On the 21st of May 2019, Facebook Technologies released its newest VR headset Oculus Rift S. When looking for the best gaming desktop pc for Oculus Rift S, there are a few specs to take into consideration. To spare you some time searching, I compiled a list of the best VR Ready computers for your this headset.
Being able to run VR games flawlessly without any graphical stuttering and lagging, the gaming PC must at least meet the recommended system requirement.
Why recommended and not minimum? Well, minimum requirements are based on what developers define that games are playable at the lowest graphic settings values. Whereas the recommended requirements are what is needed in order to run a game with decent graphical settings.
Oculus Rift S System Requirements
Minimum
- PROCESSOR: Intel i3-6100/AMD Ryzen 3 1200, FX4350 or greater
- GRAPHICS: NVIDIA GTX 1050Ti/AMD Radeon RX 470 or greater
- MEMORY: 8 GB RAM
- VIDEO OUTPUT: DisplayPortTM 1.2/Mini DisplayPort (with adapter included in the box)
- USB: 1x USB 3.0 port
Recommended
- PROCESSOR: Intel i5-4590/AMD Ryzen 5 1500X or greater
- GRAPHICS: NVIDIA GTX 1060/AMD Radeon RX 480 or greater
- MEMORY: 8 GB RAM
- VIDEO OUTPUT: DisplayPortTM 1.2/Mini DisplayPort (with adapter included in the box)
- USB: 1 x USB 3.0 port
Source: https://www.oculus.com/rift-s/
What computer parts are the most important for running the Oculus Rift S and VR games smoothly?
Graphics Card
A graphics card (or GPU, short of “Graphics Processing Unit”) is undoubtedly one of the most important hardware parts of a gaming PC. It handles all the processing and rendering of what you see on the display and directly affects the quality of the textures, anti-aliasing, frame rate, and such…
The more powerful it is, the more smoothly and realistically the game runs.
CPU
A processor or CPU (short for “Central Processing Unit”) also significantly impacts the overall gaming performance. It handles all the gameplay, instructions, loading different assets of the game, etc.
It basically calculates all the logic behind the scene.
Memory
Computer memory or RAM (short for “Random Access Memory”) stores all the short-term bits of information that are being accessed and used by the CPU constantly. It is a kind of temporary storage for all the calculated results coming from the CPU.
The more RAM you have the more information the processor can store in it simultaneously.
Storage
This is a piece of computer hardware that contains all the data that the PC can access and operate with. It includes everything, from the operating system to the games installed.
The most common consumer class types of SDDs are SATA SSD or NVMe. Although using different bus interfaces and having different connections, the main difference between them is read/write speed. Here’s a little speed comparison about average read/write speed of all the disk drives types mentioned:
-
- SATA 3 – up to 550MB/second
- NVMe – up to 3500MB/second
Traditional HDDs can be used for secondary storage drive only. They are just obsolete.
What is the best VR gaming desktop PC for Oculus Rift S?
There are two main factors for the gaming PC being suitable for the Oculus Rift S.
First is no brainer, meeting the recommended system requirements. As mentioned, if you want to enjoy VR games as they are meant to, 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 Oculus Rift S is a graphics card or GPU. The recommended one is NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060.
Although this is recommended by Facebook Technologies, 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 GPUs from GTX 1660 Ti up to RTX 2080 Ti.
The recommended 8 GBs of ram has pretty much every gaming vr ready computer nowadays. Same goes for the CPU. Intel i5-4590 isn’t really that much.
Anyway, all the desktop computers listed here have more than enough powerful CPU to run Oculus Rift S with ease.
Connectivity
There are quite a few differences between its predecessor Oculus Rift, which we must take into consideration when finding the right computer to hook it up to. Apart from having higher LCD resolution and improved optics, one of the main difference is the whole tracking system. Unlike the original Rift, which used outside-inward tracking with Constellations (IR cameras, basically…), Rift S uses inside-out tracking, called Oculus Insight. The system relies on five cameras built into the headset: two on the front, one on either side and one looking upwards.
Why is this important?
It cuts down the need for many USB ports as it was with the previous model Oculus Rift. With no need for external sensors, Oculus Rift S requires only one USB 3.0 and a DisplayPort 1.2.
A compiled list of desktop gaming VR PCs, being able to run Oculus Rift S
1.
SkyTech Legacy Mini Gaming PC
2.
Skytech Shiva Gaming PC
3.
CyberpowerPC Gamer Supreme Liquid Cool PC
4.
OMEN by HP Obelisk Gaming Desktop Computer
5.
CUK Stratos Micro Gaming PC
1.
SkyTech Legacy Mini Gaming PC
2.
Skytech Shiva Gaming PC
3.
CyberpowerPC Gamer Supreme Liquid Cool PC
4.
OMEN by HP Obelisk Gaming Desktop Computer
5.
CUK Stratos Micro Gaming PC
Last update on 2022-12-22.
SkyTech Legacy Mini
Last update on 2022-12-22.
Technical Details:
| AMD Ryzen 7 1700 | |
| NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB | |
| 16GB DDR4 | |
| 500GB SSD |
Skytech Shiva Gaming PC Desktop
Last update on 2022-12-22.
Technical Details:
| AMD Ryzen 5 2600 | |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB | |
| 16GB DDR4 | |
| 500GB SSD |
CyberpowerPC Gamer Supreme Liquid Cool PC
Last update on 2022-12-22.
Technical Details:
|
Intel Core i7-9700K |
|
|
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super 8GB |
|
|
16GB DDR4 |
|
|
1TB PCI-E NVMe SSD
|
OMEN by HP Obelisk Gaming Desktop Computer
Last update on 2022-12-22.
Technical Details:
| Intel Core i9-9900K | |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Super 8G | |
|
32GB DDR4 |
|
|
1TB PCI-E NVMe SSD |
CUK Stratos Micro Gaming PC
Last update on 2022-12-22.
Technical Details:
| Intel Core i9-9900K | |
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB | |
| 32GB DDR4 |
|
| 1TB PCI-E NVMe SSD Drive + 2TB 7200rpm HDD |
Gameplay Example:
With NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti & Intel Core i9-9900K