Essentials

Boosting CPU and GPU levels

Updated: Sep 11, 2026

Quest 2, Pro, 3, and 3S headsets can access additional CPU and GPU levels beyond the default range. These higher levels are available as long as ambient environmental conditions allow for sufficient cooling.

	CPU increase	GPU increase
Quest 2	25% (45% in dual-core mode)	18%
Quest 3, Quest 3S	7%	10%
Quest Pro	25% (45% in dual-core mode)	10%

Meta VR Glasses can access additional CPU levels through CPU Boost, but not GPU levels. Availability depends on thermal conditions, battery saver mode, and the remaining boost budget.

CPU boost hint

Starting in v77, apps can request a short maximum-frequency CPU boost. The boost is intended for short bursts — loading screens, scene transitions, and rare CPU-intensive actions.

Quest behavior

Maximum 45 seconds at a time
Available for up to 20% of your app’s total runtime
Disabled when the device is thermal throttling or battery saver mode is active
Quest devices are automatically boosted for 45 seconds at app launch, so applying a boost during that window has no effect

Meta VR Glasses behavior

Meta VR Glasses manages CPU performance automatically. CPU Boost provides limited extra performance for brief, demanding work such as loading content or transitioning scenes.

CPU Boost uses additional power and is not always available. Design your app to remain smooth without it.

Dual-core mode (Quest 2 and Quest Pro only)

Dual-core mode provides higher clock speeds by reducing the app from three CPU cores to two. The thermal budget of the unused core is redistributed to the remaining cores, enabling the fastest clock speeds available.

Only enable dual-core mode if your app is bounded by single-core performance — typically when most per-frame time is spent in one long sequential update. Use Perfetto to visualize CPU core utilization and determine whether your app is a good candidate.

Requirements:

Quest 2 or Quest Pro only. Quest 3, Quest 3S, and Meta VR Glasses do not support dual-core mode
Apps must use the OpenXR backend

To enable, add the following to your app manifest:

<meta-data
    android:name="com.oculus.dualcorecpuset"
    android:value="true" />

Trading between CPU and GPU levels (Quest 3 only)

On Quest 3, you can indicate whether your app prefers to preserve CPU speed or GPU speed when the thermal governor needs to downclock processors. This is useful when your app is clearly bottlenecked by one processor type.

To configure, add the following to your app manifest:

<meta-data
    android:name="com.oculus.trade_cpu_for_gpu_amount"
    android:value="1" />

Where value is: 1 = +1 GPU level / -1 CPU level, 0 = no change, -1 = -1 GPU level / +1 CPU level.

GPU level 5

GPU level 5 requires dynamic resolution to be enabled. Dynamic resolution scales your eye buffer up or down based on available GPU headroom, preventing frame drops if the device throttles back to GPU level 4.

Design your app to target GPU level 4 as its maximum budget. Treat GPU level 5 as a quality bonus available only when thermal conditions permit.

GPU level 5 is unavailable on Meta VR Glasses. Use dynamic resolution to consume available GPU headroom by raising the eye buffer resolution. Dynamic resolution lowers the resolution when that headroom decreases.