH2016‘ through April 8th.