[SOLVED] Which of these VR setups are superior and reasonable?

[Flave]

Hello Everyone,

I am looking to jump into VR with the upcoming Rift S and Rift Quest VR headsets.
However, I cannot carry my PC to a place-space I can play within. I have an RTX 2060 Zotac Mini without virtual-link, and a boot-camped MacBook Pro 2018.


I was thinking either one of these options:

Option 1: An eGPU enclosure (which I will have to spend another ~250CAD on) with an RTX 2060 connected, to a boot-camped Macbook. The Oculus Rift S will connect to the Display Ports on the RTX card, and to a USB 3.0 dongle to Thunderbolt on the MacBook Pro.

OR

Option 2: An Oculus Quest.


I do have a PC, but I am unable to use it with VR due to space. (I am at a boarding school) I will be able to return to a VR suited environment that my PC is in every 2 weekends, on other days, I will have to make do with option 1.

As of this point, I am leaning towards option 1, because as cluttery as it sounds, I have the Laptop, the GPU, and the power outlet. I only need a USB 3.0 to Thunderbolt dongle and an eGPU enclosure. I'm just scared that it won't work, (because either the MacBook won't have enough cooling for the processor, the reduction in performance of an eGPU and entry-level CPU will be hardly playable with, or something won't be compatible with the setup of an eGPU with VR on a BootCamped MacBook...)

Which setup would you go with? And is it even worth option 1 for the (possible) reductions in performance, clutter, and extra money?

Thanks,
Flave

 

[cryoburner]

Neither device is out yet, so it's kind of difficult to recommend going with one or the other at this point. It's even possible that some other headset might be a better option, like one of the Windows "Mixed Reality" VR Headsets, or maybe the Valve Index, which should be revealed in May, though not too much is known about that headset yet.

A 2060 would certainly be able to push much better visuals than the high-end smartphone class 3D hardware in the Oculus Quest though. And of course, while there will be some overlap in their game libraries, it's unlikely that the Quest will be able to run PC VR games. Many will likely get ported to the quest, but the game library might be a lot smaller at launch.

I have no idea if your Macbook would have the CPU performance to run VR smoothly though. Do you know what model of Macbook it is, and what hardware it has?

 

[Flave]

Neither device is out yet, so it's kind of difficult to recommend going with one or the other at this point. It's even possible that some other headset might be a better option, like one of the Windows "Mixed Reality" VR Headsets, or maybe the Valve Index, which should be revealed in May, though not too much is known about that headset yet.

A 2060 would certainly be able to push much better visuals than the high-end smartphone class 3D hardware in the Oculus Quest though. And of course, while there will be some overlap in their game libraries, it's unlikely that the Quest will be able to run PC VR games. Many will likely get ported to the quest, but the game library might be a lot smaller at launch.

I have no idea if your Macbook would have the CPU performance to run VR smoothly though. Do you know what model of Macbook it is, and what hardware it has?

Hi CryoBurner

Thanks for taking the time to reply.
I am using on my MacBook:

8GB RAM with an i5 8259U Quad-Core 3.8GHz Boost Speed. I'm not sure if it will thermal throttle though, although most likely..

The model is a 13-inch w/ touch bar 2018. It has 4 thunderbolt 3 ports.

Would I need to take the back cover off the MacBook? I am happy with applying a better thermal paste if it needs, but I'm concerned that it's the fans that cannot move heat fast enough regardless. If possible, would there be an application that manually sets fan speed on windows boot-camp? that may help temps even if it ends up sounding like a jet.

Then again... Higher resolutions tend to strain the CPU less, but if it does end up throttling, it'll be catastrophic.

 

[cryoburner]

That's a reasonably fast processor, actually. I've heard of Macbooks throttling, though I think that may be more of a problem with the higher core-count versions, and in sustained loads that utilize all available threads. Most games won't tend to fully utilize all cores, so throttling in games might not be as much of a problem. My best guess would be that such a setup could handle VR pretty well, but I'm not all that familiar with the details of running that kind of setup on a Macbook.

 

[Flave]

That's a reasonably fast processor, actually. I've heard of Macbooks throttling, though I think that may be more of a problem with the higher core-count versions, and in sustained loads that utilize all available threads. Most games won't tend to fully utilize all cores, so throttling in games might not be as much of a problem. My best guess would be that such a setup could handle VR pretty well, but I'm not all that familiar with the details of running that kind of setup on a Macbook.

Thank you CryoBurner,

I'll take the risk and go with option 1.
I will update this thread with temperatures and compatibility once I have the setup working.

Thanks,
Flave

 

[Webmetalreese]

If you ever have any doubt plan on the quest because none of that will matter. From what I've seen in the videos - the gameplay looks to be about the same as the rift CV1.

 

[jet_lam]

hi , i also have the macbook pro 2018 13 with 8259U and gaming box gtx1070. I am really curious about the result with option 1.Does it work well finally? Hope for reply.