Meta Quest 3's new cooling unlocks even more performance

Meta Quest 3 will be much more powerful than its predecessor, and not just because of the new chipset.

Thermals and heat dissipation severely limit the performance of standalone headsets. The Meta Quest 2 is a prime example: The SoC's CPU ran at half load for years to avoid overheating, well below its potential.

The limitation will be reduced with the next firmware update. The result: up to 45 percent higher CPU performance in some cases. This boost is the result of years of data analysis and software optimization. This case illustrates the importance of thermals and heat dissipation in headsets.

So, to recap. It's a 26-45% CPU win. Hopefully we'll see more 90Hz apps, or better physics/AI/etc, to consume the CPU.

With GPU, most of the win will be consumed via dynamic res. Feedback is welcome on our integration.

Can't wait to see new Quest 2 games utilizing the compute!

- Neel Bedekar (@neelbedekar) June 2, 2023

Unveiled in early June, the Meta Quest 3 comes with a new chipset that Meta claims will deliver two to two and a half times the performance of the Meta Quest 2's Snapdragon XR2.

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The new SoC is a topic of discussion in the latest episode of the Boz to the Future podcast, in which Meta's CTO Andrew Bosworth has Jason Rubin as a guest. The co-founder of Naughty Dog has been working at Facebook for almost ten years and was responsible for content for many years.

The two executives talk about Meta Quest 3 during the show and discuss the performance of the new VR system. Bosworth reveals that the device will feature a new cooling solution that will unlock additional performance in addition to the already very fast chipset. That's because better cooling means the chipset doesn't need to be throttled as much.

Here's what Andrew Bosworth said:

"You talked about the more power. A lot of the more power that we're talking about is coming from this improved chipset, but it's not the only place that we're getting more power. We've also done some really clever things with how we manage the thermals on this device. [...] It's one of the coolest engineering work done on this headset and you'll never see it: It's how we manage the heat, because that is the real blocker for these headsets. And, for example, there's a little pin stripe running around the face plate. If you look at the front, that's actually the vent, and we're pushing air out of that little pin stripe all the way around the headset. It's a very clever way of merging design and functionality."

This cooling solution must be very subtle because you can't see it in the teaser. Unfortunately, Bosworth doesn't reveal any more about the new cooling system.

However, he promises that there will be more information about Meta Quest 3 at Meta Connect 2023 in September. The headset was only announced in early June and has yet to be unveiled in detail.

You can read all about the Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro in the linked reviews.

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