Pico 4 on a PC that is not high end

User Support Hub Virtual Reality (VR)
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I was playing around with the idea of going VR, but as my machine was really not high end AND as display port headsets were and still are really expensive I was reluctant to make the step. I tried to find relevant info both on this forum and outside of it, it seemed like everyone flying in VR has a 4090…

After boiling over it for about a year, possibly even more I was finally able to upgrade my GPU from an RTX 2060 super to an RTX 4070Ti Super, which is while no slouch, is still a lot less capable than the 4090. Also, while I could upgrade the GPU, I could not upgrade the rest of the PC, so the i5 9600 with 32GB of 2666MHz DDR4 RAM stayed the same. I was able to run MSFS at 4K at graphical settings I was fine with and mostly it works fine. Yet still I was waiting for the affordable display port HMD, since every youtuber out there was pushing the message: you need a 4090 to have decent graphics on a HMD like the Pico 4 and the Quest 3.

For a while I thought the Crystal Light might finally be the HMD for me, but it turned out that the 890USD headset would be over 1000EUR to get in the EU, so I watched and read all Pico 4 and Quest 3 material a few more times. I was none the wiser.

In the End I decided to make a leap of faith, got a Pico 4 for about 370EUR, a WiFi6 router for 70EUR and of course Virtual Desktop for 20USD.

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I shouldn’t have waited this long. Of course things aren’t as sharp as on my 4K monitor, but 3D makes up for it.

Also, and it is a very important one, I did not have to reduce any of my graphical settings. I actually upped ot from DLSS quality to TAA 100%. I’m pretty sure that there is much room for optimisation left, but still without tweaking stuff for days it just works.

So if you’re in the same shoes and cannot afford a 4000EUR PC, then you still might be able to enjoy MSFS in VR.

I am by no means the go to guy in the VR topic, this post is not meant to tell people with countless hours of VR experiance in several HMDs how smarter I am than them, this is meant as a reassurance to hesitants like me that you don’t need a top PC to enjoy MSFS in VR.

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Don’t do yourself down, the 4070TI is no slouch and basically only one step down from a 4090. However, what most folk forget is the CPU is often the limiting factor, especially until MSFS2024, as currently the sim only uses one thread. Hopefully, 2024 will resolve this.
I’m quite happy with my Pico 4, on a 4070 with a Ryzen7, 5800 CPU although, like you, I could wish for better clarity. Been considering the Crystal Light but concerned that I won’t see much improvement - and as you say, despite its “light” handle it’s still a big wodge of readies!

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I did not intend to say that the 4070Ti Super is a bad GPU, but while still not cheap, it is half price (and performance) to what people on YT said you need to have enjoyable experience with the Pico 4.

I was quite afraid of my CPU too, I even tried to get help here on the forums, luckily it turned out single core performance is the important attribute, in which there wasn’t such a great improvement as in core count over the years.

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Thank you for sharing your experience. I am at least as long on the edge of switching to vr as you were. I have an i5 13600 and a RTX3090 gpu. Maybe I should finally try it.

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I’m no expert, but I believe your PC is more powerful than mine. It should do just fine.