There's Now a Way to Play Oculus Rift Games on Your Oculus Quest

When it was released earlier this year, the Oculus Quest stood out as a neat standalone platform particularly for new virtual reality adopters, but its internals were no match for a VR-ready PC. Today, Oculus is launching beta support for Oculus Link, which will let Quest owners use their headsets with PCs to play Rift titles.

First announced as a feature back at Oculus Connect 6 in September, Oculus Link requires a "high-quality" USB 3 cable for the connection between headset and PC. It can either be USB A to C or USB C to C so long as it can send power and data. Oculus is also releasing the specifications for its premium cable designed specifically for Oculus Link use—slated for release later this year—which should help Quest owners see if their cable's up-to-snuff.

Of course, to run the more demanding Oculus Rift titles via Link, you'll need a VR-ready computer. Aside from needing one USB 3 port, the current recommended specs for Oculus Link call for Windows 10, 8GB of RAM or more, and at least an Intel i5-4590 or AMD Ryzen 5 1500 X as your processor. Right now, the list of officially supported graphics cards for the Oculus Link beta only includes select Nvidia GPUs. For other cards, Oculus "can't guarantee compatibility at this time."

If you're good to go hardware-wise and both your Quest and Oculus software on PC are updated, you should be automatically prompted to enter the Oculus Link beta once you hook in your Quest via USB 3.

In Mike's review of the Quest, he concluded that it effectively hits the "sweet spot" for consumer VR even though "the overall selection on the store isn't as big as modern consoles or the Rift." If you're still happily slicing away at boxes in Beat Saber, more power to you—just know that your headset and computer are a cable away from opening up more VR possibilities.