In a recent interview with ShackNews, Oculus Rift’s co-founder Palmer Luckey said that his company has no plans to release a version of its virtual reality headset that’s compatible with Mac computers, until Apple “releases a good computer.”
While this is a harsh statement, Luckey has a valid point when it comes to the technical specifications required to support the Oculus Rift. Despite their superior build quality and impressive design, Apple device’s aren’t exactly known as high-end hardware powerhouses, especially when you talk about graphics processing power.
Luckey then expanded on his initial statement by saying:
“It just boils down to the fact that Apple doesn’t prioritize high-end GPUs. You can buy a $6,000 Mac Pro with the top of the line AMD FirePro D700, and it still doesn’t match our recommended specs. So if they prioritize higher-end GPUs like they used to for a while back in the day, we’d love to support Mac. But right now, there’s just not a single machine out there that supports it.”
Check out the full interview with Oculus Rift’s co-founder Palmer Luckey below:
The Rift, which begins shipping on March 28, already pushes the performance boundaries of mid- to high-level Windows PCs, requiring at least an Intel Core i5-4590 processor, and an Nvidia GTX 970 or AMD R9 290 card for graphics.
Last May, Oculus officially paused work on supporting the Mac. In January, Luckey made similarly pessimistic comments about the Mac, saying that support is “on the roadmap post-decent Apple hardware release, whenever that is.”
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And I will consider Oculus when it sells at a reasonable price. 900$ for a display device, without the computer, that’s just insane.
I can already foresee a lot of people who’s going to buy this, thinking they’re super cool, but doesn’t really have the hardware to run it smoothly, then turns around and starts complaining that it’s a piece of crap.
I doubt it. The early adopters who are interested in buying the Rift are an informed subset of a larger group that has been looking at this project since it’s inception. And there is no mass marketing campaign, just internet based pre-orders.
Whether or not it runs well or not will more than likely be effected by the countless different system configurations, driver support, how well the supported games are built, etc.
You say that, but you just replied to Kenneth Hime who’s exactly what I was talking about.
I’ll stick to Playstation VR. Oculus is just too much of an investment. Haven’t bought a PC since Microsoft ruined windows. My Samsung Series 9 ultrabook running windows 7 works just fine.
The bottom of the line 27″ iMac already has enough CPU and graphics power to meet the required specs.
CPU:
3.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i5; Turbo Boost up to 3.6GHz.
Configurable to 4.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7; Turbo Boost up to 4.2GHz.
GPU:
AMD Radeon R9 M380 graphics processor with 2GB of GDDR5 memory.
Configurable to AMD Radeon R9 M395X with 4GB of GDDR5 memory.
So I don’t know what Palmer Luckey is smoking. ????
I guess they want an Apple computer to be loaded with Windows? Lol
I have 3 Mac computers that easily compete with computers of today.
I know what you mean man
Actually it sounds like you have no idea what you’re talking about
oh well.
Cannot please everyone.
The Radeon R9 M395X is a *mobile* GPU. Its performance is roughly equivalent to that of a 4-year old desktop GPU, an NVIDIA GTX 670.
Occulus’s recommended specs are for a NVIDIA GTX 970.
So no, a tricked out iMac is *not* enough to meet the published specs.
Nor are Mac Pros with their expensive workstation-oriented GPU options, which are not geared for gaming performance.
You do realize that the “M” in R9 M380 stand for mobile right? It has literally HALF the power compared to its desktop counter part since they’re made to go in a laptop, and is about 30-40% lower than the minimum requirements.
Besides, the top end iMac also costs $3,000. You can build a beast machine AND buy the occulus for less.
Good to know, thanks. I have an iMac and I love it. I’m of coarse not into high end PC gaming so I just did some basic research and I didn’t think about it being a mobile GPU. I do run some pretty impressive graphics on my 2014 iMac though.
“You can buy a $6,000 Mac Pro with the top of the line AMD FirePro D700, and it still doesn’t match our recommended specs.”
No, it beats them, because an AMD R9 290, the minimum required AMD card, is only 15% faster than a single D700 but is definitely slower than dual-D700’s. The power is there. The number of people running that particular config might not be significant enough to warrant the effort, but I’m not buying the lack-of-power argument.
These are workstation graphic card oriented for parallel computation… Not for gaming which explain why they fail the test even if they are powerful enough in benchmark