Best VR GPU in 2021

There are a host of different VR experiences available these days, from flimsy cardboard solutions to pairing with a mobile phone, to stand-alone headsets like the Oculus Quest, and it’s all at the top of the bunch. Your home, a high-end gaming PC paired with a high-end VR headset offers the greatest flexibility and renders these virtual worlds in the highest resolution.

For virtual reality, the more powerful your GPU, the better your experience. Usually, VR games don’t require your CPU and RAM more than traditional games; Any mid-range processor or better from the past few years should be more than capable of handling most VR games, and 8GB or 12GB of RAM will do the trick, too. But a lot of VR games will be more demanding on your GPU, so you’ll need to make sure your system has a capable GPU to ensure you’re getting all the right visual bells and whistles, and peak performance in that regard. for coherent frame rates. The integrated graphics won’t cut it.

For Valve’s Half-Life Alyx, the biggest VR game of 2020, the minimum system requirement is a 6GB variant of an Nvidia GTX 1060 or AMD RX 580, so if you’re looking for a new GPU specifically for VR, consider this is the line Your absolute foundation. If you’re interested in playing some of the more demanding VR games, like Boneworks, Elite Dangerous, and Skyrim VR, you might want to look at a more modern and powerful GPU, something around the GTX 2070 or RX 5700XT. Then if you really want to dial in the settings for maximum resolution and visual performance, you’ll want to lean more towards higher end cards, something like the GTX 2080 and later will be able to provide a great experience for all the VR games currently available, and many more to come.

Another feature offered by high-end RTX cards is that they come with USB-C ports that support VirtualLink, which can simplify wired connection with VR headsets, providing a single port to handle video, audio, data and power communication between your computer. and a headphone, rather than dealing with a variety of different cables and dongles. Reducing the number of wires attached to the headset really frees up movement and reduces the chance of wires getting tangled.