Which headset to get for high-spec PC to replace Quest 2

User Support Hub Virtual Reality (VR)
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Sooooo, silly question, I am on the fence about a new VR headset. Currently these are my specs:

  • Ryzen 5800X with 3080Ti, 32GB 3200MHz CL16 RAM
  • Oculus Quest 2 via Link

It already works great (5408x2736 resolution), although I do get some weird artifacts (weirdly “reflective” breaks in the terrain, sometimes the ground or runway texture filter into the cockpit when turning head, etc.).

I’ve been thinking about upgrading my headset. Right now I’m thinking about:

  1. Reverb G2
  • comparatively cheap
  • inside out tracking (not great tracking from what I read, but I personally hate needing base stations, etc.)
  • high resolution
  • available locally second hand fairly easily
  • small sweet spot
  • very narrow FOV unless gasket is replaced (and then what is the FOV? Similar to Quest 2? I don’t know - Quest 2 is already pretty bad in terms of FOV, for me)
  • some report cable issues / cable breaking fairly quickly
  • need to run a power cable to the headset from what I read? That’s not as convenient as my old Samsung Odyssey
  • Windows Mixed Reality is a Mixed bag (see what I did there?)
  1. Pimax 8KX
  • Huge FOV and good sweet spot (according to VR Flight Sim Guy)
  • Apparently great level of detail, even when undersampled?
  • From what I read, the experience is superior to the G2 thanks to the FOV
  • Heavy and comfort can be an issue
  • Very expensive, 3 times more than G2 (here in Japan)
  • Requires buying controllers and base station (or does it? Can you do MSFS VR without? My sole purpose for that headset would be MSFS)
  • Requires some more equipment? Hard for me to tell exactly what I need
  • Is glitchy with MSFS (Requires a “PP” setting that some refer to? Not sure what that means)
  • More fiddly to configure
  1. Varjo VR3 :smiley:
    Nope! Too expensive

Any suggestions? Or ideas?

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I had Pimax…
Good:

  • Incredible FOV

Bad:

  • software/drivers
  • support
  • comfort

Cause software/drivers issues, it simply doesn’t work in a lot of games.

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Thanks for that feedback, I guess Reverb G2 is just more stable. Thank you!

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I have Reverb G2 and Quest 2. I use G2 for MSFS.
G2 FOV is comparable to Quest2, maybe a little bigger (not sure - I got used to it and don’t notice much).
Sweet spot was small, but after I got my prescription lenses inserts - sweet spot and clarity have increased significantly.
Tracking of the headset itself is very good, and I don’t use controllers with flight sims, so don’t care about their tracking.
I didn’t have cable issue, but it works only with some of USB ports on my PC.
There are infrequent hick-ups with WMR: usually solved by switching off and on G2 or/and PC.

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I have very similar system specs, and am about a week ahead of you in terms of decision making!

10850k
32 GB 3200 Mhz ram
3090
Quest 2

I wanted to upgrade as well. My first pick was the Vive Pro 2. I definitely do not recommend that headset, I hated it. Awful lenses, godrays and blur everywhere, the binocular overlap was so low that moving my eyes would result in the lens image seperating into two lenses, and to cap it off the displays got so hot after an hour it hurt my head. Couldn’t get rid of that thing quickly enough.

Once I had been refunded I bought a Reverb G2, which I received jut under a week ago and have been fairly pleased with so far.

THE GOOD

Amazing centre clarity, like literally better than I believed a VR headset could deliver in 2021
Great colours and brighter than the Quest 2
Tracking and controllers not as bad as I thought they would be, very usable so far.

THE BAD

Tiny FOV with the stock face gasket, although this is mostly due to how narrow it is. I simply can’t get my face fully into it, and forcing it in has the facepad feeling like my head is in a vice. It’s horrible and I’ve got the VRCover facial interface on order.

Very noticeable sweetspot. Certain games are worse than others, but you basically have a small central circle of almost unbelievable eagle eyesight quality in the centre of the lenses, surrounded by a wider circle of misty, blur. You have to use your head to look around rather than your eyes as once your outside the central sweet spot the quality drops off far more dramatically than the Quest 2

Horizontal banding on high contrast scenes. It’s ironic that one of the reasons people dismiss the Quest 2 as a PCVR headset is that the USB-C data limitations forces extra encoding and compression, which supposedly leads to compression artifacts. With my 3090 I have zero visible artifacts in my Quest 2, and compared to both the Vive Pro 2 and the Reverb G2, the Quest has by far the cleaner image of the headsets. The G2 has really noticable horizontal banding. I don’t know what causes it but its a bit distracting.

Audio isn’t as good as the hype. Don;t get me wrong the G2 off ear speaks sound a lot better than the Quest 2 strap audio. It’s great for MSFS and stuff like Half Life Alyx. But I was disappointed to find that its not better than my Quest when using £15 earphones, in fact for music driven games like Beat Saber, FitXR and Pistol Whip, it’s not quite good enough for me. Now, in reality I’d never use it for those games anyway, so this is a hypothetical problem rather than a real one. For MSFS it sounds great. Nonetheless, when buying this I was expecting stunning visuals and audio. I certainly got stunning visuals, but I got audio that sounds better than the Quest 2 strap but not better than £15 mobile phone headphones. Didn’t deserve the hype for me.

MSFS performance.

Of course the most important analysis is how it performs against the Quest 2 in MSFS. Here, I’m happy to report a considerable improvement. It looks fxxing amazing, almost photorealistic and for the first time matches my 4K 70 inch TV. It’s so sharp and clear, and the colours are so good its an absolute game changer for me. The sound is great for MSFS too.

Even more importantly it runs more smoothly for me, absolutely no stutter in the cockpit, a fantastic experience.

Other PC Titles

I’ve not had time to try it with much else yet but I have play about 30 minutes of Half Life and it looks like a new game, really, really sublime. The FOV is irritatingly small, but I really do think the facegasket is a large part of the cause of that and I’m confident of improving it.

Conclusion.

If your primary motivation is getting the best MSFS experience then I think you’ll love the G2, the clarity and colour improvement, not to mention performance, really merits the upgrade.

For everything else I’m not convinced its better than my Quest 2. In fact the only two things I’d take from the G2 over my Quest are the clarity and colours. In every other respect I prefer my Quest 2. I’d even rather have the Quest 2 audio as I prefer my Quest 2 with earphones over the G2 for music driven games.

So, it’s not a real upgrade over the Quest 2, I still prefer the Quest 2 overall, but for MSFS it’s such a visual improvement that its worth it for me.

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Wow, thank you both for the writeup!

Kjaye767, I’m glad you volunteered to be my guinea pig without knowing you were doing so :smiley:

To be honest, the Vive Pro 2 was never on my list - I saw bad reviews of it (not sure where) in relationship to MSFS in particular, and that kind of killed the headset for me. Glad you were able to get rid of it quickly!

So what you’re saying on the sweetspot and on the FOV for the G2 is what I expected. It’s just I haven’t physically really noticed that “sweetspot” that everyone talks about in my previous VR headsets (Samsung Odyssey, Quest 1, and now Quest 2). So I have trouble imagining what it actually looks and feel like, although by now I have a good idea.
Interesting on the horizontal banding, that’s not something I have noticed before. I hate artifacts especially in VR as they reduce the immersion and that’s a big no-no for me…

As to the audio, I honestly am no connoisseur, and am usually perfectly fine with the built in Quest 2 speakers (yes, that’s blasphemy, I know!). So that won’t be an issue for me :slight_smile:

And with your conclusion with MSFS (and indeed I would keep my Quest 2 for everything else, wireless streaming is just too nice), it’s very good to hear. I’m more and more leaning towards the G2 over the Pimax.

Thanks again!!

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If you have got good enough wi-fi for wireless streaming, you can make a good upgrade to the quest just by using the new virtual desktop ultra mode and adjusting the gamma to 70% - I’m amazed how much better msfs looks with this tweak, it is too bright my default. There’s also a colour vibrancy toggle if you like more saturation.

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Oh my word this is awesome! I hadn’t thought of doing that but this is so much better! Thanks so much for the suggestion!
Now if only I could add my Windows Store version to Steam it would make everything better.

It also makes me think that this could be used with the wired version of VD and the Reverb G2 for better contrast and gamma management.

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You’re welcome, yep I now play solely via virtual desktop just for the gamma correction! Be sure to vote for the gamma adjustment features in the feature requests forum, it makes such a difference

What do you mean by added to steam?

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Yep, I already voted for that gamma/contrast/metering adjustment as I was finding the VR too blinding. Even the VD gamma can’t fix some of the overexposed landscapes.

I just mean add the game to the Steam library (where you can add games not bought on Steam so you can use Steam overlay, etc. with them anyway), so that it would be launchable directly from the VD Games tab. Not possible with Windows Store games, but meh, just a tiny nice to have.

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Just to add - I ended up getting the Reverb G2. And your analysis was absolutely spot on. Your detailed answer is something that should be pinned to the top of the VR hardware forum or something. And yes, that faint banding, that looks almost like large scale moire, is a bit annoying, especially when in clouds or looking at a uniform, bright area…

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So does that mean you’re enjoying the G2 overall, despite some of its limitations? I’m really enjoying it for MSFS, and I’ve enjoyed replaying some of my favorite educational-type experiences. Apollo 11 HD and The Blu are absolutely amazing in this headset. I do love the spatial audio, it’s directional capability is very good, although I still don’t think they are great for music heavy games. That’s not relevant to me though as I use my Quest 2 for them.

How are you finding the face gasket? Mine is getting better, I think I’m breaking it in. I have a VRCover replacement interface coming though and I’m hoping that improves it.

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I’m definitely enjoying it - the Quest 2 will remain my goto headset for anything other than flight simulation (the wireless capability is just too freeing, especially with the high quality of Virtual Desktop - at least for me).
The high res makes me want to play low movement games with the Reverb as well, like Senua’s Sacrifice, or VorpX converted games like Journey.

In terms of the face gasket and FOV, I was actually not too shocked - it’s less than the Q2, but definitely not as horrible as I thought. I happen to have bought it used from someone who already had one of the wide-FOV gaskets, and yeah, the FOV is immediately much, much better. However, it does make the headset fit a bit less smugly, and be slightly less comfortable (still better than the Q2 with elite strap). I may go back to the normal gasket on longer flights - especially if, as you imply, it can be broken into.

Overall, I don’t regret buying it - thanks again for your in-depth analysis!

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I love Senua’s Sacrifice, one of my favorite every games, completed it on the CV1, Rift S and Quest 2! I might just have to do it again on the G2!

Have you got Revive working? I followed MRTV’s old video on it and it took less than 5 minutes to download and set up. It adds all your Oculus games into Steam and everything works fine that I have tried, apart from Beat Saber, which kept crashing, but I don’t care about that one as it’s Quest 2 only for me.

I plan on replaying some of the very early Oculus controller based games, Lucky’s Tale, Chronos, Edge of Nowhere, I think they will look amazing on the G2. I haven’t played them since the CV1 so curious to see how they look now on a decent screen.

Encouraging to hear the FOV is much better on the wider gaskets.

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My first VR headset was the Samsung Odyssey (purchased for X-Plane), so I am intimately familiar with Revive as well. Especially at the time, Oculus had all the good stuff (although I have yet to purchase and play Lone Echo)! I do hate how Steam and Oculus libraries are so separate, even though the binaries are basically the same - I have a number of Steam VR games that I had to re-purchase when I got the original Quest (before cross-buy, before VD was reliable, and before Oculus Link).
Hope you’ll enjoy that new gasket when it comes!

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