Hello, I just ordered Pimax 4K, but I still need to buy a gaming computer for it. Pimax has high resolution and it would be good to see system requirements for it along with technical information somewhere. Mainly, a videocard, what should be its processing power and memory to deliver the picture? Preferably, it should be at maximum settings. For Oculus Rift it is written that GTX1060 is enough. I want to buy GTX1060, but should I take the lighter one with 3GB, or, 6GB? What should be enough for movies, lighter, or, older games, new games?
There is currently no video graphic card in market that could handle 4k resolution with 60 fps along with ultra settings and other shit (and thats in vr), basically that means the better card and cpu you will get - the better quality you will be able to use with decent fps. That also means each game will require tweaks to find a good spot between picture quality and framerate.
I’m using 1080gtx and its still not enough for game settings a prefer (like SSAA/steamvr supersampling/ingame resolution upscale and so on).
1060 is fine, i would recommend 6gb.
3gb imho too few
Gtx 1060 should do the job alright. If you choose the 1060 you want the 6gig model for sure. The 1060 has no upgradeability (no sli). If its in the budget would rec the 1070.
Processor reccommended is an i5 or fx8 series.
I have decent results using
Fx6300 16gigs 2x7950 cf
Thank you for sharing your experience. I’ll try to summarize.
This headset can give actually good realistic picture, but to get close to maximum settings in games you, probably, need something like two GTX1070s. Having GTX1060 6GB should give a picture close to medium quality and the things will work. It is a little better to have GTX1070, though. I assume, that movies don’t need that much and GTX1060 can run a 3D movie well. I’ll go with GTX1060 6GB.
i5 or fx8 series processor seems to be a minimum, but it depends on an application. I’ll buy i7-7700K, should be enough to run the things without drag.
RAM also must depend on an application. 8GB DDR4 3000MHz should be enough for me to start.
Any modern HDD should do, just determines loading speed. SSD Samsung 128GB 2000/600MBs should make things fast for me.
Well, the current supported headset resolution is 2k (upscaled to the headsets 4k display). I think your configuration will be enough for processing 2k in vr with ultra settings for most of games.
Good realistic picture - dont understand me wrong, but no, vr headsets (all of them) cant provide such a good picture like a good 4k tv or monitor and will probably not be able to do in the near future, thats the VR price, less picture quality in exchange for 3d models and headtracking. But generally your configuration should be able to provide best possible experiencing (while having tons of issues with software, lol) for vr gaming and honestly to say i wouldnt say that the ‘vive’ or ‘oculus’ is better.
Talking about making picture better, you will most likely interested in a proper antialiasing (dont mean fxaa and so on, i mean something real that wont blur the image and cost a lot of gpu, like ssaa) since in VR the image is “zoomed” and you see all the “artifacts”. Not sure if 1060 will be able to handle this, this depends most likely on the game.
Another thing would be “steamvr supersamling” that will increase render quality of 2k (or 1080, depending on pimax settings) up to 2.5 times, this shit makes game look beautiful, but even 1080 cant provide 60 fps with multiplier higher then 1.5
This is how supersampling looks like.
So there are couple ways to improve the picture and make it “good” or even “very good”, if you have good graphic card and dont get motion sickness while playing with 30 fps (there is a steamvr feature allowing games to run smoothly in vr with only 30 fps, although developed for 45 it will be probably enabled by default, check in steam vr settings for Interleaved Reprojection, it locks fps by 30 for vr)
I have a 1060 3gb, and at the time for the price it was the best option. The 6gb version is slightly faster and more future proof, but when I bought it the 3gb was 50 pound cheaper.
I have only noticed 2 or 3 games where the 6gb would make a very small difference, like between Very High and Ultra textures (Arkham Knight, Resident Evil 7), and as far as I know, at the moment, 3gb is fine for VR games. I play at the 2k res mode in Pimax, mostly without any issues. If it slows down a bit I drop the Supersampling to 1. Still good.
Basically if you have the money. go for the 6gb, if not, go for the 3gb and be happy with it. It’s perfectly fine. You may have to drop a texture setting in 5 percent of games. but so what?
It does depend a lot on the game. Doom 3 BFG can go way up to 1.4, whilst rubbish like NVidia Fun house will start to slow down past 1. Although that could just be my aging CPU.
Maybe I havent played any particularly tough games, but the 1060 can pretty much do maximum settings in VR. So far. Remember, the Vive etc run at a lower resolution, so the requirements for games in this generation are pretty low. The 1060 6gb is more than enough.
Thanks, all this was very helpful. Just how much antialiasing do you use and how many FPS do you get playing it?
I think VR performance is pretty hard to quantify. It needs more than just an fps count. But basically with a 1060, it’s good.
It runs at a solid 60 in all games (limited by the pimax refresh rate), and how much AA depends on the game, and it also depends a lot on the version of piplay you are using. 1.2.40 has a higher resolution I think, so I set supersampling to 0.9 (it looks very clear). 1.2.53 has a lower res as far as I can tell, so I set it to 1.2 or so (basically the same quality and performance).
So it is hard to say exactly. All this of course also depends on CPU (mine is an i7 920 with 16gb ram - you probably have a better one).
My steamvr performance test gives an 8.3 (very high) rating. I can’t seem to get fraps working but last time I tried it I am pretty sure it stayed around the 120 fps mark. Zero dropped frames (that is important). Basically way above what is currently necessary for good VR.
If you have a better CPU, your fps will probably be a bit higher. So as I said, if you wanna save the cash, get the 3gb, if you wanna spend a bit for 6, do that. But 1060 is definitely more than good for VR.