The Pimax 8K virtual reality (VR) headset is known for its successful Kickstarter campaign that not only quickly met its funding target but massively overshot it as well. Because of this, the attention on the headset from both industry and backers has been fairly high. Now, Pimax have published a new update about the head-mounted display (HMD) on their Kickstarter which reveals that the Nvidia GTX 1070 is not actally powerful enough to handle the 8K HMD.
Pimax said in the Kickstarter campaign that the Nvidia GTX 1070 would be able to power the 8K HMD but now it seems that is not the case. The post goes on to detail that though the graphics card is capable of supporting the 8K display of the HMD, it is not able to utilize the full potential of the Pimax 8K. They don’t detail in what way it is unable to handle it but it would be fair to guess that frame rate issues are most likely the cause of the problem. The GTX 1070 can however, according to the post, be used with the Pimax 8K effectively if the user turns down the field of view (FOV) with the incuded tool.
Of course, the Pimax 8K is able to support up to 190 FOV which is a big selling feature of the unit. The GTX 10770 is able to handle the 5K display of content with better performance than 8K content in the higher FOV, so currently there is some trade off in the experience if running the GTX 1070. Though this news will be somewhat of a disappointment to Kickstarter backers who are awaiting their unit and want to run the Pimax 8K with the GTX 1070, it is good that the company are actively working to improve performance and find solutions for their users.
As for software performance, the Pimax 8K has been improved by 30% to 40% for many titles along with engines such as Unreal Engine 4.18 or later, numerous Unity games and Oculus 1.17 or later. The whole list of videogames and experiences that Pimax have tested with the unit will be published at some point in the near future. The company state that over 400 videogames have been tested at this point with many more to come.
The Pimax 8K HMD is still many months away but the company is making good progress on the development of the unit. Pimax plans to build 230 units in the current batch, with production including to 700 in the following month. This will then ramp up over time until the company can supply the units to backers. When that will be, is still sometime away though.
For all the latest on the Pimax 8K HMD, keep reading VRFocus.
via Mint VR