Cheap Steam Machines and PCs Could Never Run Oculus Rift, Minimum Specs Revealed

Are you really excited about virtual reality?

Do you wish to submerge into the world of Oculus Rift with your favorite game titles? The time has come as the Rift VR headset is getting launched this year, but there is some bad news.

There are PC gamers who love to boast how their machine is capable of being able to run Oculus Rift and other virtual reality devices. They also claim that they are the master race, because consoles like PS4 and Xbox One are not ready to embrace such technology. If you go through the minimum specifications suggested by the company, you may no longer support this claim if you play on the Windows platform. Only rich gamers could probably enjoy it unless you manage to buy that 970 graphics card from Nvidia in a cheap discount sale.

Minimum Specifications to run OR

In order to use the Oculus Rift, your steam machine or computer should at least have an Nvidia GTX 970 graphics card or the 290 from AMD. These are definitely not entry level cards or budget solutions that most gamers opt for. If you like to play in 1080p resolution with good frame rates and medium graphics, a 750 ti or a GTX 960 is more than enough. The same goes for AMD cards as well, which should be much cheaper, when the next set of 300 series get launched.

But, virtual reality gaming is powerful and will definitely demand higher hardware power than the usual. Your PC should have at least an i5 4590 processor or an equivalent AMD chip, 8 GB RAM or higher and run on Windows 7 OS. HDMI 1.3 and USB 3.0 ports are also mandatory.

Going by these specifications, you can confirm that be it a Steam Machine or a Windows PC, you have to have a rig that costs $800 to $1000 in order to enjoy virtual reality games. The developers of Rift confirmed that while this is demanding, it is definitely not going to cost you a fortune. You should get ready to invest in a good PC when it launches this Holiday season.

Why Steam Machine is better than Windows for VR?

Virtual reality is more demanding in terms of hardware power and resource. Windows 10 could be better than the older versions but as a Steam machine run on Steam OS based on Linux, experts suggest it will offer better stability which leads to a better gaming experience.