$1800 rig for Oculus rig

This build isn't for me. Trying to help someone out. I know someone online who wants to sink $1,800 into a rig that focuses on using the Oculus. He also wanted to capture video.

He thinks SLI doesn't work well with Oculus, but I haven't heard any such thing. Could anyone recommend a build that makes good use of that budget? He already has a monitor so he won't need two.

There are a number of games and programs that are available for the Oculus right now that don't support SLI or work worse with it turned on. Also, for "Direct Mode" titles they display in fullscreen to the Oculus and also show you game video in a window on your normal monitor. To my knowledge, Direct Mode doesn't work right now with SLI. Extended mode titles may be able to work if you run them in fullscreen on the Oculus "monitor", but again there are support issues. Direct Mode is generally preferred because dealing with Extended mode is a pain in the ass and Direct Mode tends to be faster and works with less latency.

However, I wouldn't base any purchasing decisions on the assumption that SLI/Crossfire won't be supported by the time it goes retail but at the same time you shouldn't skimp on the base GPU model.

-Byshop

@Byshop: Thanks, I had no idea, I'll be sure to pass that info along to him.

For $1,800 - not doing SLI would seem crazy to me. I was thinking a couple of GTX 970's in his case might be suitable.

At least a 970 for sure. I'm not up on the latest OC news for GPUs, but I would shoot for the rig that I built which is two 980s assuming you can't easily get the same result by overclocking two 970s and that it doesn't blow the budget. I would not go crazy spending that money on any single more expensive card than a 980 like a Titan, though. That just seems like a dead end path based on the current state of the tech, not where it is likely going.

-Byshop

I wonder if forcing AFR or AFR2 would work with the oculus rift.

I have 2 970s but I am waiting for the public release of the rift or the htc vive.

Try Crossfire? 2x 290s? :P

But yes you'll want a rig that similar in power to run 1440p on ultra (2x 970s or 2x 290s)

If he wants to go with Z97 and a single GPU then here's a build with $350 left over for him.

If he wants to go with X99, he'll still have $265 left for whatever he needs.

Personally I would wait until the CV1 is out before making any purchasing decisions for it. Give the devs time to develop drivers, software/games, and to come out with more powerful cards early next year.

I would wait for the 980 ti to release.. And it's benchmarks to release.. You have two good possibilities here with it's release.. Either the 980 ti takes over the price range of the 980 and everything below the TI lowers in price.. Or the 980 ti is slightly more expensive than the current 980 but produces much higher performance.. That and the 390x may have a similar impact on the industry.. I honestly think going SLI is absolutely pointless right now for a multitude of reasons.. There are a great many singular powerful cards on the market place that run most games extremely well, furthermore nothing is stopping you from buying a second card down aways for a much cheaper price.. And finally Directx 12 is on the horizon with Windows 10.. Which may not only give huge performance boosts, but allow you to SLI different types of cards down the road together.

@sSubZerOo: After seeing the price I'm inclined to agree. I'd upgrade, but it's not worth it since I've already got dual 980s.

-Byshop

The Oculus Rift won't release until next year which will be around the time Pascal comes out.

Pascal should be a pretty big leap in performance.

Maybe I will be surprised and the 1070 will be a match for 2 970s.

I tried to convince the guy to wait on it but he doesn't seem to want to. I agree that it seems so much smarter to wait on it, particularly at this moment. Also - thanks a ton for the help (everyone).