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HTC Vive and Vive PRO are one of the most popular VR headsets on the market. When looking for the best gaming desktop pc for Vive (and Vive PRO), there are a few specs to take into consideration. To spare you some time searching, I compiled a list of the best Gaming Desktop PCs for your VR headset.
HTC Vive Recommended System Requirements:
- CPU: Intel™ Core™ i5-4590 or AMD FX™ 8350, equivalent or better
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce™ GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon™ RX 480, equivalent or better.
- RAM: 4 GB RAM or more
- Video Output: 1x HDMI 1.4 port, or DisplayPort 1.2 or newer
- USB Ports: 1x USB 2.0 port or newer
HTC Vive PRO Recommended System Requirements:
- CPU: Intel® Core™ i5-4590 or AMD FX™ 8350, equivalent or better
- GPU: NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1070/Quadro P5000 or above, or AMD Radeon™ Vega 56 or above.
- RAM: 4 GB RAM or more
- Video Output: DisplayPort 1.2 or newer
- USB Ports: 1x USB 3.0 port or newer
Source: https://www.vive.com/us/ready/
What is the best VR gaming desktop PC for HTC Vive and Vive PRO?
There are two main factors for the gaming PC being suitable for HTC Vive or Vive PRO. First is no brainer, meeting the recommended system requirements. Do yourself a favor and never go for the minimum. 🙂
And the other is connectivity. A computer must have the right ports to hook up the VR headset to.
Meeting the Recommended System Requirements
The main part of the VR ready PC to be able to run VR content on HTC Vive or Vive PRO is a graphics card or GPU. The recommended one for Vive (non-pro) is NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, for the PRO version GTX 1070. Although this is recommended by HTC itself, I noticed quite a different recommended specs for different VR games on the Steam platform. For example, the popular game Beat Saber, the recommended GPU is GTX 1060. On the other hand Fallout 4 VR, requires an Nvidia GTX 1080. So this is really game-specific. That’s why this list of PCs contains models having from GTX 1660 up to RTX 2080.
The recommended 8 GBs of ram has pretty much every gaming machines nowadays. The same goes for the CPU, an i5-4590 isn’t that much. Every VR gaming computer I listed here have even better processor.
Connectivity
HTC Vive requires only one USB 2.0 and a DisplayPort 1.2. Note that HTC Vive PRO requires a USB 3.0.
Comparison Table
Last update on 2023-09-29.
1. iBUYPOWER Elite Gaming PC
GRAPHICS: NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti 6GB
RAM: 8GB DDR4
STORAGE: 480GB SSD
DisplayPort: Yes
USB 3.0: Yes
Last update on 2023-09-29.
2. SkyTech Shiva Gaming Computer
GRAPHICS: NVIDIA RTX 2060 6GB
RAM: 16GB DDR4
STORAGE: 500GB SSD
DisplayPort: Yes
USB 3.0: Yes
Last update on 2023-09-29.
3. iBUYPOWER Pro Gaming PC – RECOMMENDED
GRAPHICS: NVIDIA RTX 2070 8GB
RAM: 16GB DDR4
STORAGE: 240GB SSD + 1TB HDD
DisplayPort: Yes
USB 3.0: Yes
Last update on 2023-09-29.
4. CYBERPOWERPC Gamer Xtreme VR
GRAPHICS: NVIDIA RTX 2080 8GB
RAM: 16GB DDR4
STORAGE: 240GB SSD + 1TB HDD
DisplayPort: Yes
USB 3.0: Yes
Last update on 2023-09-29.
5. CORSAIR ONE PRO i180
GRAPHICS: NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti 11GB
RAM: 32GB
STORAGE: 960GB M.2 SSD + 2TB HDD
DisplayPort: Yes
USB 3.0: Yes
Last update on 2023-09-29.