The HTC Vive’s release date and pricing has been recently confirmed, but the more important question is, is your computer capable of powering the headset and the various apps and programs designed for it? If you’re a little unsure about whether or not your PC is up to the task, Valve has released a tool that checks your PC for you.According to Valve, “The SteamVR Performance Test measures your system’s rendering power using a 2-minute sequence from Valve’s Aperture Robot Repair VR demo. After collecting the data it determines whether your system is capable of running VR content at 90fps and whether VR content can tune the visual fidelity up to the recommended level. For machines that are not VR Ready the tool can help determine whether capabilities are bound by Graphics Card, CPU, or both.”
The app can be found on Steam’s website so if you’d like to check, head on over for the download. In the meantime the folks at Oculus had also previously released a tool of its own, so maybe you’d like to check that out too if you’d like to run both headsets. If your PC isn’t up to scratch, don’t worry as there is still time to make some upgrades.
We’re not sure if Valve or HTC has plans to create PC bundles, but Oculus has teamed up with several PC makers to create systems that are guaranteed to be Oculus Rift-ready, so that’s worth checking out too if you’re looking for a new build. In the meantime pre-orders for the HTC Vive consumer edition will begin on the 29th of February and will be available in April where it is priced at $799.
Filed in . Read more about HTC, HTC Vive, Valve and Virtual Reality (VR).