Pimax Crystal & Radeon 7900XTX ~ My Experience

Pimax Hardware Pimax Crystal
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26th Dec '23 :- Crystal HMD with
Radeon Sapphire Pulse 7900XTX using current AMD Adrenaline Driver.

For reference I am not new to VR. I got in early with Oculus DK2 followed by CV1 then Rift S, Reverb G2, Pimax 8KX and now my 6th VR headset, Crystal. It has been an exciting, exhilarating and hugely fun journey.

Recently upgraded from AMD4 5900X system with 3090 gpu and Pimax 8KX DMAS 2076 version to a new AMD5 system of 7800X3D & 7900XTX.

VR Gaming for me is 90% Sim Racing & 9% Flight in DCS or MSFS. For racing my time is lost in Assetto Corsa, AMS2, rFactor2 & Race Room Race Experience… ALL work brilliantly at exceptionally High frame rates. Rock solid image, zero issues. I have tested at 120hz & 72hz 100% no issues. My default is 90hz, the sweetspot for me.

I am gobsmacked by how great the 7900XTX performs in VR. AMD have obviously corrected the earlier VR driver issues. I was a little apprehensive going in but had read enough, mostly on reddit, to believe AMD had a handle on the vr issues and the flatscreen gaming performance benchmarks are impressive. Comparing the new performance & higher fps racing on this system, against the few benchmarks I can find from other sim racers on 4090’s, it looks like my 7900XTX is very close nipping at the heels and a little ahead in some cases. I am running high/ultra settings in AMS2 and the performance at 90hz / 90 fps is phenomenal. Very glad I took a chance on the 7900XTX.

I am still having a few issues with the Crystal (this is my 2nd unit), both having problems since day one a month ago. I think quality control is still a challenge for Pimax unfortunately. However once running correctly the quality of the image at 35ppd truly is amazing and such a leap that it is hard to go back to either 8kx or ReverbG2.

I did try some other VR games such as Red Matter 2, Arizona Sunshine 2, Half Life Alyx and they ran perfectly and looked stunning. Also tried No Mans Sky but that is hard to find the right graphical settings balance, need more time with that but it looked good.

Anyone on the fence about a Crystal with an AMD 7900XTX take another look as I have found the combo works perfectly and it really is amazing. Here in Australia the 4090 costs twice (or more) the 7900XTX so it is a no-brainer imho. But I am not into ray traced games, waste of horsepower imho, but for rasterized games and VR the 7900XTX is superb, an easy pick especially over a 4080, unless RT is your drug and/or money is no object.

The Crystal does not feel heavy or uncomfortable to me but I am used to the 8KX. I think it is comfortable though I wish the battery was optional plus the rubber power strap to the battery is a bit short for larger heads. I am still waiting on my Crystal Comfort Topstrap ordered 27th November so I hope that arrives soon as it looks to balance the headset better.

Overall I rate Crystal 9/10 and the best VR headset I have owned, for sims either racing or flight it is currently number one for me. The newer Varjo Aero and BigScreen are options other users will be looking at. I also would like to try the new Crystal wider FOV lenses but do not want to compromise IQ as it is now.

The AMD 7900XTX for VR is definitely a 9.8 out of 10 factoring in price to performance compared to the overpriced 4090. The Adrenaline software is really good and the card is not bigger than my smallest child like the 4090 is. I hope both Pimax & AMD continue to improve, as I am sure they will.

My first Crystal flickered white streaks intermittently and I had difficulties getting the PC to recognise it. I was worried as the delivery driver had heavily dropped the box at our front door and so I ordered another and it worked pretty quickly connecting to my PC no drama. After a couple of weeks it now has an issue whereby everytime it is first turned on the Right screen will always be a garble of green/yellow static lines. Clicking Restart System in the Piplay software app always fixes it but it cannot be normal so I hope it is software/firmware related and not hardware as I do not wish to go thru Pimax return process again, been there done that with 8KX. Pimax were really good in the process but it is stressful & time consuming. My first Crystal has been sent back and I await my refund at this point.

New Hi Tech hardware is bound to have little issues, the small plastic proximity sensor cover came loose, due to poor quality glue, and before I identified the problem I was having black screen & ipd adjustment issues. Luckily I found the small cover (about 4mm square) as it fell off in my hand and I was able to re-fix it in position. Such small things in Quality Control can cause much time consuming headaches for both customer & manufacturer. I think Pimax are working very hard to get these things right but the .01% minor faults can be costly and do damage to the brand name over time. Fair to say the users with no problems are largely quiet but those encountering issues will be noticed more by prospective buyers, same with almost every product and especially electronics.

I really hope Crystal is hugely successful and I believe it will be as it is a great evolution of the headsets that have come before it and in sim racing or flying it really shines.

Anyway back to some racing in AC which is visualy stunning in Crystal with the new CSP & Pure .222. Thanks and I hope some of my experience can be useful for others contemplating an upgrade. Cheers :+1:

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Thanks for the in depth commentary on the Crystals compatibility with 7000 series GPU’s . I’ve been waiting to hear some news on 7900XTX/Crystal performance topic for sometime now and it sounds like they work well together. I’m seriously considering trading in a new in box 8KX toward the Crystal but am unsure if I’ll be happy with the Crystals FOV after using my 5K super for so long now. Would you mind sharing some specific Pi tool and steam settings (if applicable) regarding render resolution ,render quality , SS etc. Ideally I’d prefer screen shots of the settings but text is fine if it’s too much trouble and thanks again for the compatibility commentary.

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I still had the 8KX I loved when I bought the Crystal and did not think I would sell it, but I did as the 35ppd is so good for clarity and the picture is so defined and smooth. I went back to the 8KX and the difference was huge. The wide fov was good but I do not miss it at all now. I run Piplay res at 1.0 and Steam VR from 50% to 60% depending on the game. There are new wider FOV lenses from Pimax soon but not sure I need or want them. Would love to try them ! Good luck :+1:

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Flying Il2 on 170 degree FOV - I couldn’t imagine squeezing back to 120 Degrees no matter the clarity. I await the 12K instead which looks like a 25 release at this rate and that will cue in nicely with the next gen of GPU’s.

Running my 8K-X on a 7900XT with great results. settling in around steamVR SS setting of 3148 to 3348 with Graphics on Ultra in Il2. CPU limited which is a shame as it’s a good multi thread CPU but the game engine is your typical single threaded banger with smaller work loads on other threads. Be nice to have these things a bit more shared around.

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I think in sim racing I do not miss the wider fov but for flight Sims the wider fov is more useful & noticeable. However I started playing VTOL VR first time yesterday and that was amazing on Crystal.

Re the cpu bottleneck, you get a big advantage if you go to the amd 7800X3D. This is what I have now & nothing is limited by cpu anymore.

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Same here the 7800X3D cpu/7900XTX combo is a beast in IL2 and MSFS2020. The system upgrade was as painless as any other past upgrade I’ve done contrary to many posters on the net stating otherwise. I haven’t checked cpu frame times via FPS VR in IL2 but it certainly surprised me how much better performance I got compared to my previous 5800X3D system. I opted for a lower tiered X670 motherboard to keep the cost down and I’m very happy with it as I have had no issues with memory compatibility or anything else for that matter. The Piplay and 7000 series driver issue persisted for some months but I patiently waited for Pimax and AMD to sort it out and I am certainly happy with the outcome of their efforts to resolve the issues. I am considering the crystal now but am not at all interested in stand alone mode of the crystal so it seems the 5K super will have to suffice until the 12K is released unless I find something too compelling to ignore about the crystal.

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Totally agree with you, Happy 2024 :cowboy_hat_face: and despite the annoying problems I am having with the Crystal I still glad I kept it over the 8KX. There are many features that I love, like the 35ppd image with vivid colors, but a few things I really hate particularly the battery pack and I could probably get used to that except for the fact that it does not always charge properly. It would not charge for 4 days and was going flat every hour of use, I wasted so many hours troubleshooting to find what was wrong. Then suddenly it started to charge again though still depleting fairly quickly. I did nothing special except change the connections around a bit and reboot the computer several times. I do not know exactly what got it working again and expect it to happen again sometime which is stressful and extremely annoying.

I still have the garbled static rubbish in the Right screen every time I turn it on until I press Restart Service. @PimaxQuorra asked me to upload the image, which I eventually did but no reply since then. He or She (?) said the problem occurred during beta testing which makes me wonder why they never fixed it prior to release.

The QC of these Crystals is awful and I have had to re-glue the proximity sensor as well as just yesterday the velcro type stickers on the faceplate that holds the facial foam on because the glue is crap and was coming off. The sticker was also misaligned which caused the facial foam to be not properly aligned. Things like that scream ‘cheap’ and should not be a problem on a high end device such as the Crystal. Pimax need to take these things seriously going forward else in time their reputation will be very low and people like me and others who are willing to suffer thru the problems now, will eventually give them up and find another vr headset provider who insists on quality and reliability before a product is released. I gladly pay a little more for quality and peace of mind.

Pimax you have a great product but are you listening to any of the valid complaints from customers like me ???

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Hi @blanes

Certainly, we are attentive to any legitimate customer complaints.

This is a recognized issue attributed to the software. However, have you initiated the headset with a refresh rate of 72Hz? This problem occurred specifically when the headset was configured with a 72Hz refresh rate during startup. Nonetheless, it should not manifest when the refresh rate is set to 90Hz or 120Hz.

Without the powered hub, the battery can endure for 2 hours. With the hub, it is conceivable to continuously operate for up to 4 hours without requiring a change, and it will recharge when the PC/headset is powered down.

Noted, and I will escalate this matter to the QC team and other relevant higher-ups. Such occurrences should not be present in the new headset. I sincerely apologize on behalf of Pimax.

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It does it no matter the Refresh rate, it occurs same at 72, 90 or 120hz. I can see that when the headset is first turned on and before loading Piplay, the screen boots up and I can see both screens left & right are clear with no garble/static. It is only after Piplay goes thru connection that Right Screen display is garbled. This indicates it is something not properly initialising in Piplay software, as you say.

When not powering properly via the hub I only get roughly One Hour of play in a racing sim before the battery is totally depleted, this occurred over a number of days when it refused to recharge even though correctly connected via the powered hub. I even tried another powered hub I have and did the same. For past couple days the powered hub has been working however when I first turn on the headset it can take upto 2 or 3 minutes before the headset will turn on or any light at all, blue, yellow or green comes on and in that case the headset takes a very long time to connect in Piplay, this morning I had to reboot before it would work.

Thank you and it is good to know someone will look into this.

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Hey,

So far as I know, the static noise will occur when the headset is started up in 72Hz, but I haven’t encountered it with other refresh rates.

Did you follow the 8steps demostrated in the video - on how to connect Crystal with powered hub.

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Yes that’s my experience if starting in 72z. I have to switch to 90hz and then back to 72hz to get it working.

If just restarted at 72hz it’s still present after restart.

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Yes I have followed the correct procedure. I am getting a clean startup screen in only 120hz. Both 72hz & 90hz present the garbled Right screen image.

I tried switching between only 120hz & 90hz a few times and it will give a clean screen image when swapping between them but if I stay at 90hz the next time the screen is turned off and back on, either from a PC reboot or if the headset goes to sleep for sometime, then the Right screen garbage can be seen again.

Also worth noting is that it seems the problems with the Battery not charging from the hub are related to using the Crystal in 72hz mode. I am reluctant to go back to 72hz mode to confirm this as I had such a bad time trying to get it properly recharging after swapping out of 72hz back to 90hz. It is also when this Right screen garbage issue began because I used 72hz alot when I first got the headset.

Is there any ETA for an updated Firmware that corrects these problems with 72hz ?

I also have a set of new Crystal DMAS speakers on order from Player1 in Aussie, due to arrive in few weeks so I can test them out fully as my 8KX DMAS never worked properly on the Crystal.

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Feels like posting to these forums is waste of time, replies from Pimax are too random.

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