The co-founder of Oculus has just added more fire to the PC vs Mac argument. Based on performance, he places them next to the useless systems of yesteryear – for Rift’s virtual reality headset at least.
Considering that VR is about to go big in the near future, this could cause some concern to the execs at Cupertino. Well, Apple usually enters the race late anyway. And as usual, they’ll find a way to get vendors and developers on board when they think it’s the right time to enter the game.
Initially during development, Rift headsets were friendly with Linux and Mac machines but ever since the launch a year ago, the team at Oculus (probably) guided by Mr. Palmer Luckey’s views on Mac’s GPU performance, have gone Windows only.
The Oculus exec stressed that even the most pimped out Mac out there can’t keep up with the Rift’s VR hardware, making it not as enjoyable as pairing it with a PC. He added that “It just boils down to the fact that Apple doesn’t prioritise high-end GPUs” and even if “You can buy a US$ 6,000 Mac Pro with the top-of-the-line AMD FirePro D700, (and) it still doesn’t match our recommended specs”.
However, Luckey did mention that if Apple ever decided to change how it picks out internals, Oculus would be happy to support Mac systems in the future.
Currently, we don’t buy PCs or laptops because they can handle virtual reality systems – it isn’t vastly adoptable yet but one day you can bet that almost every person will have a VR headset. For gaming and learning, virtual reality takes our senses to places that previously were never possible.
An easy fix for Mac users would be having dual-boot software installed and probably upping that AMD card to a Nvidia graphics card. On the other end, here are some ready built PCs that’ll be ready to handle any VR task.
Question is, are we ready for VR?
On a side note, you’ve gotta love moments like these, rest in peace Steve.
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