PC upgrade to play VR

[jurajs84]

Hi, I stopped playing DCS 5 years ago and now it's time to come back. I would like to upgrade my PC to play DCS in VR (QUEST 2).

My current PC: i5 2500K, GTX 1080Ti, 32GB DDR3 RAM.

DCS 2.7 runs pretty well on Full HD LCD (60FPS average) but I'm worried about gaming with Quest 2. My plan is to upgrade the CPU, MB and RAM.

My budget is limited so I'm considering the following hardware.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 or i3 12100F

RAM: 2x16 MB 3600 MHz DDR4

MB: CPU dependent.

It's mainly about the CPU choice. The intel i3 is better in single thread but the ryzen has more cores and is overall more powerful.

Is it enough for VR gaming or do I need more powerful hardware?

[EightyDuce]

Couple of suggestions. 

 

Instead of 5600, if you can stretch to a 5800X3D ($329) it will absolutely crush 5600 frametimes, especially in VR. 

As far as the GPU, I was playing on a 1080ti prior to breaking down my PC for an upgrade and with a HP Reverb G2 the VR experience was subpar at best. I had to turn most settings down to medium or lower (especially shadows) and it was still struggling to maintain 45fps for reprojection. Not sure what the resolution of the Quest 2 is but you may be able to get away with it, but in all honesty, I don't see it being enjoyable. Sadly, VR in this game is a fairly costly venture if you want 45+ fps and good visuals (especially in 2.8 update). I would seriously consider a GPU upgrade as well for VR and that will likely double your spending. One thing to consider is previous gen cards and used market. 

If you play multi-player you should seriously consider 64Gb of RAM. If you re on a tight budget or only play single player, 32 should be ok(ish). 

[Thinder]

15 hours ago, jurajs84 said:

Hi, I stopped playing DCS 5 years ago and now it's time to come back. I would like to upgrade my PC to play DCS in VR (QUEST 2).

My current PC: i5 2500K, GTX 1080Ti, 32GB DDR3 RAM.

DCS 2.7 runs pretty well on Full HD LCD (60FPS average) but I'm worried about gaming with Quest 2. My plan is to upgrade the CPU, MB and RAM.

My budget is limited so I'm considering the following hardware.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600 or i3 12100F

RAM: 2x16 MB 3600 MHz DDR4

MB: CPU dependent.

It's mainly about the CPU choice. The intel i3 is better in single thread but the ryzen has more cores and is overall more powerful.

Is it enough for VR gaming or do I need more powerful hardware?

The Ryzen 5 5600X is curently one of the best gaming CPUs in the market, a good bound for a 3080 Ti, but to take aadvantage of its design you'll better get a kit of RAM for the purpose, and there aren't that many. My suggestion since you want to play VR and get close to 4K is G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model F4-3200C14Q-32GTZR

That's the only combination which will let the CPU run at full capacity at 4K, any other RAM will keep a bottleneck that plays under load and results in the CPU throttling down, with this RAM I gained 6.04% at 4K compared to a Crucial Cl16 kit of the same frequency.

After that you can look for a 3080Ti second hand but you'll be better off taking good care of your RAM-CPU bounding or performances will be affected under load anyway.

The upper option for Ryzen gaming is the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 3D Cache Eight Core 4.5GHz  (Socket AM4) Processor, with the same RAM and pared with a 3080 Ti, it should give you decent results for a mid-range system, it clocks slighly slower but has tons of cache and that's how it makes the difference in gaming.

Edited November 9, 2022 by Thinder

[Funkysak]

Ibuypower & cyberpower pc are good places to start if shopping for a new PC. That said your 1080ti will run a quest 2 on dcs just fine. Using a quest 2 you will want to get "Neck Saver" so you can check six.