Hello,
I’m backer number 2433 and now after the Berlin backers meeting informations, i’m a little bit lost to choose a 5K+ or 8K.
I’ve backed for a 8K Headset without controllers for the moment.
My main usage of the headset will be simulation gaming.
I play with : Project cars 2, Assetto Corsa, DCS World sim, Star Citizen.
I’ve read that 5K+ has better lens with more clear colors, and if my eyes will not see the resolution differences between 5k and 8k in these games, i don’t see the advantages of the 8K anymore…
honestly, we are all in same boat. my advice is to wait for reviews on 16th from @VoodooDE , @SweViver and @mixedrealityTV . They wont bullshit about the pros and cons of each headset and they all know that a lot of us, hell probably most of us want the exact guidance you are talking about.
the 8K is all about reducing the Screen Door effect (SDE) ; the lines you see between the pixels on any current VR Headset. Is it a prime factor for you ? Does it break your immersion? Wait for the reviews but ask yourself these questions.
i dont understand why pimax is offering two different 5k models (instead of not offering the old model anymore, who want the old 5k ?) and why they dont improve the 8k to 8k+ too. For $100 difference there should be a noticeable pro for the 8k model and no cons.
when the testers will confirm the pros and cons that some of the backers said…i still dont know what to do.
if the reviewers say the visual difference between 5k plus and 8k is negligible, then it is a no brainer to get the 5k plus, for its higher frame rate, lower gpu draw and 100 usd in your pocket for accessories.
The chief difference between the 5k and 8k had been and will always be lower sde. if you want the absolute lowest possible sde, 8k is your headset. if you want to trade a little more sde for a bunch of benefits, then 5kplus.
One thing i would like @SweViver et all to do, is test on a level playing field.
Something about berlin that occurred to me, is that allowing people to input their own piplay values was a real double edged sword.
In specific, it is possible that the reason the 5k did so well against the 8k is that there is nothing to say people were not taking advantage of the gpu’s available to supersample the 5k. In testing, i would like the testers to compare both the 8k and 5k at their default values, but also the 8k vs the 5k being supersampled to the equivalent of the 8k.
We know supersampling can have a measurable impact on quality of hmd images, but is that a fair comparison when the 5k is likley going to be used by people with 1070’s who absolutely wont be able to supersample it?
i see i think i will not be happy with my choice anyway^^ i wanted the 8kx but i didnt want to wait so long (till mai ^^ lol) so i chose the 8k, also because it looked like pimax had no plans for the 8kx in the first place and it was not sure if its even possible,
now i’m angry with myself…best choice would have been 5k + 8kx i was not thinking about taking 2 Headsets back in november. $349 for the 5k+ looks very cheap for me now
Here is my personal opinion regarding my decision with my own Pimax HMDs.
I backed the 1x5K and 1x8K in two different accounts.
After hearing the opinions of many backers in the Meetup about the 5K+ I think that I will settle for it, my reasoning:
I only have NV1070 card
From native perspective: Pimax 5K+ seem to not need any “middle man” to produce its image.
The current cables seem to cope with the data being transfered so it seem this is the pinnacle of what we can achieve with today tech (my opinion).
I do think that panels technology is not ripe yet for 4K (my opinion).
I really do not won’t to shell another $$$ for a better card just to have better SDE experience (relative to 5K+). The investment difference does not worth it (my opinion).
I don’t really care about SDE, I believe our brain fills the gaps quite good. I played with Vive, and although I saw the SDE it took me less than 5sec to just focus on the experience and not the drawbacks of 1st gen VR technology.
Even if 8K owners will be able to upgrade, in few years their panels by sending their HMDs, I think that in few years there will also be other technologies that will make their way to new HMDs and will make this upgrade moot (my opinion).
I’m not sure that for less SDE we just need more resolution, I think we also need better panels and application will have to adapt with better drawing technique. I understand that more pixels in a certain space will minimize the SDE effect, but if that is the case we will need a 8K/8K panels to maybe eliminate SDE. My thought is that panel drawing technique should solve this and 2K rendering should be enough. Adding pixels to solve SDE is just brute force solution.
Based on these points and few of @Swiviver clips, I think that for the next 3 years the 5K+ should be just fine, and I should wait for the market and technology to be ready with better panels and standards for VR experience, and I am quite sure there will be added technologies to VR that I will probably be happy to purchase.
So perfect SDE… maybe in a few years, I can edit: live [leave] with this.
Last, I do wait for the testers reviews because that is, I believe, the right thing to do, but in any case, if there is no show stopper or problem with 5K+ vs 8K, I’ll probably downgrade to 5K and the hell with SDE
Except that there should be no higher framerate or lower GPU draw. Both headsets use the exact same 1440p-per-eye output from your computer, it’s just that the 8K has an upconverting chip on its hardware, that it uses to upconverting the 1440p signal to 4k. If anything I would think the reverse would be true, because the 5K+ should be capable of higher refresh rates than the 8K, so your computer wouldn’t need to send data to the 8K as often.
Best guess is they already have some panels in inventory or signed contract(s) to buy them and they have VR arcade customers that will buy the basic 5K.
I think Pimax has to officially explain if and why the 5K+ is less demanding as the 8K. It’s like groundhog day… there are several threads and posts about this topic all over the forum… no one knows exactly what’s going on, rumors and wild suggestions are posted and Pimax don’t say or do anything, except @deletedpimaxrep1 post from days ago, that she will talk to the engineers to clear things up and report back… but nothing happened?!..
Check the forum as it was explained many times. The input resolution and render resolution are two different things! People here did a much better job on explaining it in detail than I could so just do some read up and you will understand. BTW sweviver explained it somewhere as well
That part was explained by Sweviver yesterday in livestream. I’m not software developer but short answer is - 8k render techniques/drivers require additional supersampling for upscaler compensation
Of course supersampling looks better, it’d look just exactly as much better on the 5K/5K+ as well. Sure, if you want the best looking image, you can do the same thing with any headset - it’s been known for a while that you can apply 2x or even more supersampling on an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive and get an amazing looking picture. SteamVR even has an option to do it automatically now, if your GPU has power to spare for the game you are running.
But there should be no need to do any supersampling on the 8K, the image quality should exactly match the 5K and 8K, aside from the natural slight blurring you get from upconverting rather than displaying native resolution, and the harder-to-see pixels and SDE on the 8K. If Pimax is forcing high supersampling just to counter that natural blurring, I sure hope they have that as an option you can disable.
The Berlin test videos mention being able to change the SS settings in Steam AND PiTools. Why both are around is a bit wonky, but you have the option to tweak the settings.
It’s interesting how two people can hear the same thing and come to opposite conclusions
For me, it’s a no brainer to keep the 8k and enjoy the quality bump on my GPU next upgrade. My thinking is I don’t want to buy another headset for a few years. True story: I still game on a dk2 and it’s mainly because the jump from my DK2 to the Vive or CV1- I have used them both- was not worth the $6-800 (back then) and by 2017, there was already a whisper of the Pimax dream
Depends on how you qualify the term “quality” (standing by the pun, not sorry). If having less SDE is important or you like softer images, then the 8K will be better. If you prefer sharper images, then the 5K will be better. I’m guessing with equal hardware (e.g. 1080[or Ti], not terrible CPU/RAM/etc) the 8K will be have slightly better graphics in general. 5K will be better for reading text / menus and sharper details (but maybe more jagged lines). I don’t trust random folks impressions on color accuracy, so I don’t factor that in (there’s a reason display calibration is a thing done by professionals with specialty equipment).
Personally, I’m looking forward to the 5K+ because I prefer sharper images to smoothed images.
i was not thinking about taking 2 Headsets back in november. $349 for the 5k+ looks very cheap for me now 
(relative to 5K+). The investment difference does not worth it (my opinion).
