Has anyone with their 16 w/ 7700s tried VR using a Quest 3 (or 2)? And if so, what kind of performance have you gotten? I’m currently rocking a Quest 3 (and a 2 for backup) and really hoping that this gets me into the realm of PCVR, but i’m trying to not get my hopes up too high.
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I was able to do it on quest 2. It was great with virtual desktop with good wifi and ethernet to the laptop. Quest link over USB took a bit more finicking as I was getting some weird visual artifacts - I found turning off freesync in the AMD software helped a lot, but it didn’t seem to eliminate the problem entirely for higher refresh rates; also make sure nothing is recording gameplay, for me xbox game bar automatically recorded the last 5 seconds without me ever turning that on (ffs microsoft) and used up the video codec. But once all that was fixed it looked great through the cable. I haven’t tried air link or steam link, but they should work fine.
I even got it working on linux through ALVR, though the performance was significantly worse than virtual desktop and quest link on windows, so I’d recommend sticking to that if you’re dual booting or something like me.
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Was having the same issue mentioned above with the FW16 and Valve Index. Tried using the DP input module in the USB-C port on the D-GPU and still no luck.
Before I thought to try the input module I had already ordered a DisplayPort dongle from Amazon. I had just about given up on using the Framework when it was delivered and so I figured I’d try it before setting up my old gaming computer and it worked. Not sure what it is doing that is different from the input module. Hopefully others have the same luck.
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Awesome, thanks so much for letting us know!
FYI for everyone else: I just borrowed an Anker 556 USB4 hub from a friend to try that as an adapter. Not only did it not work, it bluescreened my laptop. I don’t have the technical knowledge to explain the difference between hubs and adapters, but adapters are probably a better bet at this point!
EDIT: Just ran out and bought this adapter from Best Buy, and unfortunately it did not work. I was able to get into the SteamVR menu screen with lots of sparkling, and then as soon as I tried to load up a game it bluescreened entirely. Maybe it’s gotta be an adapter that advertises 40k144hz? I don’t know anything about DisplayPort standards so take what I say with a grain of salt. I’m going to grab two more adapters off Amazon and update you with my findings.
EDIT2: Tried the Insignia adapter a few more times and found it to be stable, but still plenty of sparkle and occasional headphone popping that neither DisplayPort compatibility mode fixed. Maybe it does work and I just got an old cable. Still gonna return it and try a few more off Amazon to see if I can get one without sparkle. That said, happy to report that the Framework 16 gets the job done for VR! I think Steam lowered my render resolution (not a lot, but noticeably), but the framerate was stable at 120Hz and the 7700S was kept fed nicely by the 7840HS. This laptop is going to be a killer for mobile gaming, especially in another generation or two when we get more powerful GPUs.
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Just to clarify, which port on the laptop are you using here?
The GPU’s one, or one of the expansion cards?
Any sparklies/popping that you see with a Valve Index are likely issues with signal integrity.
(That is, assuming that your Valve Index cable & connections are in perfect shape, too)
Try enabling DisplayPort training in the SteamVR settings! (You might need to enable advanced settings, IIRC)
So I tackled this a few weeks ago and had some success! Goal was to get Outer Wilds running in VR and I managed to do that, but then life hit and I haven’t been able to play for more than 30 minutes. I imagine you’ll want to do different things, so think of the following more as a clue than guide.
Setup: Steam Index, Tumbleweed, KDE (doesn’t work in Gnome), USB-C (on dGPU) → 8K DisplayPort adapter
After getting error 109 starting Steam VR and a fair amount of research and experimenting I finally landed on SteamVR is a steaming pile, especially with AMD. In fact, I never got it to run. Regardless, here is an approach that worked for me:
- The SteamVR room setup/calibration worked well enough, so start there (I knew I was onto something when the lights inside the headset turned on).
- Build GabMus / Envision · GitLab which is mostly tracking down and installing dependencies.
- Run envision (under build/localprefix/bin/)
- Copy/create a profile, then build
- Start and copy the launch options
- Configure Outer Wilds in Steam (under Properties) paste launch options, set Proton 7.0-6 (didn’t retry others after it was working)
- Start game
Simply I got it working on the Rift s
I couldn’t use the dedicated GPU port, but I could use the top left/right slots (For DP). It won’t open the virtual desktop, and there seems to be a slight lag spike every ten seconds during gameplay.
It was pretty solid; I am getting high CPU temps though, 100C at one point.
I also have a Quest 3. Do you connect Quest Link to one of the USB-C ports on the sides of the machine? It’s not connected to the USC-C on the graphics card, right?
Correct, just the ones on the side. Any should be fine since I think it just uses USB3 but I’ve been plugging it into one of the USB4 ports to be sure.
Thanks. Your answer made me realize I have no clue what the Quest3 is doing. I have an original Vive, which had to be connected to the computer by USB-A , but I also connected it directly to the GPU with either HDMI or DP.
When I got the Q3, I connected it to my Lenovo laptop via Quest Link just to see if it worked. I assumed that the Lenovo’s 2070 GPU was powering the graphics, but now I realize that I just don’t know.
So with the FW16, if I connect Quest Link to one of the main USB-C ports, does that mean that the integrated graphics is powering the experience or is something else going on?
No, the quest doesn’t send display directly through the port like the vive or index that use HDMI or DP. Because it’s just using USB3 there’s not enough bandwidth to do that, especially not with audio, inputs, and tracking data all going through the same port.
Instead quest link takes the rendered game and encodes the frames (I think usually with H.264), then sends it down the USB. Because it’s not using DP alternate mode or anything like that, it won’t matter what port its plugged into and you don’t need to plug it into the GPU. (Consider that this software was made primarily for PCs, which don’t have graphics cards with USB ports on them - wouldn’t make much sense for it to require that)
So, yes, the dGPU will still power the graphics - you can check with task manager and see that the dGPU is under load when playing VR with the quest.
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I can confirm that my Index works with the DisplayPort dongle you mentioned (Anker USB C to DisplayPort 8K@60Hz or 4K@144Hz). I also tried another dongle (UGREEN USB C to DP1.4 8K 60Hz 4K 240Hz) and it doesn’t work (headset not detected).
It works on Windows 11 but I couldn’t get it to work on Linux.
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Update: After a week or so of testing, I’m happy to report that I’ve gotten good results with this little dongle right here, Cable Matters Portable USB C to DisplayPort 1.4 Adapter. Glad to hear others have gotten good results with the Anker adapter, and interesting that the UGREEN one wasn’t working. I guess for anyone coming to this thread, be prepared to try two or three to find out which one works for you best!
Very, very happy to confirm that the “Anker USB C to DisplayPort 8K@60Hz or 4K@144Hz” adapter works fine for me and my Valve Index!
Head tracking feels a little like jello by default, as if there’s too much latency. I found that by increasing the “VsyncToPhoton” time in SteamVR’s debug commands 6/7 times, I was able to make things feel more solid.
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For anyone wondering about performance, I don’t have exact numbers but i have had little problems. Im using a 7840HS and the 7700S with 16GB ram, with the setting on to divert i belive 3 gb to VRAM, and with quest link and air link i have been getting fairly good performance in BoneLab on high with very minor issues here and there, and no problems on medium. Alyx is a similar story, with it being able to run pretty well on above mid graphics settings. Blade and Sorcery has been a little rocky, with a lot of stuttering in the menus and in gameplay with a lot of stuff going on (8+ enemies plus dead bodies and modded weapons), though i haven’t gone into many performance settings. I did notice that i was hitting 100% ram usage a lot so i assume a lot of the B&S issues are RAM related since i was not having the same problems in other titles. I’m getting a 32Gb kit from crucial tommorow or thursday though so i’ll update then.
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Ditto this. Last year I upgraded my desktop from 16 to 32 gigs and it makes all the difference for VR. On the FW16 with the 7840 and 32GB ram, the GPU is very much your bottleneck and everything else keeps it fed nicely. Keep in mind the GPU does struggle a little bit to keep up with VR. Particularly games with mediocre optimization like Into The Radius, I have to turn down the settings below what I consider playable to hit and maintain 90hz on the Valve Index. But it works well enough for Half Life Alyx, Pavlov VR, Ragnarock, and VTOL VR (it throttles to 60/45 but it does that on a desktop 3070 too so it’s fine, and anyway you’re sitting down and motion smoothing fills in the gaps). Hopefully others can chime in with their games of choice.
Anyone testing on VRChat yet? Curious on the performance there
Pardon me, but do you mind sharing your ALVR Settings, and/or SteamVR settings? I’m running Garuda (Arch Linux) and whenever SteamVR opens up, the fans immediately rev up, and it’s got immediately. I’m not sure what’s up
Quest 2 → ALVR → SteamVR on Linux, works mostly decent. I’ve played for a while now and can say it’s darn nice.
I’d like to see your settings then lol. I couldn’t get it working well at all, there was a ton of latency and all of the steamvr menus were completely broken - looked like an encoder error or something. When I said I got it working, I didn’t mean well. I’ve just been sticking to windows for VR.