Minimum GPU to hit 120Hz on Quest 3

[tjaf]

Hi,

Two years ago I build a 27" cab. At the time, I decided on a AMD Ryzen 5 5600 coupled with an RTX4090. Since I am not playing the cab in 4K, but rather 2K, this simple GPU was able to run everything at 165Hz refresh with some minor graphics tweaking (mostly limiting the max texture size and disabling AA). I recently got a Meta Quest 3 and started playing in VR. I use the OpenComposite DLL, with the Quest link (not steam VR) with the Quest tethered to my cab. I manage to play in 90Hz on most tables with some further tweaking. I notice that I have to disable VR rooms, as enabling VR rooms does have a major impact on performance. It is actually quite decent, but visually demanding tables do suffer from micro stutters and after having played for 2years at 165Hz, I do feel VR isn't as smooth as I was used to.

I am hence considering to upgrade to an RTX 5070. As this is roughly twice as powerful as my RTX 4060, I am hopeful I can hit consistent 120Hz (If needed I would be OK to keep disabling VR rooms). But before spending the money, I would like some confirmation. Is anyone running an RTX 5070 with the Quest Link and able to hit smooth 120Hz? It is quite some money to burn and I rather be sure it will be worth it. 

[tjaf]

P.s. after a tip on discord, I tried out the new VPX Beta in a test folder and I have to say that the performance for me seems really promising. So I am holding off on buying a new GPU and will see how the 10.8.1 further develops. It is still in Beta, but from what I tried, it seems very promising.

[DBrown67]

I just got VR up and running with my Quest 3. I also upgraded my cab to an RTX5070. I can hit 120fps, but I need to drop the graphics settings to medium as the Q3 decoding is the bottleneck. With graphics at medium and cranking up some AA the image is reasonable. Not great but not crap either.
I may play around with 90fps so I can improve graphical fidelity. The 5070 was about as much as I would spend. To go 5070Ti or 5080 was much more money. And then to find the headset is the bottleneck with it's Snapdragon processor.

Edit:  After updating Virtual Desktop today I got more framerate options. It now offers 96 and 100 fps as choices. So I'm running 100fps. I'm using the 10.8 VR optimized GL version that comes with VPX Launcher. The desktop shortcut for this version is green.

Asynchronous Spacewarp should be off in Virtual Desktop. There was also a Link Sharpening setting in Oculus Debug Tool that I disabled, which seemed to help.
Used H264 codec (as that is the fastest for Q3 headset to decode), streaming bitrate at 100. I had all AO and shadows off in VPX and set textures to a 4K limit. Graphics now cranked up to Godlike, but I started on High. Use Frame Pacing or Adaptive sync.
It's now smooth 100fps. I was still getting the odd stutter here and there before, but was seeing no spike in the virtual desktop overlay. Was annoying as hell. Still needs more testing but signs are encouraging.

I may play around today with different codecs but not too much headroom at 100fps as decoding figure in Virtual Desktop sits at 8/9. No way will it push 120 unless I drop the graphics down, but 100 is smooth enough.

I would definitely not upgrade from a 4090. My 5070 and 5800X3D are breezing it, and the Quest 3 becomes the weak link to hitting high frame rates. The more recent cards do support newer codecs more efficiently. Having said that I'm using H264. I tried AV1 and it took up the headroom.
(Decoding hitting mainly 10 and I wasn't seeing any more visual clarity).

Edited September 6 by DBrown67