Prepare for liftoff. Nvidia has launched three new graphics processing units (GPUs), all designed for exploring the realms of virtual reality. The exciting part is GeForce GTX 1080, GeForce GTX 1070, and GeForce GTX 1060 are all designed for laptops.
“You can now explore the experience of summiting Everest in VR, do it at ultra-high settings and do so on a notebook I wouldn’t hesitate to carry around,” said Kjartan Pierre Emilsson, CEO of Sólfar Studios, in Nvidia’s statement posted Tuesday.
That opens up a range of possibilities. Ten hour Amtrak journey, with nothing to entertain you but the vast North American wilderness? Boring! Strap on a headset, and shoot some zombies in Resident Evil 7.
The move could give PC-based gamers the edge over Sony’s upcoming Playstation VR. Sure, the headset is cheaper ($399 plus the price of a PS4), but good luck lugging around a console, breakout box, power pack, and camera.
“These GeForce GTX 10-Series notebooks are incredibly impressive and bring easy mobility to high-immersion VR,” Emilsson said.
All of this assumes you have the room, though. VR developers are making games based on the assumption that players have plenty of room to work with, so you may be limited in how many galaxies you’ll be able to visit on a moving train.
Nvidia claims that a virtual reality-capable notebook can be bought for as little as $1,299. Add on the cost of an Oculus Rift ($599) and players can get their own portable dream world for under $2,000. A wide range of laptops will be available packing the new chips: Acer, Aorus, ASUS, Clevo, EVGA, Gigabyte, HP, Lenovo, MSI, and Razer all took the wraps off their 10-series powered machines today.
