NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card released today. As usual, a Founder’s Edition is available directly from NVIDIA. The company’s partners, such as EVGA and MSI, offer their own takes on cooling, ports, and clockrates.
However unlike the Founder’s Edition, none of the announced partner cards feature the VirtualLink USB-C port.
VirtualLink is the new USB-C single cable standard for future PC VR headsets and GPUs. It’s intended to simplify the setup process of PC VR and ensure compatibility with USB and power requirements. It also allows gaming laptops to easily support VR. VirtualLink is also backed by AMD, Oculus, Microsoft, Valve, and HTC.
All RTX 2070 and above cards feature the port
Given that all RTX 2070 partner cards have the port, the likely explanation seems to be that VirtualLink is mandatory for RTX 2070 and above but optional for RTX 2060. If so, it’s disappointing to see none of the OEMs including the port- despite many marketing their cards as “VR READY”.
AMD hasn’t announced a card with VirtualLink yet, despite also being a founding member of the standard. Even the new Radeon VII announced just last week lacks the port.
So if you’re in the market for a $350 card and want better compatibility with future VR headsets, it might be a good idea to pick up the Founder’s Edition instead of a partner card. We’ll keep watching the GPU market in case any OEM releases a special model that keeps the port.
The post Partner GeForce RTX 2060’s Don’t Have USB-C VirtualLink Port, Only Founder Edition Does appeared first on UploadVR.
via Mint VR