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VR on laptops (share your experience!)
LuluViBritannia
Posts: 351 Trinity
in General
Hey there,
Laptop owner here. It is well known that laptops and VR are not always a perfect match. Most of the time, people will recommend a desktop PC over a laptop if it's for VR.
But not everyone likes that answer. Some people hate it. Some people need a laptop comfort and portability.
So for those people, I suggest that we share our experience with laptops and VR, say which models work well with VR and which don't work at all.
I believe it will be useful for anyone looking for information about VR on laptop. So many of us went through that typical scenario: we get the laptop, we get the headset, and we realize that they are not perfectly compatible (or not at all, in some case).
I made this thread in hope that it will prevent this scenario from happening ever again (over-the-top mode, activated).
Seriously though, I believe it can be really helpful for people who decided to buy a gaming laptop and want to use VR with it. It can also convince people to give it a try ("hey, they say this model works and it is relatively cheap today, I should try it out!").
I'll start :
- My laptop is a HP Omen 15, Intel i5-7300HQ + GTX 1050 (2GB VRAM).
- Works fine most of the time. Oculus Home 2 used to be smooth, it had 2 green dots and a yellow one (that is, before update 1.27 xD).
- Games run smoothly on low settings. Most of the time, even with medium settings it is smooth, but thanks to ASW. When I get performance issues, it comes from the low VRAM (that is, if they are not due to an Oculus update
). Stutters happen in Robo Recall (although I am pretty sure it also comes from the game itself: I suspect it is not well optimized), Elite:Dangerous (only when I get in the big colonies), Oculus Medium after some time, and Echo:Arena since the Lobby update (before it became Echo VR).
- Games that don't need a high VRAM work pretty well. I can play SkyrimVR on low settings, without lowering the resolution (in SteamVR), and with no problem at all (well, not with high-quality texture mods of course). Assetto Corsa works damn well with average settings (which are already stunning), so do City Car Driving with normal traffic, Arkham VR, Tilt Brush, Onward (now that it's been optimized xD).
- Sadly, that hardware configuration doesn't allow the "application displays" that Oculus Desktop offers (you know : that thing when we "tear out" the window from our desktop). Aside from that, Oculus Desktop works well (I can even use it in some VR apps ; stutters happen while opening Oculus Desktop, but it quickly becomes smooth when using it).
If you want that laptop, better find the 4GB VRAM version, you will be sure to get no stutters in most games. Really, most of the time, neither the CPU nor the GPU runs at 100% (it's usually between 85 and 95, but almost never over it), it is the VRAM that brings performance down.
Okay, now I'll be glad to hear from anyone! What problems did you encounter while using VR on laptop? Were you able to solve it, and how? Would you recommend your model?
PS: Just to be clear, this thread is not about the official "VR-Ready" or "Oculus-Ready" notations. This is not about official statements, but about real experience. This will be more helpful for people to choose what laptop they buy (if they decided that desktop PC is a no-go).
Hopefully it will help anyone!
Laptop owner here. It is well known that laptops and VR are not always a perfect match. Most of the time, people will recommend a desktop PC over a laptop if it's for VR.
But not everyone likes that answer. Some people hate it. Some people need a laptop comfort and portability.
So for those people, I suggest that we share our experience with laptops and VR, say which models work well with VR and which don't work at all.
I believe it will be useful for anyone looking for information about VR on laptop. So many of us went through that typical scenario: we get the laptop, we get the headset, and we realize that they are not perfectly compatible (or not at all, in some case).
I made this thread in hope that it will prevent this scenario from happening ever again (over-the-top mode, activated).
Seriously though, I believe it can be really helpful for people who decided to buy a gaming laptop and want to use VR with it. It can also convince people to give it a try ("hey, they say this model works and it is relatively cheap today, I should try it out!").
I'll start :
- My laptop is a HP Omen 15, Intel i5-7300HQ + GTX 1050 (2GB VRAM).
- Works fine most of the time. Oculus Home 2 used to be smooth, it had 2 green dots and a yellow one (that is, before update 1.27 xD).
- Games run smoothly on low settings. Most of the time, even with medium settings it is smooth, but thanks to ASW. When I get performance issues, it comes from the low VRAM (that is, if they are not due to an Oculus update
). Stutters happen in Robo Recall (although I am pretty sure it also comes from the game itself: I suspect it is not well optimized), Elite:Dangerous (only when I get in the big colonies), Oculus Medium after some time, and Echo:Arena since the Lobby update (before it became Echo VR).- Games that don't need a high VRAM work pretty well. I can play SkyrimVR on low settings, without lowering the resolution (in SteamVR), and with no problem at all (well, not with high-quality texture mods of course). Assetto Corsa works damn well with average settings (which are already stunning), so do City Car Driving with normal traffic, Arkham VR, Tilt Brush, Onward (now that it's been optimized xD).
- Sadly, that hardware configuration doesn't allow the "application displays" that Oculus Desktop offers (you know : that thing when we "tear out" the window from our desktop). Aside from that, Oculus Desktop works well (I can even use it in some VR apps ; stutters happen while opening Oculus Desktop, but it quickly becomes smooth when using it).
If you want that laptop, better find the 4GB VRAM version, you will be sure to get no stutters in most games. Really, most of the time, neither the CPU nor the GPU runs at 100% (it's usually between 85 and 95, but almost never over it), it is the VRAM that brings performance down.
Okay, now I'll be glad to hear from anyone! What problems did you encounter while using VR on laptop? Were you able to solve it, and how? Would you recommend your model?
PS: Just to be clear, this thread is not about the official "VR-Ready" or "Oculus-Ready" notations. This is not about official statements, but about real experience. This will be more helpful for people to choose what laptop they buy (if they decided that desktop PC is a no-go).
Hopefully it will help anyone!
Previous VR face :
My current config : HP Omen laptop, 8 GB RAM, Intel i5-7300HQ @2.5GHz + Nvidia GTX 1050 (2GB VRAM).
Currently plays on :
- Beat Saber.
- Windlands.
- Skyrim VR.
I use VR for :
- Games.
- Art Software (Tilt Brush, Oculus Medium, Mocu Mocu Dance).
- Cinema VR (Oculus Desktop or Virtual Desktop).
"You are allowed to kill only if you are prepared to die."
Currently plays on :
- Beat Saber.
- Windlands.
- Skyrim VR.
I use VR for :
- Games.
- Art Software (Tilt Brush, Oculus Medium, Mocu Mocu Dance).
- Cinema VR (Oculus Desktop or Virtual Desktop).
"You are allowed to kill only if you are prepared to die."
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Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700HQ CPU @ 2.80GHz, 2801 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070
With 32 gigs of ram. m2 system drive and a 500 gig drive for storage.
It runs pretty well :-)
Currently plays on :
- Beat Saber.
- Windlands.
- Skyrim VR.
I use VR for :
- Games.
- Art Software (Tilt Brush, Oculus Medium, Mocu Mocu Dance).
- Cinema VR (Oculus Desktop or Virtual Desktop).
"You are allowed to kill only if you are prepared to die."
Medion Erazer X7851 Gaming Laptop
And FlyInside Forum Admin.
Flyinside Flight Simulator is coming !!!!! (In Beta)
Also have a 64gb Oculus Go which I love for travel and quick VR Fixes. Looking forward to the Quest!
Pretty good featured laptop:
- Intel® Core™ i7-6820HK
- 2.7 - 3.6GHz w/ Turbo Boost
- Dual GeForce® GTX1070 [SLI]
- 16G GDDR5 (8GB each)
- 64GB (16GB x4) DDR4 2400MHz
So far, i dig the set-up. Way more play space than had I upgraded my (comparatively under powered) desktop and been forced to play in the office. Honestly, I haven't played a game where I've been forced to choose less than optimum graphics settings yet. Though, I'm sure if I spent too much time tweaking super sampling like some of you, I'd find the limits of this system. Shame the SLI isn't fully taken advantage of... I didn't realize that tech was a useless luxury at the time of purchase.Anyway, definitely count me as a +1 in the "recommend laptop for VR" camp.
Scott
- Intel Core i7-7700HQ Quad Core Processor
- 17.3" Full HD IPS Screen
- Microsoft Windows 10 Home 64-bit
- 16GB DDR4 RAM
- 256GB SSD
- 1000GB HDD
- Dedicated Geforce GTX 1060 6GB Graphics
- Nvidia G-Sync & VR Ready
- Backlit Keyboard
- USB3 | HDMI | Bluetooth
Sometimes I was thinking how about add a VR device with vibration function.After just a few hours of play, I too am in the "recommend laptop for VR" camp.