Oculus Rift
Oculus announced on Tuesday that it has purchased Surreal Vision, a company which uses cameras to map indoor environments. Oculus Rift

There is still half a year to go before the expected release of the consumer-friendly Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. However, Oculus has already released the specifications needed for PC hardware when operating the Oculus Rift VR headset.

The official Oculus Rift blog says the specs are pretty big. Gamers who would want to give the Oculus Rift a spin on their own would need some pretty powerful hardware. The required specs are as follows:

-- NVIDIA GTX 970/AMD 290 equivalent or greater

-- Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater

-- 8GB+ RAM

-- Windows 7 SP1 or newer

-- 2x USB 3.0 ports

-- HDMI 1.3 video output supporting a 297MHz clock via a direct output architecture

The first three points are the required specs. But the last three points are additional requirements to get the full experience of the virtual reality device.

According to the developer, the advanced specs are driven mostly by the requirements to experience the VR graphics. Considering how Oculus Rift aims to deliver a breakthrough experience, it is not surprising that this would require higher specs to accommodate it. The recommended specs also take into consideration what would work for VR technology as a whole.

While the specs may seem very expensive and hard to access at first, the company remains firm that these specs will be required for the lifetime of the Oculus Rift. However, it also contends that the Rift will become more accessible to consumers, making the more advanced hardware less expensive in the long run.

Oculus Rift gameplay (Credit: YouTube/Chris Pirillo)

Have feedback or game tips? Leave a message at g.galang@ibtimes.com.au.