HTC has come up with a video concerning its latest specifications for the Vive. We told you in a recent post that the price of the device has been revealed to be $799. HTC has now come up with the specs of the computers running it would have to be for the experience to be smooth. Turns out, it is going to be about as hard, price wise, on a user as the Oculus Rift, if not more.
HTC Vive requires almost the same configuration as the Oculus Rift; as we already know, the Processor of a PC running a virtual reality device is not its most important characteristic, since the main operation run by the PC would be the graphics. To that end, both the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive require at least an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 or an AMD Raedon R9 290. CPU wise, the HTC Vive requires at least an Intel Core i5 4590 or an AMD FX 8350.
The major difference in the requirements for the Vive is that while the OR requires 8 GB of RAM, the Vive requires only 4 GB. While this means it is more computing efficient, the lower RAM will not affect the overall price of the Vive ready PC enough for you to consider it as a low-cost alternative, especially given the steep price of the Vive compared to the Oculus Rift.
A second difference, although not as significant, is that the HTC Vive requires a USB 2.0 connection, while the Oculus Rift requires a USB 3.0 connection. Hence, given all things, the specifications of VR-ready PCs remain more or less the same, and the HTC Vive is still overall a bigger expenditure.