If you want an Oculus Rift, you'll probably need to upgrade your PC

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Image: Flickr, Maurizio Pesce

By Chelsea Stark31 minutes ago

When the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset debuts next year, it's going to require a pretty powerful computer to get the optimum experience.
The consumer version of the Rift will need a newer graphics cards to run games and other virtual reality experiences at "recommended" settings, Oculus VR stated in a blog post on Friday

See also: It happened: Grand Theft Auto V is running in VR

Here's the full breakdown:

NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater
Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
8GB+ RAM
Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
2x USB 3.0 ports
Windows 7 SP1 or newer

Nvidia's GTX 970 graphics card came out early in 2014 and the AMD Radeon R9 290 in late 2013, meaning these are still relatively expensive graphics cards. If you have one of these cards, you've already made a significant investiment into a machine that can support them. Considering the Rift will also require two USB 3.0 ports, you'll also need a motherboard that can support plenty of them.

Building the PC with these recommended specs yourself, right now, could cost about $1,000 to $1,200

Building the PC with these recommended specs yourself, right now, could cost about $1,000 to $1,200, according to PC building spec site Logical Increments. Alternately, though, you could buy a pre-built one for a little more. Either way, it means a significant investment for someone who wants to get into virtual reality with the Rift headset — which we don't even know the price for yet. It's also worth noting the specs require the Windows operating system; early Oculus Rift development kits could run natively on Macs, provided the software was compatible. Oculus VR VP of Product Nate Mitchell sidestepped a question about Mac support at TechCrunch Disrupt earlier this month, so this already seemed like a possibility.
The Oculus Rift consumer version isn't due out until the first quarter of 2016, and it hasn't been revelaed what kinds of experiences the system will offer at launch. But, based on these specs, we know they'll certainly be graphic-intensive ones