GTX 970 Required At Minimum To Run VR, Says Nvidia

[Dohc-WP]

We already knew VR will be a demanding proposition- after all, generating a high fidelity image like that would require some serious muscle power. At CES today, Nvidia announced the GeForce GTX VR Ready program, designed to allow consumers to “instantly identify VR capable PCs, notebooks and add-in cards through a GeForce GTX VR Ready badge.” The minimum threshold to be able to run VR? A GTX 970, apparently.

“For customers, navigating an emerging technology like VR can be daunting,” said Jason Paul, general manager of emerging technologies at Nvidia. “We’re working with trusted partners worldwide to simplify the buying process with a GeForce GTX VR Ready badge that will let customers quickly identify PCs or add-in cards that are capable of handling the demands of VR.”

The minimum specs you would need alongside a GTX 970 are:

a PC with USB 3.0 support
CPU: Intel Core i5- 4590 equivalent or greater CPU
8GB+ RAM of Memory/RAM
2x USB 3.0 ports and HDMI 1.3
Windows
If you are running a laptop, you will need a GTX 980 at minimum. These specs will ensure your computer has the power required to be able to push two high resolution images at 90 frames per second, or higher.

I imagine most people serious about PC gaming – the people who would be interested in VR in the first place – already have high end graphics cards and well specc’d machines, so they don’t need to worry about this. Still, though, it’s good to have some benchmarks.


Source: GamingBolt

 

[gr33nFIEND]

This is something we've been fairly prepared for, having done a piece on the specified requirements of the Oculus Rift, as well as reporting that NVIDIA thought virtual reality would cost a pretty penny.

I also made sure to reiterate it when talking about the recently updated Oculus Rift requirements, which now includes 3 USB 3.0 ports .

Make no mistake, doing VR correctly is not an inexpensive venture. Even the PlayStation VR requires an additional processing box to achieve an acceptable experience.

 

[PsychoFish]

I'm really curious as to why these devices require multiple USB 3.0 ports. I mean each USB 3.0 port can provide 5 Gbit/s throughput (if it's a bandwidth issue) or 36 Watt to 100 Watt per port depending on mode. Surely if it was a power issue they would just use external power through a AC/DC converter. PCI Express 3.0 pushes 256 Gbit/s and your RAM can only handle 143.05115 GiB/s (19200 MB/s for those who don't do bit conversions in their heads). If they need to render two differing 1920x1080p images at 60fps they would require 11.94 Gbps transfer rate to the device. Nevermind, think I answered my question by reasoning with myself and working it out while typing this out.

It's this :
11.94 Gbps / 5 Gbps = 2.388 Ports, which will need to be rounded up to 3