VR Ready Prebuilt Gaming PCs

Over recent years, the refinement of virtual reality has caused a massive surge of entry-level enthusiasts willing to buy VR headsets. Due to the advancements of modern-day GPUs, gamers and businesses alike can finally achieve a seamless VR-ready experience on prebuilt gaming PCs valued at around $1,500.

We will show you what to consider when shopping for a PC capable of running titles such as Half-Life Alyx, Superhot VR, BeatSaber, and others.

Minimum Requirements for VR

Before starting your search, consider the entry-level requirements of headsets like the Oculus Rift and Vive. Below is a chart provided by Oculus and HTC on the specifications for the requirements.

Oculus Rift Requirements

HTC Vive Requirements

Apex Gaming PC’s Recommendations

At Apex, we want to give you the best performance between you and your equipment. We have many VR-ready builds with the customization and upgrade in mind consisting of a budget, mid-tier, and high-end VR-ready PCs.

Apex Gold (Budget)

Our Apex Gold is an entry-level PC for the world of VR with older headsets such as the Oculus Rift and Vive. With this machine, you can expect to hit 80FPS on medium to low settings with slight dips depending on whether you get the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive. The 1660 super is a great card that still performs great with headsets like the Oculus Rift/Quest and the HTC Vive

PRICE FOR CONFIGURATION: $1,568.15

Apex Zen (Mid-tier)

An appealing feature about our Apex Zen series is its usability in many applications from the run of the mill video games to a VR ready experiences with only a few upgrades. This type of PC caters to the mid-tier of VR-ready builds containing the Ryzen 5 5600x and NVIDIAs RTX 3070 running the latest VR headsets such as the Valve Index, able to push higher framerates on medium to high settings

PRICE FOR CONFIGURATION: $2,967.51

Apex Extreme (High-End)

The Apex Xtreme is the flagship that breaks into the high tier of computer configurations for VR ready PCs. With options for custom liquid cooling and access to NVIDIA and their 3080 and 3090 variants. This is the best option for those wanting to spend $3,000+ on a high-tier VR gaming rig able to run the most demanding headsets to date and in the future.

PRICE FOR CONFIGURATION: $4,680

Breaking of Components in a VR ready PC

GPU

A GPU (graphics processing unit) is the most critical component in a VR oriented PC. To project video into the headset's lenses, imagine squeezing an entire 1920x1080p (or in some headsets, even more) resolution monitor into a 7 ½ by 4-inch space that you put on your head. Generating that much pixel density requires a dedicated GPU to produce this effect. When considering which GPU, we first have to see the specs of our selected headset.

Each headset has a specific output that it can manage. When looking at monitors, you may have seen advertisements referring to “60hz/144hz/165hz refresh rates.” Hz is an abbreviation for Hertz, which transitions into FPS (frames per second).

This applies to VR headsets all the same. Depending on the headset you want, the graphics card will offer a performance relevant to that headset’s maximum refresh rate. Let's look at the most popular headsets in the market and the amount of FPS you need to push these headsets to their limit.

You can check out benchmarks of the Nvidia GTX 1660 Super card and its performance against its counterpart, the AMD 590, both released as a price to performance card for the lower-spec VR capable builds.

The Valve Index and Oculus Quest are for more modern hardware than the 1660 Super and 590. A card in the RTX 20/30 series, such as the RTX 2080 or 3080, will have no problems hitting the higher refresh rates in most VR games.    

CPU

The 2nd most important component in a VR-based computer system is a good CPU that helps alleviate bottlenecks between itself and the GPU. While a GPU does the heavy lifting for producing images, a CPU can process many physical objects simulated in VR at varying interaction speeds.

The development of CPUs has come a long way since the dawn of VR gaming, allowing for the previous 3-4 generations of CPUs to run the newest VR titles. This means that Ryzen and Intel CPUs released in 2017 are still viable for modern VR games this year!       

Motherboard

An important factor in choosing a motherboard for VR gaming is the number of unused USB ports that come with the board and case.

According to Oculus, the Rift needs three USB 3.0 ports and one 2.0 port to operate its lighthouses and headset. Add whatever mouse and keyboard and other electronics you may plug into your pc, and you will find that USB space is a precious commodity when attempting VR gaming. Cheap solutions like USB 3 hubs and PCIe USB extensions can save you the headache of having to compromise USB space.

While this may be a problem for the original Rift, Competitors like the Valve Index and later variations of the Oculus only need one dedicated USB 3.0 to run. Overall depending on your headset, you should adjust your USB availability accordingly.

RAM

While not as pertinent for most games as the GPU and CPU, RAM follows suit with its ability to manage whatever demands the game throws at the system.

The recommended amount of RAM for a gaming system should be 16GB. There are instances of 8GB being somewhat acceptable at the cost of system stability and a poorer VR performance. RAM clocked at specific Mhz (MegaHertz) running in dual channel (i.e. two sticks of RAM in two slots on the motherboard) or quad-channel (four sticks of RAM on supported motherboards).  

Storage 

Storage is dependent entirely on your needs. While most VR titles in the past few years have come out of indie game studios pioneering the technology. Content and storage space were not imperative, as VR titles took up a few gigabytes in size.

However, with the advent of Triple-A titles done in VR, the storage requirement for these games has gone up tremendously. Below is a graph of the most popular indie and Triple-A VR titles. If you want to play those games, an extra SSD or hard drive couldn't hurt.

Power Supply

Power Supply Units (PSU’s) are essential for their prospect of supplying the system with the amount of electricity needed for the entire system under workloads and most importantly its peripherals. The general rule for picking power supplies for a system is to have an “overhead” in your watt requirement.

For example, if a system can run at 450Watts of power under workloads, it would be advantageous to invest in a 550 or 600 Watt power supply to spare for any unforeseen stresses. Because PSUs deliver their power to a system in a performance arc, a PSU between 45-55% load is the most optimal while not always necessary.

A sturdy PSU to base your system configuration will allow any peripherals you may use to operate. Stick to trusted brands and have a good reputation for building quality and customer assurance.

Apex uses EVGA, Cooler Master, Deep Cool, Antec, and Thermaltake Power supplies in our premade build configurations. These brands are our circle of brands that we trust to give the best performance to all components of your PC.

Conclusion

Configuring a PC capable of VR is no longer a pipe dream compared to the pioneering days of early VR system requirements. PCs with relatively lower specs in this market can still run with caveats like 8GB of RAM and graphics cards like the 1650/1660 super.

Apex Gaming removes the concern that your PC might not be VR-ready. Don't worry about dealing with scalpers or PC component shortages. As a system integrator, we do all the work for you ensuring your build comes ready to play your favorite VR titles.

Check out our selection of custom gaming PCs for options in VR-ready and other high-end builds.

Written by Will Wilson