GPU question

Seriously there must be close to 20,000 threads now asking exactly the same question.

But anyway, no way will your card run everything smoothly, in fact it won't run most things smoothly (due to various reasons).

Ballpark gpu for 'decent' performance = GTX770 class and up but so much depends on the game and the 'level' of graphics you expect (or set things to if that choice is given). This is like a how long is a piece a string question but the only real advice is if you want in to GOOD VR then expect to have to upgrade to something newer than a 500 series which is already showing it's age on non VR games let alone games that drop almost half their frame rate when switched to stereo rendering.

And you WILL want to hit 75fps or higher (but Vsynced) at all times. Yes you will be able to run many demos and graphically un-demanding tests, but hardly anything that will blow you away if you require 75fps - my 780 runs most things at 75fps+ in VR but will struggle soon with graphically rich VR stuff. I can hit 90-120fps in my current UE4 WIP scenes - in VR - that are good looking (but constrained as in draw distance, which for now is a good idea with DK2 and poss CV1 anyway).

To test for your own expectations (roughly) see what games you can currently get 150fps on @ 1080p and their level of graphics. THAT is the kind of thing you can hope to run at 75 in VR (as it does pretty much halve it right now - at least on my own UE4 tests) - if you can't get around 150fps @1080p on something that graphically pleases you , then you probably won't hit the required 75 fps in vr for similar looking games.

My bad, I probably should have searched before posting.

Thanks for all the info. Pretty much answered my follow up questions too.

I'm going to wait for the 970 to be available at Best Buy and get it then. I have a bunch of rewards certificates after buying my 4k Samsung TV that I want to use.

550ti can merely operate normally.
I got R9 280X x 2 crossfire still worrying the performance on UE4=="

That's weird, I didn't think I'd have a problem at all since I 3D game just fine with my Acer 3D monitor with no issues. Granted, I can't turn the graphics settings to "Ultra" but BF4 works great on high and so do most racing games like F1 2014.
VR is a whole nother world though so I'm glad I asked.