Will Athlon x4 760k + Gtx 1060 Work for VR?

[Myeditha]

Hi guys,

I recently upgraded my GPu to a GTX 1060 and am looking into VR.
The Oculus website says that the minimum CPU is an i5-4950, but I was wondering if I could get away with using an Athlon x4 760k in conjunction with a GTX 1060
(Yes, I know that the 760k will bottleneck the 1060 but I want to upgrade to intel later on)

Thank you

 

[Sakkura]

Actually the new minimum requirement is an FX-4350 or Core i3-6100. The 760K uses the same CPU architecture as the FX-4350, it's just clocked slightly lower and lacks L3 cache. If you overclock it, it should definitely be able to match the 4350 and thus be good enough for a passable experience.

In the long run an upgrade would be worth it, but it's not strictly necessary.

 

[Myeditha]

Actually the new minimum requirement is an FX-4350 or Core i3-6100. The 760K uses the same CPU architecture as the FX-4350, it's just clocked slightly lower and lacks L3 cache. If you overclock it, it should definitely be able to match the 4350 and thus be good enough for a passable experience.

In the long run an upgrade would be worth it, but it's not strictly necessary.

Thank You! I actually just ordered an H60 AIO water cooler for overclocking a few days ago, so I will definitely look into it!

 

[amtseung]

As a former 760k owner, I'll tell you right now, you probably will not see the gains you were hoping for by overclocking. I honestly doubt very many 760k's in existence could run the gauntlet I put mine through (1.65V at 4.9-and-a-bit ghz with an H100i strapped to it, pegging itself at 80C under load, every day, for over a year), and the overclock got me about 10fps in the best case scenario, and lost me about 10fps in the worst case scenario. The subsequent upgrade to my current i5 resulted in a nearly threefold increase in framerates across the board, from synthetic benchmarks to every game I play. This is, of course, assuming my observations are skewed by the fact that the vast majority of games I play are heavily CPU bound (BnS, Planetside 2, animation and particles-heavy Skyrim mods, formerly TERA and Firefall and PSO2). Lack of L3 cache and a complete lack of truly overclocking-friendly FM2/+ motherboards makes this endeavor rather futile. Despite what it seems on the surface, the i3-6100 is superior to the FX-8350 in terms of gaming performance, let alone the FX-4350 or the 760k.

In short: Can you run VR on an Athlon 760k at an assumed 4.9ghz? Yes, of course, provided you have all the physical ports to plug your headset into, the headset itself, and the games to play. Will it be enjoyable? Ehhh........ No.

 

[Sakkura]

Most VR games are not that demanding on the CPU (especially with ASW).

Getting less performance with an overclock is not normal and likely indicates an unstable overclock. Also 1.65V is pretty heavy.

4.9 GHz is not necessary for a 760K to match an FX-4350, a more reasonable OC would be enough.