Chet Faliszek (Half-Life, Portal, Left 4 Dead) says VR to bring resurgence of high-end PCs in homes

[JEMC]

jangelelcangry said:
I don't know about vr future. But also, I don't understand how a $400 console can run vr and a $1k PC is not enough for vr. Can someone explain me that?

Well, to start with a $1k PC can play VR games. The min requirements for the Oculust Rift asks for a quad core CPU and a GTX 970 or an R9 290, and you can get that with less than $1k. And that PC will be able to run the VR games by itself.

And then there's the fact that the PS4 can't run VR games. It needs an aditional addon in the shape of the "external processing unit" that among other things will double the frames per second that the PS4 is capable to make (so its gets the frames 1 & 2 and creates and aditional frame between them) because the PS4 isn't able to run VR games at the needed frames per second to create the needed immersion and avoid nauseas.

So we're talking about a $900 PC + VR (headset) versus $350 PS4 + VR (headset + external processing unit). And that is today, by next X-mas the PS4 will probably be $300 but a VR capable PC will be around the $700 mark.

Don't get me wrong, the PS4 + VR combo will still be cheaper, but not by the margin you imply in your post.