Are eGPUs the solution for portable VR?

[badbadbad]

So Oculus just announced it's Optimal Specs for running the rift today.

For the full Rift experience, we recommend the following system:

• NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater
  
• Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
  
• 8GB+ RAM
  
• Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
  
• 2x USB 3.0 ports
  
• Windows 7 SP1 or newer
  

I'm not an expert with hardware, but given that we have a decent Quadcore CPU, would notebooks running GTX970 eGPUs be ready for VR? Or will the bandwidth bottleneck take a huge hit in performance and render an unacceptable VR experience?

Thoughts anyone? Especially to those with a rift developer kit.

[Tech Inferno Fan]

So Oculus just announced it's Optimal Specs for running the rift today.

I'm not an expert with hardware, but given that we have a decent Quadcore CPU, would notebooks running GTX970 eGPUs be ready for VR? Or will the bandwidth bottleneck take a huge hit in performance and render an unacceptable VR experience?

Thoughts anyone? Especially to those with a rift developer kit.

Some good discussion over at https://forums.oculus.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=17349 which links to External GPU - V²C - ViDock - V²Collaboration :: Topics in Use Cases (1/1) . Though that user Paul foolishly chose to connect his 10Gbps-TB1 2012 15" Macbook GT650M to a expresscard 4Gbps-EC2 ViDock enclosure (using Sonnet Echo Expresscard adapter -> 10Gbps-TB1 to 4GBps-EC2). It cost him more and he got 2.5 less bandwidth than a native AKiTiO Thunder2 enclosure would have. REF: http://forum.techinferno.com/enclosures-adapters/7939-rip-off-alert-thunderbolt-vidock-bizonbox-crippled-tb-ec-4gbps-units.html

[Dschijn]

eGPUs will works. But keep in mind that you need raw GPU power to achieve good VR performance. Maybe GTX 980 and the upcoming GTX 980Ti are better for VR and eGPUs.

[badbadbad]

Thank you for the reference @Tech Inferno Fan. And yes @Dschjin, I might just wait for the Pascal cards to launch.

Just asking cause I don't know if the bandwidth bottleneck (for x1.2, x2.2, TB1, TB2) would be the main issue here, compared to the raw processing power of the GPU.

[Dschijn]

Please check this: http://forum.techinferno.com/diy-e-gpu-projects/8170-gtx980-pcie-bandwidth-scaling-inc-x4-1-1-~tb1-x4-2-0-tb2.html#post111415

There you can see how much the high resolution will effect it.

[nospam]

I'm also interested in more details about eGPU's for the Oculus. We got a kit here at work about 6 months ago, but it's kinda been sitting on the shelf since then. Just haven't had much time to play with it, but we're getting ready to put together a new PC to run it again. I would love to know if anyone here as much experience with it.

[bryandb]

Hello all,

 

I currently have a GTX 970 eGPU attached to my Asus ROG g551j laptop.

 

I have run the VR ready app on steam and it says that my pc is VR ready.

 

However, it is an eGPU.. so would the HTC / Oculus actually work with it?

 

Could i get a stable 60 FPS ??

Has anyone tried it already?

 

Thank you in advance,

 

Bryan

Edited July 29, 2016 by bryandb