Oculus Rift Specs and Project Morpheus Launch Window Revealed

The recommended and required hardware for the Oculus Rift has been revealed and a possible launch window was found for Project Morpheus.

Oculus VR's Chief Architect and Technical Director Atman Binstock has revealed what kind of PC specifications you'd need to run the Oculus Rift VR headset. Binstock recommends having at least an Nvidia GTX 970 or an AMD 290, an Intel i5-4590 and 8GB RAM. Binstock notes that almost no current laptops have the GPU performance capabilities to match the recommended specs of the Rift.

You're probably best off having something along these lines:

• NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290 equivalent or greater
• Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
• 8GB+ RAM
• Windows 7 SP1 or newer
• 2x USB 3.0 ports
• HDMI 1.3 video output supporting a 297MHz clock via a direct output architecture

In related news, the Japanese newspaper Asahi (courtesy of IGN) reports that Sony is planning to launch the Project Morpheus VR headset by June 2016. Asahi did not specify if this launch window was for the Japanese market or for the Rift's worldwide launch, but we couldn't imagine there being that much of a time difference in release between the two, as the PS4 launched in the North American market before it debuted in Japan.

Of course, the timeliness of this information is interesting, considering that Sony has a big press conference planned for E3 2015 on June 15. We have a feeling both Project Morpheus and the Oculus Rift will make their presences known at E3 this year.