Performance and hardware

Meta VR devices manage hardware resources to balance performance, thermals, and battery life. Understanding these systems helps you build apps that run smoothly on supported devices.

Meta VR devices adjust clock speeds and throttle workloads to stay within safe thermal limits. Apps that exceed those limits experience reduced frame rates and degraded performance. The runtime’s frame timing algorithm, FrameSync, is designed to absorb the variable frame cost that throttling produces.

Meta VR devices use discrete CPU and GPU performance levels. Higher levels provide more processing power, but generate more heat and consume more battery. The system selects levels based on the workload. Apps can request performance levels, but these requests do not guarantee processor clock speeds.

For short bursts of demanding work — loading screens, complex scene transitions, or physics-heavy moments — apps can request a temporary performance boost beyond the default levels.

The maximum available boost varies by device.

Meta VR devices share limited memory between the system and your app. Understanding memory budgets, texture memory, and allocation patterns helps you avoid out-of-memory crashes and maintain stable performance.

When battery saver mode is enabled, Meta VR devices reduce performance to extend session time. Apps should detect this state and adapt. For example, reduce visual fidelity or disable non-essential effects.