The Apple Vision Pro is definitely an exciting bit of hardware, focused on "spatial computing" instead of virtual reality gaming, but for the fun of it, we're going to tell you how to get a VR-ready gaming PC and headset for the same price as an Apple Vision Pro.
Of course, there's some shortcuts we're going to take here to make things easier. Firstly, there's no UK price for the Apple Vision Pro yet, so for the sake of clarity, we're going to say $3,499 is equal to £3,499. We know it's not, but stick with us.
Secondly, the Apple Vision Pro isn't made with gaming in mind. However, when it comes to the best VR headsets, there's no doubt that some will compare those already on the list with Apple's upcoming device. But, just so you're aware, Apple isn't attempting to take away Meta's audience. And finally, the Apple Vision Pro release date hasn't arrived yet, so we can't say for certain if it's good or not, but the Vision Pro pre-orders have started, so you can decide if you want to pick one up instead of a gaming PC.
The first cost is obviously a VR headset and you can pick up a Meta Quest 3 for around £480 for the 128GB model. Since we're focusing on PC virtual reality, we don't need to spend extra for additional storage. However, you could opt for some of the best Quest 3 accessories if you want a better experience, like a battery strap to extend the headset's battery life.
That knocks us down to around £2,900 (let's say you spent £600 on the Quest 3, some accessories, and a game or two). For peripherals, you can find a cheap mouse and keyboard combo for around £20, find a budget monitor (or splurge on one of the best gaming monitors, if you'll use it for PC gaming too), but you could use your TV if you'd want.
Now, let's argue that puts us down to £2500, if you decided to spend quite a bit on a monitor. Fortunately, Nvidia is adding to the best graphics card lists with the upcoming 4080 Super release date, which currently has an MSRP of $999, but we'll say it's £1100 for UK customers including tax, and all of the other fun stuff.
That leaves us with £1400 for the rest of the PC. We'll go through this fairly quickly, but you can get the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU, a Noctua NH-D15 cooler to cool it, Asus TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS AM5 motherboard, 32GB of Corsair DDR5-6000 RAM, a 4TB Lexar NM790 SSD, a Corsair RM1000x PSU, and a Corsair 4000D AIRFLOW case, all for £1297. This is pretty much the same PC I have, but with a weaker CPU, cooler, and less speedy DDR5 RAM.
Here's the full list of specs if you're wanting to switch parts around. Alternatively, you can find the specs here via PCPartPicker (however, you'll have to add the peripherals, VR headset, and 4080 Super when it releases to it).
Component type | Component |
|---|---|
CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D |
Cooler | Noctua NH-D15 |
Motherboard | Asus TUF GAMING X670E-PLUS AM5 |
Memory | Corsair Vengeance 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-6000 CL36 |
Storage | Lexar NM790 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME |
GPU | RTX 4080 Super |
Case | Corsair 4000D AIRFLOW |
Power Supply | Corsair RM1000x (2021) 1000W PSU |
VR headset | Meta Quest 3 128gb |
That leaves you with an additional £103 for games, upgrades, or just as spare cash, meaning all of that would cost you less than the cheapest Apple Vision Pro. However, the Apple Vision Pro is running 25-minute long demos in store, if you wanted to check that out. And you can watch Dune in 3D with an Apple Vision Pro too, so that might pull you onto the Apple side.
Despite popular belief, you don't need an expensive setup to be VR-ready. This is a fairly high-end PC setup that comes up to the same price as Apple's Vision Pro, but you could certainly get a cheaper setup with a Quest 2 and cheaper components for potentially less than £1500, or cheaper if you go second-hand.