I'm running an i5 3570k CPU at 3.4ghz with an Nvidia Geforce GTX 980 and 24gbs of DDR3 ram. My CPU is one generation too old for the minimum requirements set for the Oculus and Vive. After hearing Jeff talk about his experiences with trying to run the retail Rift on a slightly older CPU I wasn't too hopeful that anything would run well for me but yesterday evening I thought I would install and give it a try. Turns out it actually works surprisingly well.

If you go to https://www.oculus.com/en-us/setup/ you can download the store and drivers. The sensor will give a warning saying it isn't in the right port (since the DK2 version is USB 2.0) and the other stuff won't be detected but that is fine because you can just skip those steps.

The Oculus home menu worked great. I used both a Rockcandy Xbox One wired controller and an official Xbox One controller wired with a micro USB cable. I haven't tried any other controllers yet. The only thing was that the Guide button is supposed to open the Oculus overlay which is needed for exiting some games but by default in Windows 10 if you are signed into the Xbox app the guide button opens the Game DVR so I had to turn that setting off to get the overlay functioning properly.

I see this banner in the home menu but so far haven't had any major problems running anything. The Dreamdeck stuff is a bit iffy since some of the scenes require you to stand and the DK2 sensor loses me easily when I'm standing but maybe if I stand further back it would be fine.

Lucky's Tale is free as are the Henry and Lost short films for a limited time, they all run almost flawlessly. Lucky's Tale has a very occasional framerate hitch but it is really minor, enjoying that game way more than expected. Unlike what Jeff thought EVE: Valkyrie is not free-to-play, it is $59.99 USD + In App purchases if you didn't pre-order, so I haven't bought that one, my suspicion is that my CPU may actually cause some trouble running that.

I did buy Adventure Time since it is the cheapest game at $5. Many games, even the older mobile ports, are $10. The gameplay is a bit bland but it looks nice and some of the gags they do with Jake stretching up to interact with your face are kind of amazing so it seems totally worth the price.

The resolution is a bit lower, the refresh rate is a bit lower, the tracking isn't as good especially facing away from the camera but I'm kind of amazed at how usable the DK2 is with the retail software. I have an HTC Vive preordered and was potentially considering maybe getting a Oculus Rift CV1 later in the year to play some of the exclusives but I can't really see myself getting one now unless the finger tracking tech in Oculus Touch controllers results in some really cool games that would not work with the Vive controllers.

I am also upgrading my CPU to an i7 6700k this weekend in anticipation of the Vive so I'll be curious to see what results from that with the Oculus software.

GTX 980 or 9800? A world of difference.

Edit: Looks like the typo got corrected

I am starting to worry that I am blind.

I got my DK2 out and ran the retail update (1.3 runtime). i5-2500K (@4.5GHz), GTX760 (still waiting for Polaris and Pascal to launch). Seemed mainly smooth to me, only a couple of points where it hitched (visible under translation as slight judder) so was not hitting 75Hz (that being lower than the 90Hz needed by the CV1 and lower res screen is why I even considered running the retail software on the DK2 before upgrading the GPU). As you say Lucky's Tale, Farlands, and the 3D movies/experiences (which are real-time rendered scenes) are available for everyone to enjoy. But 99.9% of the time: felt totally fine and I assumed it was hitting that 75Hz. Looked pretty nice as long as you ignore the sub-pixel layout that the lack of resolution on the DK2 makes clear is not ready for consumers.

But everyone seems to be saying lots of stuff is barely working on on GTX970s. Erm, that's something like 70% more GPU than I've got and yet I'm not seeing much issue. Yes, a few bits dropped below requirements but it was far from a major issue. Maybe my brain is just happy with 38Hz at times (which is slightly shocking as all the Oculus science team seems to think 75Hz was really the floor of being cool (hence jumping to 90Hz to be good for most consumers) with a game and my own experience of static stereoscopic 3D is you need 60Hz per eye to make it feel good - 30Hz is visibly not something where the monitor looks like it's a portal to a mini world even with your head totally still and the separation set to match the monitor size and view distance).

Anyway, if people are sitting with a DK2 and worried they're going to get absolutely nothing out of the retail software due to lacking GPU perf, maybe give it a go.

@shivoa: I might be wrong but wouldnt the DK2 have better performance than the retail version due to the reduced resolution on that unit?

@twi: Yep, possibly I didn't word that well ("that being lower than the 90Hz needed by the CV1 and lower res screen is why I even considered running the retail software on the DK2 before upgrading the GPU") but it's not just a lower resolution [1920x1080 combined vs a pair of 1080 (so 2160)x1200 in CV1] but also a lower refresh rate (75Hz vs 90Hz).

DK2 is 2.1MP@75Hz so 155.5MP/s.

CV1 is 2.6MP@90Hz so 233MP/s.

It actually totals pretty well with the drop from a GTX970 to a GTX760 - if we look at a linear flattening and give basic perf numbers for each from 3DMark then actually you'd want the GTX760 to drive 140MP/s (so the DK2 is a harder ask than the CV1 is for the 970, but not by much) to be roughly on par with the GTX970 (with lower resolution and refresh rate).

@shivoa: got ya thanks for the info!