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Forums - PC - Need help building a PC for the HTC Vive

hershel_layton on 26 March 2016
fatslob-:O said:
hershel_layton said:

Yikes, VR does require a decent amount of power...

I wonder when computers will slowly be more accessible to VR. This can be VERY useful, especially in the medical world. Schools can take advantage and allow people to learn hands-on like never before

It doesn't have to, VR games can be designed around lower spec hardware ... 

Oculus's recommendation is based around playing the most technically demanding AAA games in VR which can be had for a price of around a price of $800-1000 worth of hardware ...

Ah, makes sense.


Disappointing when I heard their comments on the Mac. Apparently the top-of-the-line Mac Pro(costs 5000) isn't powerful enough for their recommendations.

 

Saying this though, I really hope VR is successful. I was disappointed when Nintendo's quality of Life didn't work out, so I'm hoping this goes well.



 

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12/22/2016- Made a bet with Ganoncrotch that the first 6 months of 2017 will be worse than 2016. A poll will be made to determine the winner. Loser has to take a picture of them imitating their profile picture.

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fatslob-:O on 26 March 2016
hershel_layton said:

Ah, makes sense.


Disappointing when I heard their comments on the Mac. Apparently the top-of-the-line Mac Pro(costs 5000) isn't powerful enough for their recommendations.

 

Saying this though, I really hope VR is successful. I was disappointed when Nintendo's quality of Life didn't work out, so I'm hoping this goes well.

Can't exactly rag on their comments for Mac but not powerful enough is stretching it a bit ... 

I sympathize with the VR developers that have to deal with the piece of shit graphics drivers that Apple refuses to update ...



snyps on 26 March 2016
AnthonyW86 said:
Personally i would only upgrade your videocard first and see how the experience is with that. Maybe a used 290 is a good affordable option? Depending on the gaming cpu doesn't always make that much of a difference, the gpu just has a much bigger impact especially when it comes to something as heavy as VR. The minimum frame rate is very important however with VR, so if you end up experiencing significant frame drops with your current cpu it might be worth it to upgrade the rest of your system.

Thanks I will keep that in mind. I'm not ever too picky about frame rate drops (love my 3rd party Wii U games lol). I overclocked my cpu tonight which is definitely going to help. Hoping with a great card like the 390x the drops will be insignificant (for my standard). I'll probably need to upgrade the cpu by the end of the year still.



Pemalite on 26 March 2016
fatslob-:O said:
hershel_layton said:

Ah, makes sense.


Disappointing when I heard their comments on the Mac. Apparently the top-of-the-line Mac Pro(costs 5000) isn't powerful enough for their recommendations.

 

Saying this though, I really hope VR is successful. I was disappointed when Nintendo's quality of Life didn't work out, so I'm hoping this goes well.

Can't exactly rag on their comments for Mac but not powerful enough is stretching it a bit ... 

I sympathize with the VR developers that have to deal with the piece of shit graphics drivers that Apple refuses to update ...

Mac's typically don't have class-leading graphics performance.
I.E.  Their most powerful GPU in the Mac Pro is a M395X. - Which is roughly equivalent to the desktop Radeon R9 380X/280X/7970 GPU's.
But that is for their $5000 beast, the majority of Mac's have Integrated Intel graphics... Like the PC.
The difference between the PC and Mac is... Whilst 10% of Mac users might be conuted in hundreds of thousands... On the PC it is counted in the 10's of millions with high-end graphics.

So they aren't wrong in their claim that the Mac isn't powerful enough, you would think Apple would get serious about GPU's by now considering more games are starting to support it.


snyps said:

Well I overclocked my CPU from 3.5 to 3.84 by adjusting the FSB upto 240 and the CPU down to 16. I left CPU voltage on auto. I re-ran SteamVR performance test and was upgraded from  "capable" to "ready".  My phenom II 970 is green lit! I'm replacing the 5870 with a 390x as soon as I find a low price. I'm already bidding on ebay. Thanks everyone for letting me know about Polaris and back-to-school timing. I should hopefully get what I need by then. How much do you think 390x will cost when polaris launches?

Wish to overclock the old Phenom? Leave the FSB on stock. :P
Phenom 2's will typically handle 1.40 - 1.48v just fine without any adverse affects. (Just make sure you aren't using the stock cooler, get a Coolermaster 212 at a minimum.)
With that voltage you should be able to hit 4ghz.

However, we still aren't talking Skylake performance here, the Phenom 2 was competitive with Core 2 Quad/Nahelem, it is still no match for Skylake, regardless of clock.
With that said... You can boost your IPC by up-to 15% by pushing your NB clock to 3ghz, which will make it very competitive with Nahelem, does require a bit of volts, which results in a bit of heat though. - Also turn off Cool 'N Quiet if you intend to overclock.

You could try finding a cheap Thuban to replace your 970 too. Something like the x6 1090T/1100T, they also overclock like a champ, but to me you are just spending money on a stop gap, you will have to upgrade your CPU eventually.

As for the 390X price when Polaris launches... Unfortunately I can't predict such a thing. :P Seems to change every release.

Thought about Crossfire? Your motherboard supports it. And could be a big boon to VR once AMD and nVidia sort their VR-ready drivers out. (A GPU for each eye.)




www.youtube.com/@Pemalite

fatslob-:O on 26 March 2016
Pemalite said:

Mac's typically don't have class-leading graphics performance.
I.E.  Their most powerful GPU in the Mac Pro is a M395X. - Which is roughly equivalent to the desktop Radeon R9 380X/280X/7970 GPU's.
But that is for their $5000 beast, the majority of Mac's have Integrated Intel graphics... Like the PC.
The difference between the PC and Mac is... Whilst 10% of Mac users might be conuted in hundreds of thousands... On the PC it is counted in the 10's of millions with high-end graphics.

So they aren't wrong in their claim that the Mac isn't powerful enough, you would think Apple would get serious about GPU's by now considering more games are starting to support it.

Their most powerful Mac can have TWO AMD Radeon FirePro D700 (optional) so there's at least one SKU that has enough GPU power for VR ... 

Single GPU wise, their right but in the case of dual GPUs their statement can't be justified. I dislike Apple but even I can give their dues ...

More games are starting to support Mac now ? I thought that supporting Mac was more popular almost a decade ago ... 

Apple honestly has no reason to get serious about GPU support and it's become really apparent as they are STILL stuck on OpenGL 4.1 while BOTH AMD AND NVIDIA have drivers for OpenGL 4.5 along with Vulkan! Metal ISN'T EVEN FEATURE COMPLETE as it lacks GEOMETRY SHADER AND HARDWARE ACCELERATED TESSELLATION whereas Microsoft and the IHVs (AMD/Intel/Nvidia) are going to be exploring new limits with Shader Model 6 and new HLSL extensions! 

It's bad enough that Apple has bad value when it comes to desktops but their software support is sad to say the least ... 



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Baryonyx on 26 March 2016

Gtx 980ti (SLI optional)
Intel i7 4970k

It's more then enough for a decent VR experience.



 

PSN: Opticstrike90
Steam: opticstrike90

Pemalite on 26 March 2016
fatslob-:O said:
Pemalite said:

Mac's typically don't have class-leading graphics performance.
I.E.  Their most powerful GPU in the Mac Pro is a M395X. - Which is roughly equivalent to the desktop Radeon R9 380X/280X/7970 GPU's.
But that is for their $5000 beast, the majority of Mac's have Integrated Intel graphics... Like the PC.
The difference between the PC and Mac is... Whilst 10% of Mac users might be conuted in hundreds of thousands... On the PC it is counted in the 10's of millions with high-end graphics.

So they aren't wrong in their claim that the Mac isn't powerful enough, you would think Apple would get serious about GPU's by now considering more games are starting to support it.

Their most powerful Mac can have TWO AMD Radeon FirePro D700 (optional) so there's at least one SKU that has enough GPU power for VR ... 

Single GPU wise, their right but in the case of dual GPUs their statement can't be justified. I dislike Apple but even I can give their dues ...

More games are starting to support Mac now ? I thought that supporting Mac was more popular almost a decade ago ... 

Apple honestly has no reason to get serious about GPU support and it's become really apparent as they are STILL stuck on OpenGL 4.1 while BOTH AMD AND NVIDIA have drivers for OpenGL 4.5 along with Vulkan! Metal ISN'T EVEN FEATURE COMPLETE as it lacks GEOMETRY SHADER AND HARDWARE ACCELERATED TESSELLATION whereas Microsoft and the IHVs (AMD/Intel/Nvidia) are going to be exploring new limits with Shader Model 6 and new HLSL extensions! 

It's bad enough that Apple has bad value when it comes to desktops but their software support is sad to say the least ... 

AMD "fire" cards aren't geared for gaming though as the drivers sacrifice performance for quality and professional uses thanks to the focus being on things like CAD.
Dual FirePro D700 would be in only a tiny tiny tiny percentage of an already tiny percentage who opt for a high-end mac.

However... The FirePro D700 is Taihiti based, rebadged FirePro W9000, released 4 years ago.
Aka. A "professional" Radeon 7970, it's performance will be lower in gaming scenario's.
It would likely handle VR just fine... BUT. The amount of machines equipped with that hardware would be inconsiquentual, probably loose money for VR devs to bother with.

Anyway. AMD doesn't have VR compatible drivers... Yet. And Apple lags behind AMD's current driver sets anyway, by months if not more... So Dual GPU's are useless. (Windows will of course support it before release via Beta, who knows with Apple... You get what you pay for. Oh wait.)




www.youtube.com/@Pemalite

fatslob-:O on 26 March 2016
Pemalite said:

AMD "fire" cards aren't geared for gaming though as the drivers sacrifice performance for quality and professional uses thanks to the focus being on things like CAD.
Dual FirePro D700 would be in only a tiny tiny tiny percentage of an already tiny percentage who opt for a high-end mac.

However... The FirePro D700 is Taihiti based, rebadged FirePro W9000, released 4 years ago.
Aka. A "professional" Radeon 7970, it's performance will be lower in gaming scenario's.
It would likely handle VR just fine... BUT. The amount of machines equipped with that hardware would be inconsiquentual, probably loose money for VR devs to bother with.

Anyway. AMD doesn't have VR compatible drivers... Yet. And Apple lags behind AMD's current driver sets anyway, by months if not more... So Dual GPU's are useless. (Windows will of course support it before release via Beta, who knows with Apple... You get what you pay for. Oh wait.)

I'd say the FirePro cards being clocked lower is the main culprit but regardless no matter how little amount of Mac users are equipped to handle VR, Palmer can't take away the fact that some of them have potential to do VR ...

AMD already has VR compatible drivers and Apple does lag in drivers but even more so when it comes to standards! 



snyps on 26 March 2016
Pemalite said:

 

Wish to overclock the old Phenom? Leave the FSB on stock. :P
Phenom 2's will typically handle 1.40 - 1.48v just fine without any adverse affects. (Just make sure you aren't using the stock cooler, get a Coolermaster 212 at a minimum.)
With that voltage you should be able to hit 4ghz.

However, we still aren't talking Skylake performance here, the Phenom 2 was competitive with Core 2 Quad/Nahelem, it is still no match for Skylake, regardless of clock.
With that said... You can boost your IPC by up-to 15% by pushing your NB clock to 3ghz, which will make it very competitive with Nahelem, does require a bit of volts, which results in a bit of heat though. - Also turn off Cool 'N Quiet if you intend to overclock.

You could try finding a cheap Thuban to replace your 970 too. Something like the x6 1090T/1100T, they also overclock like a champ, but to me you are just spending money on a stop gap, you will have to upgrade your CPU eventually.

As for the 390X price when Polaris launches... Unfortunately I can't predict such a thing. :P Seems to change every release.

Thought about Crossfire? Your motherboard supports it. And could be a big boon to VR once AMD and nVidia sort their VR-ready drivers out. (A GPU for each eye.)

 

I'm going to up the multipliers on CPU and NB as well as voltages maybe tonight. I'll turn off Cool'N'Quiet, Thanks for letting me know. I have a zalman cpu fan. Temp idles in the 30s never get's above 50 atm.

 

I haven't put thought into crossfire. Would my 650 PSU handle two cards? I think crossfiring would be more power with less gain. But I'm rusty on thetopic. What cards do you recommend I crossfire?



Pemalite on 27 March 2016
snyps said:
Pemalite said:

 

Wish to overclock the old Phenom? Leave the FSB on stock. :P
Phenom 2's will typically handle 1.40 - 1.48v just fine without any adverse affects. (Just make sure you aren't using the stock cooler, get a Coolermaster 212 at a minimum.)
With that voltage you should be able to hit 4ghz.

However, we still aren't talking Skylake performance here, the Phenom 2 was competitive with Core 2 Quad/Nahelem, it is still no match for Skylake, regardless of clock.
With that said... You can boost your IPC by up-to 15% by pushing your NB clock to 3ghz, which will make it very competitive with Nahelem, does require a bit of volts, which results in a bit of heat though. - Also turn off Cool 'N Quiet if you intend to overclock.

You could try finding a cheap Thuban to replace your 970 too. Something like the x6 1090T/1100T, they also overclock like a champ, but to me you are just spending money on a stop gap, you will have to upgrade your CPU eventually.

As for the 390X price when Polaris launches... Unfortunately I can't predict such a thing. :P Seems to change every release.

Thought about Crossfire? Your motherboard supports it. And could be a big boon to VR once AMD and nVidia sort their VR-ready drivers out. (A GPU for each eye.)

 

I'm going to up the multipliers on CPU and NB as well as voltages maybe tonight. I'll turn off Cool'N'Quiet, Thanks for letting me know. I have a zalman cpu fan. Temp idles in the 30s never get's above 50 atm.

 

I haven't put thought into crossfire. Would my 650 PSU handle two cards? I think crossfiring would be more power with less gain. But I'm rusty on thetopic. What cards do you recommend I crossfire?

Remember that AMD CPU's have a bug which means temperatures are incorrectly reported. Add an extra 13'C.
AMD also recommends never to exceed 65'C.

As for your PSU... Well. You could handle dual mid-range cards, but not high-end, you would want an 850w PSU minimum to keep things happy.
I would personally opt for dual Radeon 390 8Gb cards... But even dual 380 4gb cards would give a better VR experience (Once drivers are out) than a single 390X I would imagine.




www.youtube.com/@Pemalite