How To Make VR Run Better

Low framerates, choppy gameplay, and slow load times are bad enough when gaming normally, but these issues are several times worse in VR!

It’s fairly easy to become nauseated when playing in VR, and facing performance issues can only make this happen more quickly. There are several reasons why this may be happening, ranging from outdated drivers to hardware issues.

But before you throw in the towel and take your VR headset to the repair shop, try a few alternative solutions. VR headsets like Valve Index aren’t always at fault for these issues, and it may be your PC that’s the culprit of these issues.

So, read on to find out how you can optimize your VR performance with a few simple tips. These take mere minutes to execute and can eliminate a host of issues like stuttering, frame rate drops, and screen tears.

11 Ways To Make Steam VR Games Run Better

1. Clear Out The Dust

Sometimes, VR games can become laggy because of a layer of dust in a PC that hasn’t been cleaned in a while. The dust results in the CPU overheating quite rapidly during extended use, which can become a problem in the long run.

Simply cleaning out your CPU cabinet may have you see a marked increase in VR performance. You can use a soft-bristled brush, a cotton swab or a can of compressed air for this. 

Remember to be gentle while cleaning your PC! The CPU cabinet is home to many delicate parts, and any stray movement can inadvertently lead to damage.

2. Update Your Operating System

If you’re using an outdated operating system, it may lead to reduced PC performance. Remember that modern gaming titles are designed with newer operating systems in mind for better performance.

You can look for updates on your Windows 10 PC by searching for them in the ‘Search Windows’ field. And if your PC specifications meet or exceed those required by Windows 11, you will be able to download the update.

3. Update Your Graphics Card Drivers

Drivers allow PC hardware to communicate with the operating system, and outdated graphics card drivers often lead to a host of graphical issues. Screen tears and FPS drops are often the result of an outdated graphics card driver.

The two major graphics card makers, NVIDIA and AMD, release regular updates for their GPUs that keep performance crisp and smooth. Each of these brands has a dedicated application for graphics card driver updates, namely the GeForce Experience for NVIDIA and Gaming Evolved for AMD.

You can find each of these apps on their respective websites.

4. Run Disk Defragmenter

This is an issue that’s typically common in PCs without a Solid State Drive. When data is stored in a Hard Disk Drive, it gets written in different spots, requiring the OS to access many places for one file. The VR performance suffers as a result.

To remedy this issue, you can run the Windows disk defragmenter tool to put these files back together and access them quickly. You can find the ‘Defragment and Optimize Drives’ option in the ‘Search Windows’ field in the start menu.

The defragmenter tool will take care of the rest once you’ve chosen the drive you wish to defragment.

5. GPU Optimization

The dedicated graphics card apps by NVIDIA and AMD allow you to optimize how your GPU is being used during gaming sessions. 

You can optimize your individual games at once by using the ‘Optimize All’ option in the NVIDIA GeForce Experience app. As for AMD, the process is similar, where you use the auto-optimize feature instead.

6. Power Settings

You can change your power plan from balanced or energy-saving to high performance using a settings menu. To access this settings menu, all you have to do is search for ‘Power Options’ in the ‘Search Windows’ field in the start menu.

While the performance increase isn’t exceptionally high, in tandem with other fixes, this will make a notable difference.

7. Use TRIM

Much like the disk defragment tool, you can enable TRIM for your Solid State Drive. This is a little trickier than disk defragmenting as it involves the use of a few commands in the command prompt.

Firstly, you can check if TRIM is enabled on your device or not. Type in “fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify” and hit the Enter key. If the result is “DisableDeleteNotify=1”, TRIM isn’t enabled on your machine.

To enable TRIM, type in “fsutil behavior set DesableDeleteNotify 0” and hit Enter on the keyboard. This will enable TRIM on your computer.

8. Disable Windows Animations

Not all Windows animations are strictly necessary, and with them on, you’ll be losing out on valuable processing power for your VR games.

You can search for ‘Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows’ in the Search Windows field to access a complete list of animations. Click on the checkbox to disable or enable any animations you’d like, and press Apply to finish up.

9. Tweak VR Resolution And Refresh Rate

You can opt to reduce VR resolution and refresh rate for better performance. The improved FPS will be immediately noticeable, although it can lead to the picture quality being so poor that it makes you nauseous. Needless to say, it’s better to tweak VR resolution and refresh rates in a moderate fashion.

10. In-Game Settings

If you haven’t tried doing so already, you should look into the in-game graphics settings menu. Oftentimes, you can disable a few options without noticing any egregious visual changes, such as shadow quality or reflection quality. This can sometimes improve your FPS a lot, to the point of reaching the desired 60 fps or higher.

11. Overclock Hardware

Gaming PCs come with measures to increase the CPU clock speed for improved performance. Overclocking is what keeps aging PCs from falling out of grace too quickly, but there are risks associated with it.

One of the major risks with PC overclocking is the heat, which can damage your hardware if it isn’t cooled properly. So, you should always be careful when tinkering with the clock speeds of your PC.

Conclusion

VR is quite taxing on the performance resources of your PC, which is why performance issues are not all that uncommon. Sometimes, these issues can be born of the PC failing to meet the required specifications, while at other times, it can be something more manageable.

You can also find help in online communities that have had experience with similar hardware or specifications. Online threads about VR headsets based on Windows Mixed Reality, Valve Index or others, GPUs, and processors can all help you pinpoint the issues and solve them.

If none of the solutions listed above fix your problems, consider having both your VR headset and PC looked at by a technician.

Martin Rakver

I am a software engineer and tech enthusiast. During my free time, I like to immerse myself in the world of virtual and augmented reality, which I believe will be more and more prominent in the years to come.

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