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Not every PC can handle a head-mounted display, so you might want to upgrade to the best graphics card for VR. If you want to get the most out of your VR headset, you need a pretty powerful computer, but your graphics card is the most important piece of hardware for immersive VR. For regular computer games, everyone likes good graphics and fast frame rates, but it’s not always a big deal if your GPU isn’t doing its job.
It’s annoying, and you might lose one or two games because of it, but that’s about it. If you are one of these people, you may be wondering which graphics card you should have at least for VR. Friend, you’ve come to the right place. You will know exactly which graphics card to buy after reading this article. Let’s get right to the graphics card that’s good enough for VR games.
Best Graphics Card for VR
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
Features
The excitement about the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 has been growing for most of 2022. After more than a year of high prices and shortages of GPUs, CEO Jensen Huang shared important details at GTC 2022, including a price that will make many people cry out in despair. $1,599 for the best Ada Lovelace architecture from Nvidia?
Actually, that’s only $100 more than the RTX 3090 was when it came out, and if the card can come anywhere close to Nvidia’s claims of being 2x–4x as fast as an RTX 3090 Ti, people will be willing to pay it. At least at 1440p and 4K, the RTX 4090 is now the fastest GPU on the market. No matter how much it costs, it is now one of the best graphics cards for anyone who wants the fastest GPU possible.
Pros
- Ferociously powerful for a single-GPU card
- Power consumption is relatively low for this level of raw GPU performance
- Usual exceptional Founders Edition build quality
Cons
- Pricey
- Almost impractically enormous
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti
Features
The Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, which is their newest graphics card, doesn’t do anything to change the recent trend of performance going up by a factor of 10 while prices go up at the same rate. But because of competition, the price of this high-end card isn’t as high as it used to be. We tested Zotac’s Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Amp Extreme Airo.
Which is one of the higher-end partner-made RTX 4070 Ti models, to see what kind of performance you can expect from the RTX 4070 Ti. (The RTX 4070 Ti doesn’t have a Founders Edition.) Now, there’s no doubt that the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is a powerful piece of gaming hardware. But you’ll only want to buy this card if you see it for a good price.
Pros
- Strong performance
- 12GB GDDR6X VRAM
- Exceptional cooling
Cons
- Outpaced by competition
- Priced from “high” to “very high”
MSI Ventus OC RTX 2070 Super
Features
If you want slightly better performance than the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT and want to use NVIDIA RTX features like ray tracing and DLSS 2.0 when gaming on a standard monitor, the RTX 2070 Super is a great choice. It costs more, but it is a great graphics card for virtual reality (VR).
You shouldn’t have any trouble running games and experiences on modern VR headsets. The MSI Ventus GP OC version of the RTX 2070 Super that we recommend has 8GB of GDDR6 VRAM, 14Gbps memory bandwidth, a 256-bit memory bus, and a boost clock speed of up to 1,785MHz. It uses a 12nm process, but it works just as well as AMD’s 7nm cards.
Pros
- Power for smooth 1440p gaming
- DisplayPort and HDMI connection
- NVIDIA G-Sync tech
Cons
- More expensive than AMD hardware
- Still not the top in terms of performance
Sapphire Pulse RX 5600 XT
Features
When it comes to the best mid-range graphics cards for VR, AMD’s RX 5600 XT is a great choice that is just as fast as NVIDIA’s RTX 2060 Super. It doesn’t have the same features as the RTX, like ray tracing and DLSS 2.0, but it costs less. This card should be a great addition to your PC if you don’t care about getting the most out of modern VR headsets but still want a great experience.
The Sapphire Pulse model we recommend has 336GB/s memory bandwidth, a 192-bit memory bus, and a boost clock speed of up to 1,750MHz. It also has 6GB of GDDR6 VRAM. When not using VR, this GPU will be able to handle 1440p on a standard monitor, but it’s better to cut out to get a top-tier 1080p experience.
Pros
- Suitable for standard 1080p or 1440p gaming
- Includes HDMI and DisplayPort
- AMD FreeSync tech
Cons
- No extra RTX benefits
MSI Gaming GeForce RTX 3090
Features
In terms of graphics performance, the RTX 3090 is the best of the best, and the MSI Trio X is one of the most impressive cards you can buy right now. Even though it draws 370 watts from the power supply, this card stays nice and cool thanks to its three FROZR 2 fans.
With 24GB of GDDR6 VRAM memory, this is not only ready for VR resolutions, but it can also run your favourite games in 8K! This means that even at this GPU’s lowest rate, your VR frame rates will never drop below 90 fps.
Pros
- Will never fall close to 90fps in VR
- Hardware ray tracing (82 cores)
- Audio Ray Tracing
- Variable-rate shading
Cons
- This is a BIG graphics card
GIGABYTE Radeon RX 6900 XT
Features
The Radeon RX 6900 XT is the top-rated premium AMD graphics card that is ready for VR. It has a lot of features that go above and beyond what Oculus and HTC recommend. This card is great if VR is something you’re really into. AMD is also making a lot of progress, just like Nvidia, which is trying out different technologies to make hyper-realistic games.
First of all, with their RDNA 2 6000-Series architecture, they’ve finally figured out hardware ray tracing and added their own twist to it with AMD Fidelity FX Luminance Preserving Mapping, which improves colour quality and overall definition.
Pros
- 16GB GDDR6 VRAM
- AMD Fidelity FX boosts display brilliance
- Radeon Anti-Lag tech eliminates lag
- Super fast in lower resolutions
- Slightly more affordable
- Infinity cache offers enhanced efficiency
Cons
- Not quite as good for intensive parallel creative workflows
MSI NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X
Features
The MSI RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X comes first. I could go on and on about how there aren’t enough GPUs and how new versions of the RTX 30 series GPUs keep coming out. But we don’t want this article to turn into a rant about how bad the graphics card market is right now.
The RTX 3060 Ti is a beast, and it goes head-to-head with the RTX 2080 Ti. It is still slower than the RTX 2080 Ti, but it beats it by a large margin and comes close to the RX 6700 XT. The Gaming X has 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, a 12 percent increase in the number of CUDA Cores, and MSI’s TRI FROZR 8 technology for excellent cooling.
Pros
- It can connect up to 4 displays on a single unit.
- Outstanding 1080p and 1440p gaming performance.
- Power-efficient GPU.
Cons
- Lower VRAM than the 3060.
- 6-pin + 8-pin power connectors.
FAQs
What graphics card do you need for VR?
For virtual reality, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX series of consumer graphics cards is our top pick. Anything in the middle of the range or higher, like the RTX 3060 Ti, will work fine. NVIDIA’s RTX A-series is also a good choice if you want to use VR with a professional programme like Autodesk Revit.
Is an RTX 3070 good for VR?
Yes, you can play VR games on the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 8GB. It is much more powerful than a 1080ti, and depending on the VR games, it may even be too powerful.
Is GTX or RTX better for VR?
AMD and Nvidia both make powerful graphics cards that can easily run a high-end VR experience. As you can see from the minimum specs above, a GeForce GTX card is good enough for basic VR. This means that any of Nvidia’s more powerful GeForce RTX GPUs are up to the task of gaming in VR.
How much RAM do I need for VR gaming?
RAM is the third most important thing to think about. Most games and VR headsets still recommend having around 8GB of RAM on board. Most people online seem to agree with what the VR developers said, which is that 8GB is enough for now.