When the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset first launched, the $600 VR system required a $1000+ gaming computer to work, making the price of entry pretty steep… and that’s even before the launch of the $200 Oculus Touch controllers.

But now Facebook-owned Oculus has launched a new technology that makes it possible to use Rift hardware with lower-priced PCs.

Now all you need to spend to buy a VR-ready PC is about $500.

rift

Specifically, Oculus says you need a machine with a Core i3 or faster processor, at least 8GB of RAM, and any AMD RX 400 series graphic card or NVIDIA GTX 900 or 1000 series card.

Last month CyberPowerPC unveiled a $499 Oculus-ready desktop with Radeon RX 470 graphics, and AMD FX 4350 processor. That particular model doesn’t seem to be available for purchase yet, but if you already have a PC that meets the minimum specs, or plan to build one, Oculus says the technology that enables its hardware to work with lower-performance machines is now ready to go.

It’s called Asynschronous Spacewarp (ASW), and in a nutshell, it uses frame-rate smoothing so that your computer’s CPU and graphics card only have to work half as hard to render graphics. The Oculus Rift as a 90 Hz display and previously required a PC that could render 90 frames per second. But now a system can render 45 frames per second and rely on ASW to extrapolate the other frames necessary to make a VR experience look like it’s running smoothly at 90 fps.

The company says in most cases, the experience is nearly indistinguishable from what you’d see if you were using a computer that could render 90 frames per second. But there are some situations where there may be image tearing or other problems… so if you can afford a higher-priced PC, you may be better off buying one.

Or you could just buy a smartphone-based VR system like Samsung’s $100 Gear VR or Google’s $79 Daydream View, which launched today.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,547 other subscribers