Oculus is now recommending that Rift owners upgrade their PCs to Windows 10, if they haven't already, in order to enjoy the "full Rift experience." Otherwise, they may miss out on certain features when Rift Core 2.0 (and later versions) roll out.
"As of today, we’re updating our minimum and recommended spec OS to Windows 10 to power the full Rift experience. Windows 7 and 8.1 users are still supported for the Rift features they know and love today, but they may not be able to use many new and upcoming features and apps. We encourage everyone who isn’t already running Windows 10 to upgrade now to avoid missing out on what’s next," Oculus states in a blog post.
Oculus says Windows 10 is integral to supporting some of the resource-heavy features in its Rift Core 2.0 update, which is currently in beta. Rift owners who choose to stick with Windows 7 or Windows 8.1 will still be able to download the update when it arrives in polished form later this year, but Oculus warns there will be "some limitations." Specifically, the Oculus Desktop and the ability to run Dash will only be available in Windows 10.
The other reason for pushing Windows 10 as both the minimum and recommended OS is because Microsoft has deprecated mainstream support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. According to Oculus, the vast majority of the active Rift owners (95 percent) run Windows 10 anyway. It's not clear how exactly Oculus classifies the most active users versus everyone else.
Effective from this point forward, the new recommended specs are as follows:
- Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX 1060 / AMD Radeon RX 480 or greater
- Alternative Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX 970 / AMD Radeon R9 290 or greater
- CPU: Intel Core i5-4590 / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X or greater
- Memory: 8GB+ RAM
- Video Output: Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
- USB Ports: 3x USB 3.0 ports plus 1x USB 2.0 port
- OS: Windows 10 operating system
And here are the minimum requirements:
- Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti / AMD Radeon RX 470 or greater
- Alternative Graphics Card: Nvidia GTX 960 / AMD Radeon R9 290 or greater
- CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 / AMD Ryzen 3 1200, FX 4350 or greater
- Memory: 8GB+ RAM
- Video Output: Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
- USB Ports: 1x USB 3.0 port, plus 2x USB 2.0 ports
- OS: Windows 10 operating system
You can also run this compatibility tool to see if your PC meets either set of requirements.
