$1500 is both exorbitant and reasonable given the circumstances.
this post was submitted on 05 Aug 2026
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I'd love to get into VR but not when a headset costs as much as a whole PC. Where is my no onboard processing hardware, tethered only budget headset? (That doesn't record everything I do and send it to Zuck)
on ebay?
I'm still loving my HTC Vive that I bought second hand a few years ago for €300. The Vive is probably too low-res for most (it does have terrible "screen door" effect), but you can get the Valve Index for about that price now, based on a very quick scan of ebay listings.
In terms of budget options you can still buy new, it's probably pretty much just the PSVR2. Just at this moment you can get it for $300 direct from Sony (it's listed at $399 but it's on sale), though you'll need to buy an adapter to use it on the PC, which is an extra $60. Still, it's got a pretty decent resolution display, and it's even got eye tracking, though I think you need a third-party driver to get that working.
It is tethered, though. I dunno.
PCVR is in a slump right now, though, and at this price, I don't know that Frame is gonna fix that. It might not be the best time to buy new.
Windows mixed reality is calling for you. (You need oasis driver on windows)
I bought an HP Reverb G2 new back when it was still officially supported, and I have to say other than the Fresnel lenses being a bit finicky regarding the viewing sweet spot, it's still a great headset. I've seen them used for 100 € - 200 € in the area here I think.
I spent like $50 for mine. $100 total including custom lenses.
I have a thrashed Lenovo explorer with lens adapters bc of my poor eyesight. They're not bad.
I mean, I sold a Vive five years ago for about $250. If you want to give up standalone gaming, and cordless, and on board speakers, and inside out tracking, and virtually all of the innovations of the last decade in this space, then I have no doubt that you can find aging hardware that still runs, at a good budget price.
Yes, tech is getting unreasonably expensive. But this product was always going to be a head above the old generations of Valve VR hardware, and I'm stoked for such a flexible piece of kit that can support streaming from my beefy pc as well as, or better than, my locked down Q3.
That sadly isn't possible I don't think, loss leaders will be out of style this decade I think sadly
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I think I'm out at that price. I'm thinking it will be closer to $1000, maybe a bit higher with hardware prices.
Sadly, same. Everything just keeps going up. Except our income.
It's probably a reasonable price for the tech, but it's kind of annoying to see VR get less affordable over time. I couldn't justify buying the Valve Index just to play a handful of VR games, and I certainly can't justify this.
Seems like basically all tech has gotten less affordable over the past year.
So? I bought an index for $1000 approx. 8 years ago and it’s still awesome and still going strong. Considering inflation and the value added by being cordless and not needing a high-end gaming pc, $1500 seems pretty reasonable.
At 1500 it’s priced alongside higher end boutique headsets like the big screen beyond and pimax’s offerings.
And that’s not to mention just how much cheaper the Quest 3 is.
A dollar denied Cuckerberg is worth ten times its face value
Theoretically? Sure. Realistically though? Money is finite for most of us. And some stuff is just out of budget.
Yeah for you maybe, but for the general market is that going to be the case?
Ugh, here we go again, say it with me now:
Meta sells their hardware at a loss and then make it back through store sales and advertising data. Steam cannot do this because it's just a PC and they are not an advertising company.
With the machine they can't, because it would work so well as a general purpose computer for offices and such. I think they could have subsidized it a bit though as long as it didn't dip below the price of an equivalent traditional desktop. For the frame though, they absolutely could. I suppose some percentage of users won't buy from steam, but I don't think price would affect that percentage much unless it was super cheap. Realistically it's going to push game sales a lot for valve.
What they could do is, since you bought the machine/frame on the store, they could give a certain number of discounts on games purchased after purchasing the device (like giving away Half Life: Alyx with the purchase of the Index/controller). Buy a steam machine, get 5 X% discounts on any games in store, buy a steam frame same except exclusive to VR titles. Still on the fence for my own use, although old, my Vive is still a solid headset
The Frame is even moreso problematic in that regard because it enjoys very little competition. If a business wanted to use a bunch of them for say, training a workforce, they very well might buy them by the thousands, put them into service, and Valve will never see a dollar of it. We saw this happen many times with the Steam Deck. Disney used them to control robots, the military used them to control turrets, and those are just some of the ones we know of.
Back in the day the military bought up thousands of PS4s and used them to make a supercomputer.
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Yeah, but then you'd have to own and use a Meta product. Not remotely worth it.
even if if I get a job I am unlikely to make appreciably more than I did in 2015. i was waiting for the next gen of this but looks like its not meant to be.
The insider in question? The poop from my butt
So it does come from inside...
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