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Comment by davnicwil | Hacker News Reader

Assuming I'm starting from scratch, what's the minimum cost these days to get the hardware that'll play this?

I'd say $400 for a great VR set (including hand controllers), and under $600 if you build a PC from scratch. Cheaper if you reuse some parts, cheaper if you buy any parts used.

My 3-year old video card (bought for $300 then) is still kicking butt in any VR title I throw at it.

This is a valve flagship game. It's made for the index, which is a $1000 piece of hardware

Yes but it doesn't require the index, it can use any steam vr compatible headset.

That was not the goalpost here. The goalpost was that a "great" VR hardware costs $400, which is not true. Same for a $600 PC for high-end VR and as a bonus: the claim that a 3yo GPU is "kicking butt". All of these are false

The goalpost wasn't "great" VR. It was the minimum cost. I agree that $400 won't get you the best VR set, but it still can be enough for a great one.

> what's the minimum cost these days to get the hardware that'll play this?

My post was entirely aimed at the comment it was a reply to

> the claim that a 3yo GPU is "kicking butt"

The GeForce 1080 Ti came out 3 years ago, and I would definitely argue that it's still a card that's kicking butt.

Granted, the poster that said his 3 yo GPU is kicking butt also said he paid $300 for it, which could mean he has a GTX 1060 or equivalent AMD GPU. A 1060 is definitely powerful enough for VR, as it's performance is only slightly lower than the GTX 1070 that I use for VR.

A 1060 is not going to be able to run HLA on dual 1440 x 1600 res @144fps

Under 600 is not going to get you a pc that will work 2 years from now. If you have extreme budget concerns sure, but VR is a luxury item so if you are willing to shell out for the equipment, spend a little more to build a PC that will last.

I think he means that if you dont have a VR ready graphics card, that costs another $200.

400 for an oculus, plus around 1000 for a competent pc? You could probably do less for the PC but at that point you are making compromises that I wouldn't personally make.

If you're going for something like the Rift S which is 2560×1440@80Hz you'd probably want to go up some from that to not compromise on the graphics. The lower resolutions on the other headsets would be less demanding.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/HpDVcq

the base specs are a 1060/580. That's a $600-$700 PC

Base specs mean middling graphics/performance, don't they? I think it's worth it to experience something like HL:A to the fullest if you can.

I'll probably look at second-hand HTC vives, IIRC they were around $250, and we could expect more on the second hand market due to this announcement (or the opposite).

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