How to Optimize Your Gaming Laptop for VR Usage

VR is an exciting and immersive way to experience your favorite games. Unfortunately, it usually requires powerful hardware and can be quite taxing on your CPU and GPU. Optimizing your PC for a smooth VR experience is not just essential for quality graphics; it’s necessary to prevent motion sickness and discomfort. Luckily, there are ways you can optimize your laptop for the smoothest experience possible. This wikiHow teaches you the best ways to optimize your gaming laptop for the smoothest VR experience.

Quickly Optimize Your Laptop for VR

Make sure your laptop is compatible with your VR headset. Update your operating system, graphics drivers, and headset firmware. Set your laptop to High Performance Mode. Close all background tasks. Optimize in-game graphics settings for best performance. Use USB 3.0. Use an external cooling system.

Section 1 of 10:

Checking Compatibility

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Make sure your laptop is compatible with VR. You’ll need to check the required and recommended specs for your headset. You can use the Steam VR compatibility tool or Meta Quest Link app to check if your PC meets the minimum requirements. In general, you should have at least an NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti, RTX 206, AMD RX 5700 or greater. An Intel Core i5/i7 or AMD Ryzen 5/7 – 8th Gen or newer, 8 GB of RAM minimum (16 GB recommended). A USB 3.0 port (USB-C recommended). Each headset has different required specs. The following are some of the required and recommended specs for various headsets:^{[1]
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- Oculus/Meta Quest 2 & 3:^{[2]
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  - Processor: Intel i5-4590/AMD Ryzen 5 1500X or greater (Recommended Intel i7 / AMD Ryzen 7 or greater).
  - Graphics Card: NVIDIA RTX 20 Series / AMD RX 6000 Series or greater (Intel Arc is not currently supported).
  - Memory: 8 GB or RAM minimum (Recommended 16 GB DDR4 or more).
  - Connectivity: USB 3.0 port or USB-C port.
  - Software: Meta Quest Link
- Oculus Rift S:
  - Processor: Intel i3 6100/AMD Ryzen 3 1200 FX 4350 or greater (Recommended Intel i5-4590/AMD Ryzen 5 1500X or greater)
  - Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti/AMD Radeon RX 470 or greater (Recommended NVIDIA GTX 1060/AMD Radeon RX 480 or greater).
  - Memory: 8GB RAM or greater.
  - Connectivity: USB 3.0 port
  - Video Output: DisplayPort supported
- Valve Index:^{[3]
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  - Processor: Intel i5 7500 /AMD Ryzen 5 1600 or greater
  - Graphics Card: Intel i7 GTX 1070/AMD RX 580 or greater
  - Memory: 12 GB or RAM or higher.
  - Connectivity: USB 2.0 port (USB 3.0 required for camera passthrough).
  - Video Output: DisplayPort 1.2
- Sony PSVR 2:^{[4]
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  - Processor: Intel i5-7600 / AMD Ryzen 3 3100 or greater
  - Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 1050 / AMD Radeon RX 5500XR or greater (Recommended NVIDIA RTX 3060/Radeon RX 6600XT or greater)
  - Memory: 8 GB of RAM or greater.
  - Video Output: DisplayPort 1.4
  - Adapter: PSVR 2 PC adapter.
  - Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.0
- HTC Vive Pro:
  - Processor: Intel i5-4590 / AMD FX 8350 or greater
  - Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 1070 / AMD Radeon Vega 56 or greater
  - Memory: 4GB of RAM or greater.
  - Video Output: DisplayPort 1.2
  - Connectivity: USB 3.0
- HTC Vive Pro 2:
  - Processor: Intel Core i5-4590 / AMD Ryzen 1500 or greater
  - Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 2060 / AMD Radeon RX 5700 or greater
  - Memory: 8GB of RAM or greater.
  - Video Output: DisplayPort 1.4
  - Connectivity: USB 3.0
- HTC Vive XR Elite:
  - Processor: Intel i5‑4590 / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X or greater
  - Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 1060 (6GB) / AMD RX 580 or greater
  - Memory: 8GB of RAM or greater.
  - Video Output: DisplayPort 1.4
  - Connectivity: USB 3.0

Section 2 of 10:

Updating Your Drivers

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Make sure your PC operating system and drivers are up-to-date. You can generally update your drivers by updating your operating system. However, you should use the NVIDIA GeForce Experience or AMD Adrenalin software to update your graphics drivers. Use the following steps to update Windows and the rest of your drivers:
- Click the Windows Start menu.
- Click Windows Update (Windows 11) or Update & Security (Windows 10).
- Click Check for Windows Updates.
- Click Download and Install.

Section 3 of 10:

Updating Your Headset's Firmware

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Use the companion app that came with your VR headset (i.e., Oculus, Meta Link, SteamVR) to check the firmware on your VR headset. Make sure your VR headset’s firmware is up-to-date.

Section 4 of 10:

Setting Your Power Settings

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Set your laptop to high-performance mode. Use the NVIDIA or AMD control panel to set your computer to “Maximum performance mode” under Power Management in 3D settings. Make sure your laptop is plugged in when you use VR. VR uses too much power to go off of a battery. You can use the following steps to change your power settings on Windows:
- Click the Windows Start menu.
- Type “Control Panel.”
- Open the Control Panel.
- Click Hardware and Sound.
- Click Power Options.
- Set your Power mode to Performance (preferably High performance or Ultra Performance if available)

Section 5 of 10:

Enabling Game Mode

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Make sure Windows Game Mode is enabled. This will work to keep background tasks turned off while gaming. Use the following steps to enable Game Mode in Windows:
- Click the Windows Start menu.
- Click the Settings/Gear icon.
- Click Gaming.
- Click Game Mode.
- Ensure the toggle switch next to “Game Mode” is turned on.

Section 6 of 10:

Cleaning Up Background Tasks

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Close any programs you are not using. This includes any startup programs, cloud sync tools (i.e., OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox), web browsers, media players, and game launching platforms you aren’t using. If you are not using Discord or OBS, make sure they are closed. Disable any overlays you aren’t using. If Bluetooth or Wi-Fi is not needed during gameplay, go ahead and turn them off.
- To check and make sure all background tasks are closed, press Ctrl + Alt + Del and click Task Manager. Select any background tasks that aren’t running and click End Process.

Section 7 of 10:

Setting Your Graphics Settings

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Make sure your graphics settings are optimized. Use the Oculus or SteamVR app to make sure the refresh rate matches the refresh rate of your headset (which is usually 90Hz or 120 Hz). If your headset has an adjustable frame rate, try lowering it to a lower setting, such as 90Hz. Enable Asynchronous Spacewarp (ASW) on Oculus or Motion Smoothing on SteamVR. Test the in-game graphics setting one setting at a time to find a good performance sweet spot. Check the following in-game graphics settings:^{[5]
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- Use Medium or High graphics settings rather than Ultra.
- Reduce shadow quality, post-processing, texture resolutions, and antialiasing.
- Turn off motion blur.
- Turn off ambient occlusion.
- Turn off VSync if available.
- Adjust Supersampling. Start at 100% and make 10% adjustments to test for performance.
- Reduce your monitor's resolution to 1080p if you have a 4K display.

Section 8 of 10:

Optimizing Your System Cooling

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VR uses a lot of system resources and can cause your system to overheat. Try to keep your CPU and GPU under 85°C. You can use a system monitoring tool, such as MSI Afterburner or HWMonitor, to check your system temperature. Use a laptop cooling pad or USB-powered fans when using VR. Also, make sure there is good airflow around your laptop. Use an elevated stand if necessary.

Section 9 of 10:

Using Proper Connections

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Make sure you are using USB 3.0 or USB-C ports to connect your headset. Avoid using USB hubs. If your headset requires a DisplayPort connection, make sure you are connecting to a DisplayPort 1.4 port, and not using an adapter, if you can. If you are using an Oculus Quest, make sure you are using a certified high-speed USB-C cable. Make sure your cable length isn’t too long. Avoid using AirLink. If you are using AirLink, make sure you are using a stable high-speed 5GHz Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi 6.

Section 10 of 10:

Upgrading Your Laptop

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Check your system usage in Task Manager. If your RAM frequently hits 90%, try upgrading to 32 GB RAM. If you are able to do so, upgrade your hard drive from an HDD to an SSD for better transfer rates. If you run into frequent GPU or CPU bottlenecks, you may want to consider purchasing an external GPU enclosure.