Budget system Vs Meta Quest 2?

[Bob Gnarley]

Hello all.

A friend has a Meta Quest 2 that he's been using on his Playstation.

He came in to some money and decided to get a pc, ordered a pre built with an Nvidia 1650 because it was advertised as "VR Ready!". Now that pile of poo has been returned I'm putting a budget system together but not being a VR user I have no idea about VR performance. Here are the specs...

Ryzen 5600
Radeon 6700xt
DDR4 3600 CL16

Is anybody using a similar set up? Obviously the 6700xt is no 4090 but will it be useable and acceptable?

Also, not sure about connections. The card has 1xHDMI, 3xdisplay port. Will this be ok? Edit: scratch that, usb-c or airlink.

Many thanks.

 

[pattikins]

You might find this review useful. The review, however, is based on the Valve Index which has a res. of 4.6 megapixels, in contrast to the Quest 2 @ 7 megapixels. Depending on the game, it might struggle without using reprojection/low resolution (fsr might help) settings.

 

[Bob Gnarley]

You might find this review useful. The review, however, is based on the Valve Index which has a res. of 4.6 megapixels, in contrast to the Quest 2 @ 7 megapixels. Depending on the game, it might struggle without using reprojection/low resolution (fsr might help) settings.

Thank you for the reply Pattikins, very helpful.

Dlss aside, the 6700xt either competes with or is ahead of the 3060Ti in those slides which is good news though, as you say, the higher resolution of his headset might hurt.

The 3060Ti might offer a better experience overall but that would be an extra £80 for the cheapest. The 6700xt is a steal at £369. He will have to make compromises but he wants a complete system for half the price of a decent 4090...

Useful stuff for tempering expectations. Cheers Sir!

 

[demetri]

Thank you for the reply Pattikins, very helpful.

Dlss aside, the 6700xt either competes with or is ahead of the 3060Ti in those slides which is good news though, as you say, the higher resolution of his headset might hurt.

The 3060Ti might offer a better experience overall but that would be an extra £80 for the cheapest. The 6700xt is a steal at £369. He will have to make compromises but he wants a complete system for half the price of a decent 4090...

Useful stuff for tempering expectations. Cheers Sir!

AMD GPUs in general suck in VR for whatever reason, stay away

 

[Bob Gnarley]

AMD GPUs in general suck in VR for whatever reason, stay away

Thanks man. I'm going to talk him out of it. It's becoming apparent that He'll need more horses.

He's also got a 1080 screen, so i'm going to suggest he blows the budget on AM5 and a cheap gpu he can use with the pancake for now, while he waits on his next tax rebate for a worthwhile/capable gpu.

All advice appreciated gents, would hate to waste someone else's cash.

 

[demetri]

Thanks man. I'm going to talk him out of it. It's becoming apparent that He'll need more horses.

He's also got a 1080 screen, so i'm going to suggest he blows the budget on AM5 and a cheap gpu he can use with the pancake for now, while he waits on his next tax rebate for a worthwhile/capable gpu.

All advice appreciated gents, would hate to waste someone else's cash.

Yeah, a brand new AM4 build makes very little sense, unless you're going with 5800X3D strictly for gaming

 

[Deleted member 1066209]

He's also got a 1080 screen, so i'm going to suggest he blows the budget on AM5 and a cheap gpu he can use with the pancake for now, while he waits on his next tax rebate for a worthwhile/capable gpu.

As a diehard VR racer, my driving skills completely fall apart when trying to play on a single-screen. It's so bad that I would rather take a break from sim racing, than to race without VR.

Ask your friend if VR is something he can live without. If he's like me, then maybe he'll need a better GPU.

I'd like to suggest a 1080Ti for a GPU. They're fairly inexpensive now, and I've had a great experience with mine. My Reverb G2 was powered by one, and although I had to adjust the supersampling down to 50%, Assetto Corsa had tolerable image quality at a constant 90fps/90Hz. I think the Quest 2 could run well with it, too.

Also, what games is your friend going to play?

 

[Bob Gnarley]

Thank you for the reply justwannadl.

From the review posted posted by Pattikins, if it were a G2 he would be probably be ok with the suggested build, but the Quest 2 being higher res will mean even greater visual compromises.

The upshot is that his £1000 budget isn't going to cut it no matter how many corners are cut. Coming from console He's expecting pc to be a "wow experience" and the only way he's going to get that is to either widen the budget or play the long game.

With the ever rising cost of decent hardware, a real friend would suggest he take a holiday or something and give pc hardware a wide berth...

He's got a wheel and has already forked out for F1'22 and a couple of other vr games, I guess the usual sims would be added to the list.

Cheers!

 

[pattikins]

The Reverb G2 has a higher resolution than the Q2. It's 9.3 megapixels. F1 would be unplayable @ that resolution with a 6700 XT or a 1080 ti. This is what I get with a 3060 ti & 5800X3D using a Samsung Odyssey+ headset at a much lower resolution:

Max. SteamVR SS during the session: 223%
Render resolution per eye: 2160x2704(by SteamVR settings, Max. during the session)
HMD driver recommended resolution (default for SteamVR at 100%): 1446x1808)

 

[RasmusP]

My quick 2 cents from the phone:

Here in Germany the prices are:
5600 non-x (slap some pbo on it with 2 clicks and it's a X)
DDR4 2x 8gb 3600cl16
Mobo

= 130€+55€+115€
= 300€

7600 + 2x 16gb (8gb doesn't make sense with a future prof platform since 4 sticks don't reach the higher speeds) + mobo:

= 236€ + 140€ + 190€
= 566€
Even with 2x 8GB it would be 490€.

Not worth the 20% better performance!

With a restricted budget it makes more sense to get the Amd 5600 build now and buy an am5 or Intel build in 4 years when it's as good value as the 5600 is now.

Put the 266€ into a better GPU!

My 2 cents about VR and amd gpu:

These are from ComputerBase. Great German site! The first rows are high settings, F1 2022 in VR and how much super sampling was doable for 90 fps.
You can see that the 3070ti allows for 33% higher super sampling.

Comparing this to pancake mode, 1080p Max details, no RT:

And in percent:

Sadly it's not the 3070ti but the ti is slightly better than the non-ti but clearly below the 3080 so probably about 110% of the 6800 non-xt on monitors.

Conclusion:
Yes, the amd gpu becomes weaker for vr in relation but depending on the prices, it might still be a better deal when comparing fps/€ while being a way better deal for monitor usage!

 

[Bob Gnarley]

Thanks again Pattikins.

My eyesight isn't great and i've never taken an interest in VR, don't want to push my luck, so i appreciate the help. I'm completely green. Looking at those render resolutions give me an idea of what he's up against.

And great post as always Rasmus!

That was the thinking, an am4 system leaves more for the gpu but if that level of gpu still couldn't pull the skin off of cold custard then it would be a waste.

At least by blowing the budget on am5 and waiting for a gpu he'll get that 5 year upgrade path which really adds value long term. Then maybe a second hand 3080Ti or better should knock it out of the park.

I'll give him a ring tonight to make sure he knows where he stands and understands the financial implications before proceeding. If i can't make him happy, i don't want to build it.

Thank you all for your contributions, you've possibly saved a random stranger from losing his money to a pile of . Good stuff!

 

[blekenbleu]

First generation HP Reverbs are less demanding than G2 on CPU and GPU.
Early first generation Reverbs had mura issues; later first generation are better.
I found the Samsung Odyssey HMD, while nice in other respects,
too low res, but a first generation Reverb can be driven by a GTX-1080Ti
satisfactorily for Assetto Corsa, but probably not ACC. They can be had for < US$150.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

First generation HP Reverbs are less demanding than G2 on CPU and GPU.

Pretty sure it was just a confusion created by the fact that G2 100% SS settings in SteamVR had 1.4x of native resolution, when with G1 and other older WMR headsets it was equal to native.

 

[blekenbleu]

1.4x of native resolution

My understanding was that oversampling accommodated greater G2 lens distortion.

 

[pattikins]

Thanks again Pattikins.

My eyesight isn't great and i've never taken an interest in VR, don't want to push my luck, so i appreciate the help. I'm completely green. Looking at those render resolutions give me an idea of what he's up against.

And great post as always Rasmus!

That was the thinking, an am4 system leaves more for the gpu but if that level of gpu still couldn't pull the skin off of cold custard then it would be a waste.

At least by blowing the budget on am5 and waiting for a gpu he'll get that 5 year upgrade path which really adds value long term. Then maybe a second hand 3080Ti or better should knock it out of the park.

I'll give him a ring tonight to make sure he knows where he stands and understands the financial implications before proceeding. If i can't make him happy, i don't want to build it.

Thank you all for your contributions, you've possibly saved a random stranger from losing his money to a pile of . Good stuff!

I don't know to much about the Quest 2 - mainly due to the Facebook connection I've avoided it. I do believe, however, that it can be run @ 72hz (as opposed to 90hz) which might put F1 22 within reach of a 3060 ti card (6700XT?).

F1 22 looks terrible compared to Assetto Corsa, Raceroom, rFactor2... & performs worse.

 

[Deleted member 197115]

My understanding was that oversampling accommodated greater G2 lens distortion.

Not really, they all need supersampling to retain center resolution after applying barrel distortion.
It was just to align with other non WMR headsets standards to make it look as good as they by default.

HTC Vive: 1.40x and 1.40x = 1512 x 1680 (2.540M)
LCD WMR: 1.11x and 1.11x = 1592 x 1592 (2.534M)
Samsung Odyssey/Odyssey+: 0.99x and 1.11x = 1424 x 1780 (2.534M)
Oculus Rift: 1.24x and 1.33x = 1344 x 1600 (2.150M)
Oculus S: 1.29x and 1.23x = 1648×1776 (2.927M)
HTC Vive Pro: 1.40x and 1.40x = 2016 x 2240 (4.515M)
Valve Index: 1.40x and 1.40x = 2016 x 2240 (4.515M)

I believe G1 had the same coefficient as Odyssey.