Best Upgrade(s) for VR on my System?

newbert · Dec 15, 2018

I've just gotten into racing in VR (Lenovo Explorer WMR headset) and would like to maximize the VR experience now. FWIW - I have most of the popular sims (iRacing, AC, RRE3, PC2, rF2 etc.)

My current videocard is the NVidea GTX 1060 (3 Gigs) and the CPU is an i5-7400 with 8Gigs Ram, running Windows 10.

Between videocard, CPU and Ram, which would you upgrade to make the biggest improvement in VR? I already have suggestions on what to upgrade to CPU-wise, but which compatible videocard would make the biggest improvement in VR performance?

Looking for something to just swap out without having to replace the motherboard.

FWIW - My system is here.

Thanks!

Jeremy Ford · Dec 15, 2018

It looks like you've identified the CPU is a weak component in your build currently for VR. So if you upgrade the GPU without looking at a CPU upgrade, a faster GPU will be bottlenecked by the i5-7400 CPU so you won't get the full potential from a GPU upgrade.

Really a CPU, GPU and another 8gb of memory would be the right direction if you want decent performance in VR. For a GPU I like the look of the GTX 1070ti as a baseline GPU for VR sim racing. But with VR, more power is better, it scales significantly with VR sim racing. Down to budget in the end.

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Durge Driven · Dec 15, 2018

I interested too, may buy next year

Would be nice if RD could do polls for each sim on VR

That way you get pertinent info in each thread

Durge Driven · Dec 15, 2018

Did the free one on my dead stock hardware not below 90fps ? must be lightweight test ?
If I am very high whats a RTX .............. supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Jordan Dion · Dec 16, 2018

Guys if i can help someone... Dont lose your time whit something under 1080ti... Whit minimum 16gb of ram and 6700k for VR for a 90 fps experience. If you want smooth experience and want to see something...
I recommend ssd M2 to ;-)

Bjarne Hansen · Dec 16, 2018

I do not agree with minimum 1080ti.
The first couple of years I used a GTX 970 and while it is borderline for VR is works.
I have recently upgraded to a RTX 2070 which is closer to a gtx 1080 that to the 'ti' version
Got a Lenovo WMR which got very good motion re projection software.
In AC I can up the settings some and do SS 2.0 so it looks a little better but not a huge difference.

RF2 Since my preferred cars and mods are fairly light like the the main difference has been I can now race in all kind of weather and I can try the more resource hungry mods/ cars/ tracks in VR.
I do not have the GT3 DLC but understand they really benefits from a strong Gpu.

PC2 benefited maybe most as it clearly looks much better on high settings special with textures.
Unfortunately just like with AC it doesn't really improve the Sim experience.

I enjoy Vorpx too and that is day and night everything runs smooth and are a joy to use.
People with gtx 1070 have no issues ether.

Do not have ACC, my neighbor got it and I see not reason to buy into it in the current state.
I see on the forum people complain they can't run it on their RTX 2080 ti in VR.
My neighbor got a gtx 1080 and it find it runs fine. It just doesn't look great but I doubt it is the Gpu.

My CPU are a i7 7700K
In all the sims I have tried with the exception of X-Plane 11, my limitation is the CPU!
The main issue with the GTX 970 was the frametime. It was very inconsistent something that is not an issue on the gtx 10XX series.
I think that a few hours spend on finding the best settings for you and your Gpu will benefit you more than rushing out and buy the strongest Gpu on the market.

Terry Rock · Dec 16, 2018

The GTX1070 is the first card I employed for VR and despite all the opinions, it worked fantastic.
It was fast, smooth and it did everything I asked of it...even in an early and not-close-to fully optimized ACC.
Some guys tend to 'struggle' more than others with hardware.
I was running every single sim I own up until two weeks ago, with a slightly over-clocked I7-3820.
The only reason I even built anything new, was because I wanted to try one of the new Ryzens and Amazon on B/F saw a 'stonkin' deal on one.
To OP... get 8 GB more RAM, a good inexpensive cooler (i.e...H212, Gamaxx400)...no more than $25-30, bump the core clock to 3.8 or 4.0 and get a GTX1070.
Look at optimizing the harddrives to use the fastest controllers on whatever board you currently have and enjoy your gaming.

RasmusP · Dec 16, 2018

If you want smooth fps without reprojection kicking in its cpu, cpu and cpu for VR!
You can lower graphic settings until it looks like crap and run 90 fps on 970 but for cpu performance you have some more or less related cpu settings like reflections in assetto corsa but it's really limited what you can adjust there.
VR puts some cpu load on top. You really want to go with 6 thread and more but the main thing is single thread performance!
The currently best bang for the buck for simracing (and especially combined with VR) are the i7 8700k and the i5 9600k. Gaming performance is basically the same but if you do some rendering or similar the 12 threads due to hyperthreading do make a significant difference! Sadly here in Germany the 8700k costs 2x-3x what it did last year now.
The best cpu would be the i7 9700k. Two real cores give a significant boost even with games that barely use multi threading (like all current racing sims...). But the price/performance ratio is wayyyy worse compared to the i5 9600k.

So grab one of these Intel CPUs or wait for AMD ryzen 3 next year! (amd is great for basically everything but high fps in barely multi threading games like racing sims)

And when you want more eye candy you grab a 2080 or AMDs next gen gpu some when in 2019/20

And get some 2x 8gb ram for proper dual channeling when you upgrade

Bjarne Hansen · Dec 17, 2018

RasmusP said:
If you want smooth fps without reprojection kicking in its cpu, cpu and cpu for VR!

Weak Cpu does not give you re-projection! It gives stutter but it is only when the Gpu can't make next frame ready in time that you get re-projection.
But I assume that was what you meant anyway?

By the way there is nothing wrong with re-projection. Special not on WMR! I set the graphics so that I get 10-20% time with re-projection. Often when I pass the garages.
Only really notice it due to the indicator turn from green to dark blue.

Deleted member 197115 · Dec 17, 2018

CPU can bottleneck just as well as GPU. More often in fact as most engines use single thread for rendering with load doubled in VR, 2 screens and 90 fps requirements.
https://medium.com/@toncijukic/draw-calls-in-a-nutshell-597330a85381

RasmusP · Dec 18, 2018

Bjarne Hansen said:
Weak Cpu does not give you re-projection! It gives stutter but it is only when the Gpu can't make next frame ready in time that you get re-projection.
But I assume that was what you meant anyway?

By the way there is nothing wrong with re-projection. Special not on WMR! I set the graphics so that I get 10-20% time with re-projection. Often when I pass the garages.
Only really notice it due to the indicator turn from green to dark blue.

Ermh... Could you link me a source of this?
From what I know it doesn't matter what part of your pc is causing a longer frame-to-frame time but if it takes longer than the refresh rate's frame-to-frame time it will trigger reprojection.
With frame-to-frame time I mean 16.666ms for "60 fps". But since even one frame lagging behind is causing a stutter/lag/whatever you call it, I like to clarify this.
The moment you refresh your fps counter more often than once a second the "fps" are either estimated fps or the frametimes just being transformed into the "fps equivalent".