• Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our community.

Pimax to Launch 8K, Next-Generation VR Headsets via KickStarter

Raevenlord

News Editor
Joined
Aug 12, 2016
Messages
3,755 (1.23/day)
Location
Portugal
System Name The Ryzening
Processor AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
Motherboard MSI X570 MAG TOMAHAWK
Cooling Lian Li Galahad 360mm AIO
Memory 32 GB G.Skill Trident Z F4-3733 (4x 8 GB)
Video Card(s) Gigabyte RTX 3070 Ti
Storage Boot: Transcend MTE220S 2TB, Kintson A2000 1TB, Seagate Firewolf Pro 14 TB
Display(s) Acer Nitro VG270UP (1440p 144 Hz IPS)
Case Lian Li O11DX Dynamic White
Audio Device(s) iFi Audio Zen DAC
Power Supply Seasonic Focus+ 750 W
Mouse Cooler Master Masterkeys Lite L
Keyboard Cooler Master Masterkeys Lite L
Software Windows 10 x64
Pimax is a little-known company based of Shangai and Silicon valley, but it's looking to disrupt the VR HMD Market with its Pimax 8K headset. Let's get this straight right off the bat - we aren't in the presence of a real 8K panel on the Pimax. Instead, each eye is offered a low-persistence, 4K panel angled at 45º - which is more than enough, by anecdotal, subjective evidence, to rid this headset from the dreaded "screen door" effect. Due to the panels' resolution and their angling, Pimax is promising a 200º FOV, which apparently makes it so that your peripheral vision now fully works as if your were headset-less - and is around double the FOV of other headsets such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

There will be three different models in the next generation of Pimax HMDs (the company has already delivered a product in the form of the Pimax 4K HMD, and sold 30,000 units of that headset, if you're wondering). The Pimax 5K, Pimax 8K, and the Pimax 8K X have all the same features and functionality save for their display and input resolutions. The Pimax 5K has a pair of 2560x1440 panels, and comes cheapest $399 - it's comparable to the Oculus Rift at that price-point. The Pimax 8K has the full-resolution 3840x2160 per-eye displays running at the full 90 Hz refresh rate, but it relies on pixel-doubling to make driving the system easier. Finally, the Pimax 8K X is fundamentally the same headset as the 8K, and its $699 Kickstater price offers (or offered) improved signal processing hardware to allow it to take a full-resolution dual-4K input signal.





The pixel-doubling capabilities of the Pimnax 8K are very interesting, in that subjective accounts point to no discernible difference to the full 2x 4K rendering resolution needed to drive the 8K X, but basically halves the processing requirements of your graphics card. It could be a much better solution for users that want to have a full VR experience without the dreaded screen-door effect, but not have to purchase one (or even two, more likely...) top tier graphics cards just to drive the headset with settings that make it worth it.



The Pimax 8K HMDs will come in lighter than already existing solutions in the market, due to the usage of plastic in its construction. I know; it's plastic. However, headset weight is being touted as one of the primary factors for comfortable VR journeying, so that's always a positive. And on another note, the Pimax HMDs will feature a USB Type-C accessory port that makes them compatible with some interesting add-ons, such as Leap Motion's gesture controllers, or even a scent station, that (you guessed it) produces scents based on the action that's being delivered to the HMD.


Pimax's headsets will be 100% compatible with Valve's SteamVR "lighthouse" trackers. They also are compatible with all SteamVR and Viveport software, and Pimax says that owners can make use of Oculus' Home software through a third-party utility.The company also has plans to offer its own "PiPlay" content delivery platform, as well as its own hand-held motion controllers with SteamVR support. The company has decided to bring their development resources towards a Knuckles-like controller instead of the wand designs more commonly used by this generation of VR sets, which should make the system even more competitive and interesting to use.

What do you think? Is this the VR HMD that might actually have the hardware to spark a VR revolution? If so, you can check out the company's KickStarter page that's listed on the sources, though almost all of the early bird first picks have already been cleaned out.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site
 
Joined
Apr 24, 2008
Messages
2,025 (0.33/day)
Processor RyZen R9 3950X
Motherboard ASRock X570 Taichi
Cooling Coolermaster Master Liquid ML240L RGB
Memory 64GB DDR4 3200 (4x16GB)
Video Card(s) RTX 3050
Storage Samsung 2TB SSD
Display(s) Asus VE276Q, VE278Q and VK278Q triple 27” 1920x1080
Case Zulman MS800
Audio Device(s) On Board
Power Supply Seasonic 650W
VR HMD Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest V1, Oculus Quest 2
Software Windows 11 64bit
Marketing issues aside I'm not convinced that Pimax has a solid product here. I am interested and the specs look good but this really is the type of thing you have to experience firsthand. I wouldn't put down that kind of money without at least trying it.

The minimum specs are an interesting question too. A GTX 980 or GTX 1070 pushing dual 4K monitors and realistically needing ~90 Hz,.......
 
Joined
Jun 22, 2014
Messages
446 (0.12/day)
System Name Desktop / "Console"
Processor Ryzen 5950X / Ryzen 5800X
Motherboard Asus X570 Hero / Asus X570-i
Cooling EK AIO Elite 280 / Cryorig C1
Memory 32GB Gskill Trident DDR4-3600 CL16 / 16GB Crucial Ballistix DDR4-3600 CL16
Video Card(s) RTX 4090 FE / RTX 2080ti FE
Storage 1TB Samsung 980 Pro, 1TB Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus NVME / 1TB Sabrent Rocket 4 NVME, 1TB Intel 660P
Display(s) Alienware AW3423DW / LG 65CX Oled
Case Lian Li O11 Mini / Sliger CL530 Conswole
Audio Device(s) Sony AVR, SVS speakers & subs / Marantz AVR, SVS speakers & subs
Power Supply ROG Loki 1000 / Silverstone SX800
VR HMD Quest 3
Exactly. I hate when companies do that.

Also, just to add to the misconceptions... Only the $799 8K-X model supports true native (2)3840x2160 resolution via two display port cables. The standard 8K model used one display port cable and has on onboard upsampler to achieve that resolution. So this sort of answers the question of "how can a GTX980 run that res @ 90fps" because, it isn't truly rendering at that res. The 8K-X model has a minimum spec of a 1080ti and even that has an asterisk stating that SLI or future Volta may be required.

I too am not convinced about this particular company. The only thing I hope comes out of it is that it drives other companies to push res/FOV.
 
Joined
Sep 15, 2011
Messages
6,762 (1.40/day)
Processor Intel® Core™ i7-13700K
Motherboard Gigabyte Z790 Aorus Elite AX
Cooling Noctua NH-D15
Memory 32GB(2x16) DDR5@6600MHz G-Skill Trident Z5
Video Card(s) ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 3080 AMP Holo
Storage 2TB SK Platinum P41 SSD + 4TB SanDisk Ultra SSD + 500GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD
Display(s) Acer Predator X34 3440x1440@100Hz G-Sync
Case NZXT PHANTOM410-BK
Audio Device(s) Creative X-Fi Titanium PCIe
Power Supply Corsair 850W
Mouse Logitech Hero G502 SE
Software Windows 11 Pro - 64bit
Benchmark Scores 30FPS in NFS:Rivals
Imagine how blurry and washed out is going to be the image on that so called 8K VR, when up-scaling the native 720p game render to 4320p ;)
 
Joined
Jan 17, 2006
Messages
932 (0.13/day)
Location
Ireland
System Name "Run of the mill" (except GPU)
Processor R9 3900X
Motherboard ASRock X470 Taich Ultimate
Cooling Cryorig (not recommended)
Memory 32GB (2 x 16GB) Team 3200 MT/s, CL14
Video Card(s) Radeon RX6900XT
Storage Samsung 970 Evo plus 1TB NVMe
Display(s) Samsung Q95T
Case Define R5
Audio Device(s) On board
Power Supply Seasonic Prime 1000W
Mouse Roccat Leadr
Keyboard K95 RGB
Software Windows 11 Pro x64, insider preview dev channel
Benchmark Scores #1 worldwide on 3D Mark 99, back in the (P133) days. :)
Also zero mention of AMD hardware in their campaign, last time I looked.
 
Top