Aapje

@Buzzer1977 I don't get your list of choices since the 7900 XTX is closer to a 4080 Super than a 4090. You probably feel the desire to stay with the top end because you have a 3090 now, but it makes much more sense to look at what actual performance (improvement) you get, as well as performance per dollar. For high end VR simming I would pay the premium for Nvidia, unless it is a big gap. Nvidia is better at driver support for VR and it's much easier to find advice, support and such in the simming community with Nvidia. Since you have a 3090, I would certainly wait for next gen, especially since there are pretty solid rumors that the next gen from AMD will improve on the fairly mediocre current gen quite a bit and will be a strong value play, where you will get a bit over 7900 XT performance for probably around $550, rather than the current $900. Even though AMD won't come out with a truly high end product, this should still put big price pressure on Nvidia's mid-range and to make their line-up work, they probably need to give us a significant bump for the same price across the line-up, except for the 5090, which I expect will be very expensive, hard to get, etc. Nvidia clearly learned this generation that the x090 buyers will pay a lot, but they have to provide proper value to the x080 buyers and below. Hence the price drop for the 4080 Super, while the 4090 remains very expensive. So unless you are willing to pretty much get ripped off to get the best of the best at the time with the 5090, I would loosely plan to get a 5080, although we'll only know the actual price, performance, value, etc when it is announced and reviewed. But of course that is just my reasoning and you have to make up your own mind.

He may have given up on us anyway.

@kksnowbear The issue is more that your screenshot shows only one drive, so if he has a classic setup of a SSD for Windows plus a HDD for gaming, or has another config with multiple drives, it would be hard to get him to make screenshots that show the info for all drives. He would have to know what he is looking at or would need extra instructions. My suggestion would require downloading a standalone exe, running it and making a screenshot. Easy and relatively foolproof.

Yes, I was wrong on that. However, if he has multiple drives, it is harder for him to show us the type/size/etc of the drives with those other tools than with HWInfo, which shows it all on the starting screens in one view.

@corbu1 Did you pay VAT/sales tax twice? The seller should have charged a zero rate VAT in the UK and then you would only have to pay the sales tax to customs: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-exports-dispatches-and-supplying-goods-abroad#vat-on-exports

Q: How much was it? A: Yes, much.

@Rayzer Although since you mentioned slow load times and given the age of your system, I'm wondering if you still have a HDD-drive. Unfortunately, CPU-Z doesn't show that, nor does System Information. Perhaps you can download and run this: https://www.hwinfo.com/download/ You can click the green button in the middle under Portable and then select a download location. Then unzip and run the downloaded software. It will show three panels with info, if you screenshot those, we will have a ton of useful info.

@Rayzer Did you build the PC yourself or was it done for you? This is an example of what you would have to do, although you'd have to remove the existing cooler and CPU first, which is pretty much doing the procedure in reverse first: Also, since you would reuse the existing cooler, you'd have to buy and apply a bit of thermal paste as well. That's pretty easy, you buy a tube and squirt some on the CPU, before installing the cooler. You can probably just leave the motherboard in the case, so you don't have to remove any of the cables, other than perhaps to temporarily remove the CPU fan cable (you'll put it back in the same connector when reinstalling). Upgrading the RAM and video card is also fairly easy if you follow a good guide. Of course, you wouldn't do all upgrades at once, but you do one at a time, then you test that it works correctly and then you do the other.

The BIOS is from 2018 and does not support the 5800X3D. He needs the 7B78v2I BIOS or newer, according to the compatibility list. It can be found here: https://www.msi.com/Motherboard/X470-GAMING-PRO-CARBON/support#bios

@Rayzer Please post a screenshot of the second tab as well (Mainboard) @kksnowbear People have tested it, including on this forum and the memory speed makes barely any difference for the 5800X3D:

Not the X3D processors. Those are the exception to the rule that Ryzen is more memory sensitive. The 2700X doesn't even support 3200 memory, so he almost certainly has slow memory. And I would get 32 GB right now for flight simming, especially since the cost is so low. But I'm waiting for the screenshots

Another option is just to go for a platform upgrade, which will provide more of an upgrade path for the future, but will cost more. I also don't know if the gentleman is comfortable with doing a full system build or has someone to do it for him.

My advice is just to toss out the old RAM and put in a new 32 GB kit for $53. The 5800X3D doesn't need any faster than DDR4-3200 and doesn't care much about timings. The question is more whether it is worth saving his motherboard.

How is that relevant for giving upgrade advice?

System Information shows that stuff as well. @Rayzer You can also post screenshots of either System Information or CPU-Z if you want even more detailed info, like what exact BIOS updates you need for an upgrade, or whether you have such a low budget motherboard that upgrading the entire thing may be better.

@Rayzer VR brings many challenges with it, including it being very demanding on hardware. And many people suffer from motion sickness, much more so than with TrackIR (many can resolve it by stopping when they get sick and slowly working up to tolerance). It can also be extremely fiddly. TrackIR typically gives much less issues with motion sickness, but it can still happen. It typically seems to resolve itself fairly quickly. Given that you seem to have given up after only 1 hour, I get the impression that you give up a bit too quickly if things don't work right away. You may want to first go back to TrackIR and give that some more chances. Like I said before, motion sickness is something most people can overcome, but it needs patience and not trying to force it. That said, your hardware is quite old and even for flat screen, some upgrades seem to be a good idea. That can also help with the motion sickness, as low framerates and stutter can make motion sickness much more likely & worse. You probably have a Ryzen 2700X. Check that to be sure in your System Information application. CPU-Z like the previous person mentioned also works well, but you can also just use the built-in application to check. If it is a 2700X, the good news is that you can get a huge boost for relatively little, by upgrading to a 5800X3D processor. Just be aware that you probably need to update your BIOS first for it to work. I would also upgrade to 32 GB DDR4 memory, which is quite cheap. Your video card is ten year old. If you stick with flat screen gaming, something like a 4070 or 4070 Super would be a huge improvement. But for VR, even a 4090 tends to leave something on the table, since VR is so demanding.

I would pick between these options: 4.) Get a 4080 Super right now and pass on the 3090 5.) Get a 5080 in November or so and pass on the 3090 The 5090 will probably be even more halo and even more expensive. And it will probably be scalped a lot.

Varjo pulled out of the consumer market, so no replacement is coming. And I would put the Quest 3 on your list as well. You can also consider temporarily getting a headset while waiting for the Crystal Super, and reselling it if you get that one (and are happy with it). The money you lose with the reselling probably isn't a bad deal for you if you consider it a rental fee and a price to pay to learn whether you'd be happy with the more expensive stuff. You're not guaranteed getting a headset without issues if you buy directly from a company either, especially Pimax with their infamous hardware quality control and software issues for any new headset. Ultimately, there is no perfect option. Any choice you make will involve compromises.

Carmack seems a ignore that a healthy marketplace has producer targeted different groups of consumers (like simmers), that Meta can't service on their own. His comment only makes sense if the Quest 3 would be enough for everyone. And I also disagree that the hardware is good enough. There is so much to improve on that front.

Not sure how you arrived at that, with the Crystal Super starting at $1799 and the Somnium VR1 at $1899. @Gun Jam Keep in mind that the VR flight sim guy from the video is not yet focusing on the negatives because the final version is not yet out. So I wouldn't conclude yet that it's better in every way.

Apparently, Google is going to announce their own platform, Android XR, at the Google I/O developer conference on the 14th of May. Samsung would bring out a headset with this OS. So this means that only does Eugel get other options than Meta, we are going to get a three-way fight, which is great for consumers.

The situation in smartphone-land is not that bad, with Google earning billions from Play Store sales, while consumers can easily switch between different hardware-brands, that all run Android. And you have Apple keeping Google honest and vice versa. Having something similar in VR-land would probably be better than the current situation, where Meta has a de facto monopoly, with all alternatives being extremely niche products and there being lots of walled gardens.

$300 for the base and it works with their old grips, but they'll bring out new ones as well. https://www.thrustmaster.com/en-us/products/ava-base/ And they also have a movie with how to change the base:

SadlyItsBradley thinks that this is because they fear Apple and want to build an alliance against them. The good news for PCVR users is that Meta doesn't really care about PCVR, so they have little incentive to ask a lot of licensing money from a niche vendor that targets weirdos like us.

For the Crystal Light, you may also be able to get away without controllers, if you just do simming with it. They will sell a version with local dimming, but no controllers.