Apple Needs A Better Mac To Power Oculus Rift, Says Founder, As Release Date Nears

A trending story over the last few days points to a shortcoming in Apple's Mac Pro lineup and the prohibitively high entrance fee for using the Oculus Rift headset.

Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey was blunt about Apple hardware in an interview with ShackNews when asked if the Oculus Rift headset would ever support the Mac. Luckey said, “That is up to Apple. If they ever release a good computer, we will do it.”

And this isn't the first time Luckey has said this about the Mac -- but this time he was very specific. "It just boils down to the fact that Apple doesn’t prioritize high-end GPUs. You can buy a $6,000 Mac Pro with the top of the line AMD FirePro D700, and it still doesn’t match our recommended specs," he said, referring to a high-end Mac Pro's graphics processing unit or GPU.

Oculus recommends an Nvidia GTX 970 or AMD R9 290 GPU or equivalent. Apple's pricier Mac Pro configuration comes with a Dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs which, according to Oculus' "recommended PC specification," falls short of the "level of hardware to ensure good performance across the range of games and experiences." (For a discussion of the AMD R9 290 versus the AMD FirePro D700 see this.)

But if you're an average consumer and don't have the necessary hardware to drive the Rift, the whole package can get pricey.  For example, Rift bundles on the Microsoft Store page start at $1,499 and range up to $2,699 (that includes the Rift headset).   Best Buy has similar bundles starting at $1,499.

The Oculus Rift can be pre-ordered for $599 and Oculus Rift bundles will ship in limited quantities from retail partners starting in April, according to Oculus.  The Rift itself is expected to ship in March.