Tom's Hardware 8KX review

Popped up in my Google feed. Only had time to skim through, but overall very positive. I don’t have permission to add this under reviews.

https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/reviews/pimax-vision-8k-x-review-ultrawide-gaming-with-incredible-clarity

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They had a quite nice verdict:
“You’ll need an RTX 3080 or better to drive the HMD to its best potential. You should also expect to spend much time fine-tuning the settings to dial the headset in for each game for the best performance. If those things don’t dissuade you, no other headset compares to the Vision 8K X.”

"Final Thoughts

The Pimax Vision 8K X is undoubtedly the best Pimax headset available today, and it’s among the best options you could pick for home use. After years of near misses, Pimax finally hit it out of the park with this one."

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Yep bar a couple of very minor points it’s a good balanced assessment and lets potential buyers know what it’s really all about, pros and cons. Well done Pimax!

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I am astonished at how positive Kevin Carbotte‘s experience was. Nice!
I guess it was a a good decision to hold on to my 8KX hoping for a more powerful GPU than my 2080Ti to unleash its full potential. When comparing it last year to i.a. the G2 in Elite, at the end I gave the nod to the G2 because it managed to produce a calmer, sort of clearer picture; but at the same time I felt the 8Kx may have it in it to shine similarly, if I could just crank up the AA, SS more - which is difficult with PP being required.

So when exactly is the RTX4090 releasing again…

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Seems they need some FOV education, as the Small FOV is still the best FOV of all headsets (maybe the Index has better vertical, but that’s it, since the Pro 2 can’t hit 120:

“The Small setting brings the FOV down to 120 degrees, which is no longer a class-leading display width. But it’s still as wide as competing headsets, such as the Valve Index and the upcoming HTC Vive Pro 2.”

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I can live with that sort of error as generally his take’s were balanced. I did laugh about his take on potato mode which is actually still equal to or bigger than some recent headsets FOV. Small has more total area than all of them with the exception of the StarVR which is larger than ours but without good resolution.

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you need to fix mura calibration, i got only left eye issue and its very bad on sky/white backgrounds, it bugs so hard so i selling the thing, its really must have on high end high res screens

weight is more or less berable but its hard to sit 10 hrs in it as weight became a problem since 5k+ times, i need 300 grams counter weight with htc das to stop face preassure but if you could put some internals optionally available to be moved as counter weight backward it would solve the issue, index is also heavy with 300grams counter weight but lighter than 8kx and 10hrs in it isnt a problem]

i would say those 2 issues for me most problematic other tham that - reshade doesnt work with FFR as shaders conflict, if you could adapt those two or add reshade to pitool it would. be blast as it sharpens & fixes colours.

other than that i really enjoyed hmd it first pimax product that deserves more attention, but weight and mura, totally hate mura, as my 1 eye (right panel) has no mura issues i aassume left screen just wasnt calibrated and not all units have this flaw, but it costs 350$ to try new unit on amazon (customs + delivery)

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You might talk to our service team and create a ticket. I haven’t seen that problem, nor did any of the reviewers such as Tom’s etc. so it sounds like a defect.

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My first 8kx had very bad mura too.Later i bought a 8kx again and the mura was way less but still there…

Every lcd screen has mura too some point…
But what surprises me the vive pro 2 its almost invisible(but that device has other problems,i need to return it)

If I remember that correctly, only the panel manufacturer can actually do it.
A correction is made in the factory for the individual LCD. If the mura increases through mechanical stress, it is simply bad luck.

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Yeah I was really impressed with how good the VP2 was regarding mura also. It was really clean. Had to return it though because it didn’t work nearly as well as my 8KX with my 1080ti card. Mura is there on my 8KX although it isn’t too bad. I can see it when I look for it, but it is pretty easy to not notice it.

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Yeah I think mine has some mura as well - looks like slightly dirty lenses? I only really notice it against a light background eg blue skies in DCS

Yes, that is what it looks like…

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Reading this review really makes me wonder if there have been panel revisions in the 8k-X, just like we had in the 5k? I have one of the first 8k-X and the colors in my headset are quite cold and washed out. Cranking up the contrast by even 1 will oversaturate already. I wonder if newer 8k-X’s come with better panels? I already expected this to be true and now reading his review, saying that the colors are good, I again think this is the case.

Also not even a word about distortion seems a bit odd too in my opinion, for a professional website. I totally understand how glass wearers won’t notice distortion (they’re already used to it) or VR newbies can’t discern it. But a site like this should at least mention it IMHO. Even though the distortion on the 8k-X is not that bad anymore, there’s at least a noticeable difference with almost all other headsets out there

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try only on green channel do brightness -1 (leave contrast at 0) for both eyes and keep other values at 0, it did the trick for me

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then they need to communicate it properly, as q2, g2, vp2 have no mura then its totally possible

The other thing is no mention of IPD issues. But hey I guess he just didn’t notice any issue for him, or decided it didn’t warrant a mention.

As we know VR is insanely subjective and you can never truly go by someone else’s experience. Any VR review is just the roughest of guides for me.

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It is indeed, so I’ll give him some slack. Then again, somehow I always hope that sites like those (but also Ben from RoadToVR) at least try to go beyond their own personal experiences, and have a team of at least 2-3 people discussing things. But I think you’re right and @Pumcy just did the review himself, it’s also only his name in the article.

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It’s funny, a good friend got in touch with some questions yesterday. He hasn’t done any gaming in years, with the one exception that he bought a PS4 and really enjoyed some PSVR.

Yesterday afternoon he told me he wants to get back into flying lessons (all stopped due to pandemic) - but to complement that he wants to set up - to a ‘budget’ (ha we’ll see) - a PC VR flight sim rig. He’s asked for tips on what headset, PC, and sim controls to buy.

OK deep breath…where to begin. I guess first off, gently prepare your wallet for the coming shock :joy:

But he’s lucky, he can try out my headsets and controls, take my older ones to get started, and see what works for him. Most people have to read reviews and forums and then just cross fingers and take the plunge with VR kit

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Complete newer generation of panels and not so stressful, fixed assembly.

Btw, before the Reverb G1 and his very bad mura, no one have lost a word about it. xD