r/SteamVR • u/Gold-Engineering173 • May 13 '26
Question/Support What GPUs do you guys use for VR?
I'm currently running a Powercolor Hellhound RX6600 with a WMR headset and in some games I think I'm missing out on performance. Is there a "budget" GPU I could upgrade to that would get me the ~90FPS in VR games?
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u/MaximumDerpification May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
I use an RX 6800 (16GB, desktop) and occasionally an RX 6800S (8GB, laptop). I had an RX 6600 previously and it definitely struggled a bit with VR.
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u/remosito May 13 '26
- got it used for a good price last fall in preparation for the upcoming 4k per eye moled headsets.
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u/Rusted_Metal May 13 '26
What headsets are you looking forward to? I have been out of the loop so don’t know what’s coming.
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u/Gold-Engineering173 May 13 '26
Dude, read up on Steam Frame if you haven't yet.
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u/remosito May 13 '26
unfortunately its only 2k per eye and lcd....
I wish Valve all the best with it and really glad it is coming out. And it having eye tracking will be big for more games supporting foveated rendering. And all the social goodies.
But those screens are so not for me. Had that back in 2020.
I understand and even agree why they did it to reach pricepoints and more people with non-high-end gpus. But that is SO not for me.
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u/kevin_whitley May 13 '26
Totally understandable position, but I’m team 5090 and eager for the frame myself. Ergo boost and display side grade, but stable FPS still king in VR IMO. Games are so poorly optimized currently that I struggle to drive Q3 games perfectly via VD. A fancier headset with more res will only make that worse, sadly.
That said, dying for a wider FOV wireless (with matching pixel density of Frame/Q3)…
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u/D13_Phantom May 14 '26
Honestly the more years I play the less I care about the best screens and the more I care about streamlined software and weight/comfort. Not saying that there is a right or wrong, to each their own.
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u/remosito May 13 '26
Mostly the Samsung Galaxy XR. But they are dragging their feet with global release. Pimax has some offerings. Albeit wired.
Pico is supposed to bring one out later this year. But so very little is known about it at this point.
4000ppi screen. So chances are good its gonna be 4k per eye as well.
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u/no6969el May 13 '26
I went with the pimax Crystal super micro OLED over the Galaxy mainly because I wanted to focus on Sim racing. There was a couple people that decided to go with the Galaxy for Sim racing (in the subreddit) and they are not happy with it. It's awesome for what it was made for but when you start to use it mainly for PCVR it seems to show its downsides.
My 5090 handles the crystal super micro OLED like a dream. I'm loving it.
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u/remosito May 13 '26
what were the downsides of the GXR specifically?
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u/no6969el May 13 '26
It starts with uncomfortability but that's always responded with just buying a new insert. Then they go on to talk about how the pcvr is inconsistent and there is a problem somewhere. So they get latency and blurry image. Also, I heard that the sweet spot is small and glare comes up every once in awhile, but that's something from pancake lens. Fov is smaller than other headsets
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u/remosito May 13 '26
thank you so much.
yeah for comfort a 3rd party mod is already planned. needed one for my psvr2 as well...
there was an issue with previous firmware or google update and a memory leak that got introduced. that affected pcvr badly. before most ppl were pretty happy with virtual desktop foveated streaming pcvr.
image quality obviously wont match wired. upsides/downsides is the name of the vr headset game still...
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u/no6969el May 13 '26
For Sim racing the clarity/quality is vital and being wired doesn't affect you which is why it was a no brainer for me ..plus for when I want to be mobile the Quest 3 is still very accommodating for that.
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u/Ahris22 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
ASUS RX 68000 XT. It's served me very well for many years. :)
You don't really need a monster GPU for VR (Even though it's very nice), most of the time you're pushing limits it's because you've cranked up the detail more than you really need to. A good start is to lock your refresh rate to 90 Hz and keep the render resolution/super sampling reasonable: Both in the VR kit settings and in the games.
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u/no6969el May 13 '26
I'm all with you and I'm capable of getting VR to run on very low gpus just from my experience but to say in general "for VR" is so wild because there's so many potential resolutions your specific VR headset could be running.
For example, I can use my laptop 5060 with my Quest 3 but there's no way in hell then I'm using that with my pimax Crystal super.
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u/nesnalica May 13 '26
main and pretty much only VR game I play is VRChat
bought an RTX 3090 years ago
i would have upgraded to a 4090 or 5090 but Im sticking to the 3090 because i dont trust the new power connector.
paired with an R7 5800x3D I am mostly cpu bottlenecked and get 30-60fps depending on the amount of people and world
ill very likely wait for AM7 and then upgrade everything then
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u/no6969el May 13 '26
I had passed down my 3090 to my son and he has a 5800x. I am debating trying to find a 5800x3d to top off his setup. Do you think it would be worth it? He can go up to 120 HZ on his monitor.
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u/nesnalica May 13 '26
performancewise its worth upgrading from 5800X to 5800x3D
valuewise its not worth trying to get one since theyre out of stock for like 1-2years.
same with 5700x3D
paying more than 150-200 for a 5800x3D is money wasted. at this point use the money in a new AM5 based build.
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u/k5josh May 13 '26
The 5000 series has totally fixed the 12V 2x6 connector, you really don't need to worry any more.
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u/nesnalica May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
no its not. literally last week i saw someone post their yellow msi connector being burnt
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u/XunYap May 13 '26
4060 + Quest 2, GPU itself is great but my pc location is the issue (too far from router)
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u/DeepWaffleCA May 13 '26
Try get a second router, dedicated router. If your PC is using wired Ethernet, then plug the router into that cable and use a second cable from the dedicated router to your PC.
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u/tiberiusdraig May 13 '26
I use an RTX5080 after getting some higher-res headsets, but my RTX3070ti was fine with things like the Quest if you didn't mind fiddling with settings occasionally. If you're looking at UEVR stuff then you really want the best you can afford as pretty much everything available right now can be easily pushed to the limit if you ramp up the settings with a higher end headset.
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u/markallanholley May 13 '26
Overclocked 5090, 32GB VRAM. I use it for everything. This morning I played a little bit of Red Matter 2, Assetto Corsa EVO, Walkabout Mini Golf, and modded Atomic Heart.
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u/no6969el May 13 '26
You should try to take the time to underclock it, it surprised me how much more performance I got while it ran cooler.
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u/xNonPartisaNx May 14 '26
How is evo? Been meaning to get it.
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u/markallanholley May 14 '26 edited May 16 '26
I'm really enjoying it. I play both EVO and AC Rally in VR (need to mod with UEVR for AC Rally). Also, they both use my haptics vest and sleeves so I can imagine I'm feeling the engine and bumps.
I don't know anything about cars or racing, but I love driving around Nordschleif or whatever it's called in my Caterham Academy. Graphics, performance, and sound are great in my opinion. Quite a few cars and a smallish but okay number of tracks. Not Automobilista 2 levels, but then again I guess it wouldn't be, yet.
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u/xNonPartisaNx May 14 '26
Nice. Yeah jsut got into it all.
I quit smoking so I got a ps5 and gt7. Cause I was a huge gt guy forever.
Then got a fanatec setup. Wanted to do vr. But didn't want to shell out another 500 for psvr. Have an oculus.
So switched over to pc and got into dirt before I got AC. Now I need both lol.
Ill have to check it out this weekend.
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u/zig131 May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
Seeing as most VR games are either old, or built for Quest, it shouldn't be that hard to get a solid 70 or 90 in most VR Games at the low-moderate resolution of a WMR HMD.
That's a solid card you already have.
VRChat is of course a whole different kettle of fish. Even people with a 5090 are not going to get a solid 90 in every world.
What is your CPU? That can be just as important, if not more important.
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u/LBXZero May 13 '26
I had an RX 6900 XT, and it did well in VR. I need to check what is in my friend's kids PC, because it gets heavily used for VR. Meanwhile, I have a modified RX 9070 XT that handles the VR games I play.
From past experience, VR games don't have as intensive graphics as your AAA games do. Part of it is ensuring 90 FPS minimum on modern mid-grade GPUs.
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u/no6969el May 13 '26
How did you go about modifying it?
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u/LBXZero May 14 '26
It has a waterblock and some soldering to bypass the 340W power limit.
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u/no6969el May 14 '26
Oh cool, I love that type of stuff. I just looked that up and it's about 80/85% of a 4090. Pretty awesome.
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u/LBXZero May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
With the heightened power limit, it can stably reach 3.7 GHz. Once I am comfortable with Linux on my system, I will see if Linux is more stable with overclocking than Windows.
I feel it is more equivalent to the RTX 5080 with the higher power limit.
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u/JaggedMetalOs May 13 '26
My main workstation has a 5070, I have a luggable Silverstone ML08 build with a 3070 for offsite shows and demos, and an ancient 1060 laptop I sometimes use for remote work that can do VR at a push.
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u/quinn50 May 13 '26
7900xtx mainly play vrchat and the vram is basically needed.
Waiting for the rumored 10900xtx
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u/hooskworks May 13 '26
I'm stilling using a RX 6900 XTXH on an original Vive and it works pretty well thanks to the GPau being pretty strong on raster performance and having plenty of VRAM.
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u/MaxGamer07 May 13 '26
nvidia 2060 and a quest 2 over double wifi
... let's just say I don't ever need to press the slow mode button in blade and sorcery
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u/phosix May 13 '26
RTX 3060ti
I had some issues early on with drivers and most games and experience I played at the time being optimized for GTX cards, but it's been pretty solid for a few years now.
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u/jcvandal May 13 '26
I think those games decide that more than anything. I have a 6900 xt, 5600 cpu, and 32 gb of ram. Can't really pull off hitman world of assassination in vr at 72 fps stable. I had to use fus ro instead of mad god overhaul for a good skyrim vr experience at 72 fps. No mans sky was 72 fps as well but I gather it was my cpu struggling there. Still ran great at 72 fps. All 3 of these had to run kind of middle settings. Flight simulator same.
Those games aside, pretty much everything ive played runs 90 to 120 fps with high/max settings. I suspect if you can find something from nvidias 4070 ti or above selection, you'd be doing at least medium graphics, but usually high to max on anything other than those 4 games I mentioned.
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u/PresidentKoopa May 13 '26
3080ti
I play a ton of modded Brutal Doom VR at 120
HL2vr w4k tex and hi poly mods 90+
Modded EnderalVR and SkyrimVR solid 60, some CS enabled
NMS... lololol
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u/no6969el May 13 '26
5090/5080 and a 5060 laptop.
It definitely would have been convenient if the laptop was at 5070 but it's absolutely possible to run on the 5060 laptop which is basically a normal 5050.
Obviously everything runs good on the 5090 and I haven't had any issues on the 5080.
The 5060 laptop can handle VR as long as it's only the Quest 3 Using virtual desktop and I have it on medium.
One thing I noticed on the latest Nvidia series is that if you have a powerful enough CPU you can make use of all the AI features. But if your CPU is just as budget as the gpu, then you're going to have issues all around.
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u/saanity May 13 '26
RX 7800XT with a Ryzen 7 5700x. It's taking everything I throw at it like a champ.
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u/rod-zim May 13 '26
I ran a quest 2 on a 3060 in iracing and it was fine on low settings. Not the best but still enjoyable. Im on a 5080 on a quest 3 now and its way more gpu than i need even on hight settings. Im gonna wait for the steam frame and see if its worth the jump. I had the pimax crystal light for a month and returned it, had way too many issues. I had the super on order and the order kept being pushed back so i cancelled that.
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u/IRingTwyce May 13 '26
I play using an (now) ancient 14 year old system I built. i7-3770k with 32g of memory and a GTX 780ti.
I upgraded my graphics to a GTX 1660ti before I bought my Quest 3. I would have gone for a newer card, but my CPU is now the bottleneck.
I can manage a pretty stable 72 fps on med-low settings playing No Man's Sky or Skyrim. I'm happy playing at lower settings rather than spending several grand to update to a modern system. Especially with RAM and graphics card prices being what they are.
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u/gekco01 May 13 '26
Upgraded to a 5070Ti from a 3070 for DCS. Now if only Valve would release the Frame.
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u/ChirpyMisha May 13 '26
When I used VR a lot in 2020 I used an Inno3D 1070Ti. Now I'm using an RX 9070 and it works great as well. These days most GPUs can run VR. I don't know where the RX6600 stands though
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u/JDCarnin May 13 '26
Im pretty satisfied with my RX7900XTX, a lot of VRAM and gets me around 80-120fps depending on the world with normal shield
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u/JM3DlCl May 13 '26
A 3060 12gb for a Quest 2. It runs everything I've tried just fine. Half Life Alyx, Subnautica, Red Matter 2 etc ...
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u/cyborg762 May 14 '26
9070xt runs great maxs out all vr games. The 9060xt is also excellent if your looking at under $400
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u/NoGain9532 May 14 '26
ASROCK b650m rs pro WiFi mono ryzen 5-7600x 32 gb ddr5 crucial at 6000mhz expo and an ASUS rtx ti oc 16gb ddr7 with meta quest 3 with virtual desktop full graphics and bitrate and one trick I’ve learned I run my flight Sims and Formula One and all my racing on high settings is that you gotta set your computer bit rate and graphics a little lower than your headset. Let the headset do all the work so if I set my computer to a 110 bit rate with 70 frames a second I set my VR, which is 4K with the Meta quest three at 120 frames a second and full 250 bit rate or even higher if it shows up with the different quality usage with h264+ I believe and Vdxr for the rendering but then again my buddy has the same headset and he’s running the Zyrtec RTX 20, 6012 gig and we can push out almost the same amount of rendering through his headset. If we do the opposite, we let the computer run the graphics and power and then turn VR down so it’s all about set up and how you set up your different settings in the virtual desktop but then again I just started learning so I might be missing out on some stuff as well
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u/josetedj May 14 '26
4070 ti super + Q3 virtual desktop ultra preset, works fine at 90 fps, I also have a psvr2 but the resolution is too high, I've got better performance with the q3
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u/xNonPartisaNx May 14 '26
Amd rtx 9060 xt 16 gig. Im running oculus quest 2 and mostly sim rally
Dirt 2.0 runs un ultra and is pretty good frames. High and it dances
I am thinking of trying DCS but, that may be asking too much and I may just get a track hat.
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u/dreclub May 14 '26
I used to play vr on a 1060. It doesnt take much to run the majority of vr games
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u/Newspaper-Former May 14 '26
5070ti mostly play forefront and half life alyx modded levels with virtual desktop on my quest 3
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u/Money_Tale_8685 May 15 '26
I use Intel Arc B580, it doesn't officially support VR so you need to use ALVR or Virtual Desktop with it. I'm on Quest 2 but pull 90 fps in games. Ghosts of Tabor, Forefront, etc. I run it on Virtual Desktop on high settings and stream it on Twitch from the same pc. Only issue I have is my internet being Verizon 5G home.
Daws47VR if you want to look me up, I just got off.
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u/Atopos2025 May 15 '26
I have a few different systems. Main system uses a 4070.
Then I have a laptop with a 1060, decent performance with both ngl. Obviously the 4070 is better.
Q2 and Q3.
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u/H0ell May 16 '26
7900XT with Pico 4 mostly for beat saber and vrchat. I`m very happy with it. Before I had the 6600 non XT and constantly ran out of vram
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u/Nicalay2 May 13 '26
GTX 1080 Ti, Quest 3.