Meta Developers

As an app developer for Meta Quest headsets, you have the ability to change the clock speed of the headset’s CPU and GPU while running your app. Increasing the clock speed raises power consumption. These controls allow you to decide whether to emphasize long battery life (through low clock speeds) or enhanced features (through high clock speeds) in your application.

To support simultaneous development on headsets with different chipsets, and to ensure applications can receive boosts without having to update their builds (such as the 7% GPU boost for GPU level 4 in v49 OS), we expose a system of CPU and GPU levels to select from, rather than giving you direct control over clock frequencies.

Select the lowest CPU and GPU levels that allow your application to run consistently at framerate.

Performance per clock cycle differs between headset models. For example, although Meta Quest 1 has a higher maximum clock speed than Meta Quest 2, when running VR applications, Meta Quest 2 runs 80% more instructions per cycle due to differences in their CPU architecture.

Profiling CPU and GPU level and frequencies

You can profile current CPU and GPU level, frequency, and utilization using the OVRMetrics Tool, the Performance Analyzer section of Meta Quest Developer Hub, or the VrApi log stats.

Meta Quest Developer Hub Performance Analyzer

In this image, MQDH is used to profile an application running on Quest 2 at CPU level 4 / 1.478GHz, and GPU level 3 / 490MHz.

Setting CPU and GPU levels

Set CPU and GPU levels for your apps by using the ProcessorPerformanceLevel enum. This is exposed in the following functions in each engine’s integration package:

Engine	Function
Unreal	`UOculusXRFunctionLibrary::SetSuggestedCpuAndGpuPerformanceLevels` (exposed in Blueprint)
Unity	`OVRPlugin::suggestedCpuPerfLevel`, `OVRPlugin::suggestedGpuPerfLevel`
Native	`ovrp_SetSuggestedCpuPerformanceLevel`, `ovrp_GetSuggestedGpuPerformanceLevel`

These functions provide a layer of indirection. Rather than directly setting a CPU or GPU level, you pick a ProcessorPerformanceLevel. The operating system will then keep your CPU and GPU levels at the lowest value within a certain range that preserves your application’s framerate. This allows your application to automatically adjust for longer battery life during less-intensive scenes.

ProcessorPerformanceLevel	CPU level range	GPU level range
`PowerSavings`	0 to 4	0 to 4
`SustainedLow`	2 to 4	1 to 4
`SustainedHigh`	4 to 6^*	3 to 5
`Boost`^**	4 to 6^*	3 to 5

^*The CPU level range when CPU ProcessorPerformanceLevel is set to SustainedHigh depends on your headset generation and settings, as follows:

Quest 3, Quest 3S	4 to 4
Quest 2, Quest Pro, Quest 3 or 3S with CPU level trading	5 to 5
Quest 2 or Quest Pro with dual-core mode	6 to 6

^**The Boost ProcessorPerformanceLevel exists for historical reasons, and behaves exactly the same as SustainedHigh.

Note: Depending on your headset, some power levels may be inaccessible based on features and settings specified by your application, requiring modifications to your application to access. See your headset’s CPU/GPU level availability section for more details.

Meta Quest 1

Clock speed of application cores

CPU level	Clock speed
0	0.98 GHz
1	1.34 GHz
2	1.65 GHz
3	1.96 GHz
4	2.30 GHz

If possible, CPU level will increase when CPU utilization is 83% or greater, and decrease when CPU utilization is 77% or lesser.

Note: CPU and GPU levels above 4 were introduced after the Meta Quest 1 end-of-life.

Note: Although the Meta Quest 1 has a higher clock speed on its application cores than the Meta Quest 2, it uses a simpler CPU architecture. Internal tests on VR applications found that Meta Quest 2's CPU architecture allowed it to run 80% more instructions per cycle.

Clock speed of GPU cores

GPU level	Clock speed
0	257 MHz
1	342 MHz
2	414 MHz
3	515 MHz
4	670 MHz

If possible, GPU level will increase when GPU utilization is 91% or greater, and decrease when GPU utilization is 85% or lesser.

Note: CPU and GPU levels above 4 were introduced after the Meta Quest 1 end-of-life.

CPU/GPU level availability

CPU level	Availability
0-4	Always available

GPU level	Availability
0-4	Always available

Note: Access to CPU/GPU levels is further restricted based on your set ProcessorPerformanceLevel.

Meta Quest 2

Clock speed of application cores

CPU level	Clock speed
0	0.71 GHz
1	0.94 GHz
2	1.17 GHz
3	1.38 GHz
4	1.48 GHz
5	1.86 GHz
6	2.15 GHz

If possible, CPU level will increase when CPU utilization is 83% or greater, and decrease when CPU utilization is 77% or lesser.

Clock speed of GPU cores

GPU level	Clock speed
0	305 MHz
1	400 MHz
2	442 MHz
3	490 MHz
4	525 MHz
5	587 MHz

If possible, GPU level will increase when GPU utilization is 87% or greater, and decrease when GPU utilization is 81% or lesser.

CPU/GPU level availability

CPU level	Availability
0-4	Always available
5	Available if dual-core mode is not enabled
6	Available if dual-core mode is enabled

GPU level	Availability
0-4	Always available
5	Available if dynamic resolution is enabled

Note: Access to CPU/GPU levels is further restricted based on your set ProcessorPerformanceLevel, and may be overridden if certain OS features are running in the background (i.e. casting). See Logcat stats definitions to learn how to track these behaviors.

Meta Quest Pro

Clock speed of application cores

CPU level	Clock speed
0	0.71 GHz
1	0.94 GHz
2	1.17 GHz
3	1.38 GHz
4	1.48 GHz
5	1.86 GHz
6	2.15 GHz

If possible, CPU level will increase when CPU utilization is 83% or greater, and decrease when CPU utilization is 77% or lesser.

Clock speed of GPU cores

GPU level	Clock speed
0	305 MHz
1	400 MHz
2	442 MHz
3	490 MHz
4	525 MHz
5	587 MHz

If possible, GPU level will increase when GPU utilization is 87% or greater, and decrease when GPU utilization is 81% or lesser.

CPU/GPU level availability

CPU level	Availability
0-3	Always available
4	Available if the application does not enable passthrough, eye tracking, face tracking, body tracking, or gaze-based foveated rendering features
5	Available if CPU level 4 is available, and dual-core mode is not enabled
6	Available if CPU level 4 is available, and dual-core mode is enabled

GPU level	Availability
0-3	Always available
4	Available if the application does not enable passthrough, eye tracking, face tracking, body tracking, or gaze-based foveated rendering features
5	Available if dynamic resolution is enabled

Meta Quest 3 & Meta Quest 3S

Clock speed of application cores

CPU level	Clock speed
0	0.69 GHz
1	1.09 GHz
2	1.38 GHz
3	1.65 GHz
4	1.92 GHz
5	2.05 GHz

If possible, CPU level will increase when CPU utilization is 83% or greater, and decrease when CPU utilization is 77% or lesser.

Clock speed of GPU cores

GPU level	Clock speed
0	285 MHz
1	350 MHz
2	456 MHz
3	492 MHz
4	545 MHz
5	599 MHz

If possible, GPU level will increase when GPU utilization is 87% or greater, and decrease when GPU utilization is 81% or lesser.

CPU/GPU level availability

CPU level	Availability
0-3	Always available
4	Available if the application does not enable passthrough features
5	Available if CPU level 4 is available, and CPU and GPU level trading is set to `-1`

GPU level	Availability
0-2	Always available
3-4	Available if the application does not enable passthrough features
5	Available if GPU level 4 is available, and CPU and GPU level trading is set to `+1`, or dynamic resolution is enabled

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