The Oculus Go standalone VR headset should be with us in a matter of weeks or months, but we still haven’t been able to test the thing out for ourselves. Oculus’ John Carmack has given us a vague idea of what to expect from the device’s performance, though.
Replying to a question on Twitter, the Oculus Chief Technology Officer noted that Go should run “significantly better” than Samsung’s two year old Galaxy S7 phone running on a Gear VR. Turning to typical Carmack speak, he explained that Go “does dynamic clock scaling above the minimum fixed levels, like s8, so everything runs better than s7”.
Yes, significantly better. BTW, did someone from support get in touch with you about the video regression? There is a task open.
— John Carmack (@ID_AA_Carmack) February 23, 2018
Earlier this year it was revealed that Go would be using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 821, which is used in older handsets like the original Google Pixel. However, as a standalone headset without the various other processor-demanding functions of a smartphone, Go and direct all of its resources to the VR experience you’re running.
It sounds like Go won’t be slouching on the performance side, then, though it’s still unlikely to compete with more recent smartphones like the just-announced Galaxy S9, which includes the new Snapdragon 845 chipset.
Elsewhere, Carmack also noted that casting Go’s display to other standard screens near you was being worked on, but probably wouldn’t be ready in time for “day 0”.
Oculus Go is still pegged for an early 2018 launch at $199, though we’re running out of early.
