Oculus VR reveals Rift hardware requirements

Oculus VR, the Facebook-owned company behind the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, has confirmed the hardware you'll need to run the retail-ready build of the device - and it comes with sad news for users of less-mainstream operating systems.

Launched to considerable success via a record-breaking crowdfunding campaign, the Oculus Rift has sold well despite being a pre-production prototype aimed at developers. Its retail release has been long awaited, and now gamers know just what sort of rig they'll need to drive the system: an Intel i5-4590 or better with 8GB of RAM and an Nvida GeForce GTX 970 or AMD Radeon 290 graphics processor - the latter of which, regardless of performance, will require an HDMI 1.3-compatible video output supporting a 297MHz clock, the company has warned.

Before celebrating regarding the hardware requirements, though, spare a thought for those who use non-Windows operating systems: there'll be no support for anything other than Windows 7 Service Pack 1 or newer at launch. In the specification announcement published by chief architect Atman Binstock, the admission came that Windows will be the company's sole focus for the time being. 'Our development for OS X and Linux has been paused in order to focus on delivering a high quality consumer-level VR experience at launch across hardware, software, and content on Windows,' Binstock explained. 'We want to get back to development for OS X and Linux but we don’t have a timeline.'

Binstock has claimed that the system requirements for the Rift will 'stay constant over the lifetime of the [headset],' promising that the cost of such hardware will drop over time until it becomes affordable for all. He also warned that 'almost no current laptops have the GPU performance for the recommended spec.'

Pre-orders for the Oculus Rift consumer release are to open later this year, the company has previously stated.