Does the video card make all the difference?

[Dillon 2,197]

All, I'm wondering does the video card make all the difference with the HP Reverb G2.  I've been looking at an alternative to what I have although mine looks to be pretty good when looking at what's recommended.

[Gerwil 177]

It's not in the brand line of what you have but I went from a RX5700xt to a RX6800xt and the difference was hughe. I started with all the settings unchanged and slowly increased settings step by step and it was amazing how far I could go and still have 30/40 fps. I'm most happy with the higher render resolution, which makes the scenery a bit more detailed and clear.

I don't know much about nVidia but I guess with a 3080 you would experience kind of the same.

[blueshark747 1,843]

3 hours ago, Dillon said:

All, I'm wondering does the video card make all the difference with the HP Reverb G2.  I've been looking at an alternative to what I have although mine looks to be pretty good when looking at what's recommended.

You want 10GB of VRAM at a minimum for MSFS in VR.

Depending on how much eye candy you are trying to pack in your VR display the usage numbers can get pretty high!

MSFS VR can eat!

Edited January 25, 2022 by blueshark747

[Reset XPDR 1,271]

10 hours ago, Dillon said:

All, I'm wondering does the video card make all the difference with the HP Reverb G2.

If MSFS in Developer Mode is showing limited by GPU by a decent margin at the VR graphics settings you wish to run it at, then yes a video card upgrade will make a big difference. Your CPU is quite respecable, so something like a 3080 would keep things in balance and give you a noticable graphics performance and quality boost. FYI, I can run mine at a mix of ultra and high settings and 2800x2800 per eye and it gives me 25-35 FPS for the most part.

[AJZip 251]

On 1/25/2022 at 5:39 PM, Dillon said:

All, I'm wondering does the video card make all the difference with the HP Reverb G2.  I've been looking at an alternative to what I have although mine looks to be pretty good when looking at what's recommended.

All systems are different but, for me, yes it did with my Reverb Gen 1 (same resolution as the G2)

Flight sims in VR - and especially high resolution ones such as the Reverb G2 and the Gen 1 -  make for a massive hit on all elements of your system, on the CPU, the RAM and GPU.  So most of us who are trying to increase our computer capability for high res VR end up leap-frogging all three of those elements (otherwise known as the spiral towards insanity 😉 ).

My own upgrade path, using the Reverb Gen1 (same res as the Gen2) and across X-plane 11 (using Orbx True Earth scenery) and MSFS 2020

Ryzen 7 3700x o/c to 4.3GHz; 32Gb RAM at 2933MHz; RTX2070 Super o/c:

- Successfully ran X-plane in VR at medium visual effects (1 notch below HDR) and high visual objects.

- Couldn't boot up MSFS in VR

Upgraded RAM speed to 3600MHz, still 32Gb

- In X-plane VR, for some aircraft and airports I could now go to maximum world objects.  Still not able to use HDR in visual effects.

- Couldn't boot up MSFS in VR

Upgraded to Ryzen 7 3800x o/c to 4.8GHz

- In X-plane VR all aircraft and airports would run at maximum world objects.  HDR visual effects could be booted up but poor results

- Could, at last, boot up MSFS in VR.  However, only at extremely low settings.  Even at those low settings, significant nausea-inducing stuttering and frequent CTD's 

Upgraded to RTX3080Ti , factory o/c; upgraded power supply to power it all; upgraded CPU cooling to keep it at decent operating temperatures

- X-plane VR will now run in HDR visual effects

- MSFS in VR now fully functioning at medium to high settings, all aircraft and all airports.  Smooth and sharp.  Improvement is such that I do not currently use X-plane 11 at all.

 

 

  

[Dillon 2,197]

2 hours ago, AJZip said:

Upgraded to RTX3080Ti , factory o/c; upgraded power supply to power it all; upgraded CPU cooling to keep it at decent operating temperatures

- X-plane VR will now run in HDR visual effects

- MSFS in VR now fully functioning at medium to high settings, all aircraft and all airports.  Smooth and sharp.  Improvement is such that I do not currently use X-plane 11 at all.

 

 

  

Wow an over $1,000 video card just to get FS looking closer to the visuals of 2D.  That's what people used to pay for hardware to use FSX and P3D and still came up short.  I guess I'll hold off as I'm getting more than acceptable performance and visuals with my current setup.  Yes it could be better but those prices have to come down.  This is the future so I'm sure they will.  I've totally abandoned the pancake experience of simming.  VR is revolutionary especially for those of us that fly in the real world.

Edited January 27, 2022 by Dillon

[AJZip 251]

46 minutes ago, Dillon said:

just to get FS looking closer to the visuals of 2D

And it is worth pointing out that it is 'closer' and not 'close'  😉

But 6 months later, I am still in awe of just how good it is...

[Dillon 2,197]

11 minutes ago, AJZip said:

And it is worth pointing out that it is 'closer' and not 'close'  😉

But 6 months later, I am still in awe of just how good it is...

I feel the same way with my setup.  When I look back on the FS9, FSX, and P3D years this is more than acceptable.  Even looking grainier than the 2D version of the sim it's smoothing and still looks better than all our other sim options.   

[javelina 56]

Indeed, GPU prices are absolutely insane.  I was fortunate to pickup my 3090FE at MSRP.  The new OpenXR toolkit though is really rock'n with improving the VR experience. 

[blueshark747 1,843]

I'm running some pretty high VR settings on my 32GB RAM 1080ti/8700k combo.

Along with Oculus 1.4 Supersampling in my Rift S. The sim gets better optimized for me with every service update to the point I was able to up the TAA headroom by 10 every update since SU5.

I still can't believe I can now run 1.4SS with 90 TAA which makes for a really sharp stunning image in VR.

This sim is very impressive with VR optimization! I'm going to be really amazed if the next service update makes even more performance headroom for me to push 100 TAA and higher shadow maps!

 

Edited February 2, 2022 by blueshark747

[bofhlusr 453]

19 hours ago, blueshark747 said:

I'm running some pretty high VR settings on my 32GB RAM 1080ti/8700k combo.

...

The images you posted are especially helpful. Thank you.