'Elite Dangerous' VR Specs List Hints At HTC Vive System Requirements

Frontier Developments, creators of space simulation game Elite Dangerous, have finally revealed the official minimum system requirements to run the game in VR. Interestingly, Elite Dangerous doesn’t currently support Oculus Rift -- only HTC’s Vive HMD.

Elite Dangerous used to have support for the Oculus Rift DK2, but when Oculus made the switch to its new SDK release schedule, Frontier Developments announced that it was discontinuing support for the Rift beyond SKD 0.5, at least until a final SDK is released.  Shortly after dropping support for the Rift, the company announced that it would be supporting HTC’s forthcoming Vive headset.

Fast forward to today, and Frontier Digital has revealed the minimum specifications to play Elite Dangerous in virtual reality. The interesting thing about that is the company still doesn’t support the newest Oculus SDK, so these specifications are essentially for HTC’s Vive. Up to now, we’ve only been able to assume what kind of PC you would require for the Vive; HTC has yet to reveal the system requirements for its Vive HMD, but Frontier has now given us a glimpse of what to expect.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
OSWindows 7/8/10 64 bit
ProcessorIntel Core i7-3770K Quad Core CPU or better / AMD FX 4350 Quad Core CPU or better
Memory16 GB RAM
GraphicsNvidia GTX 980 with 4GB or better
NetworkBroadband Internet Connection
Hard Drive8 GB available space

It’s entirely possible that these specifications outweigh those of HTC’s minimum requirements for Vive support in general -- Elite Dangerous isn’t exactly a walk in the park for your PC -- but these requirements aren’t much higher than those for Oculus Ready PCs

Frontier said it is continuing to “work with Oculus on support for their more recent SDKs,” and it will let us know “if and when there is more to announce.”

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 Kevin Carbotte is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware who primarily covers VR and AR hardware. He has been writing for us for more than four years. 

  • Shankovich
    *Looks at HD 6870* It'll be fine.
    Reply
  • Sakkura
    That CPU requirement is ridiculous. Core i7-3770K or FX-4350. When a Core i5-3570K would still easily outperform the FX-4350 in every way, and a Core i3-3220 would provide solid competition.
    Reply
  • kyle382
    16GB of ram...dangit I knew this day would come. It might finally be time to upgrade the olde 2500K and get a stupid amount of DDR4. Sighhhh
    Reply
  • thekyle64
    Why in the world would anyone have a fx4350 and a gtx 980
    Reply
  • kcarbotte
    17067830 said:
    *Looks at HD 6870* It'll be fine.

    lol!

    "There, there little buddy. everythings going to be ok"
    Reply
  • surphninja
    Does Nvidia pay these companies to not include AMD cards in the system requirements? Do I even need to ask?

    These anti-competitive tactics make me sick.
    Reply
  • wexton
    The cpu doesn't both me so much as the gtx 980. I think oculus specs to the developers were only a gtx970 or a amd 290.
    Reply
  • Digmeahole
    you are joking right???!!

    "Elite Dangerous isn’t exactly a walk in the park for your PC"
    Reply
  • ramon zarat
    16GB of ram...dangit I knew this day would come. It might finally be time to upgrade the olde 2500K and get a stupid amount of DDR4. Sighhhh

    Why??? My 2500K at 4.7Ghz on air can STILL beat most current CPU at factory speed. I already got 16GB of 1600 8-8-8-21 1T RAM and recent benchmark show at most less than 5% advantage in gaming for anything beyond 1866Mhz. It's only with quad SLI 4K that will get you ~20-25% less performance with a 2500K compared to a Skylake 6700K. In the vast majority of scenarios, a 2500K with 16GB RAM is all you still need.
    Reply
  • Arcshaw
    16GB also seem way over the top; I seriously doubt Elite would crack the 8GB boundary, 12GB would hit it out of the park
    Reply