Meta Quest 3 features Qualcomm’s next-gen XR processor

Meta Quest 3 is supposed to get a brand-new SoC. The GPU alone is said to compute up to three times faster than the last chip generation.
Meta Quest 3 features Qualcomm’s next-gen XR processor – report
Oct 05 2022 Tomislav Bezmalinovic Twitter Twitter LinkedIn Email
Meta Quest 3 features Qualcomm’s next-gen XR processor.
Meta Quest 3 is supposed to get a brand-new SoC. The GPU alone is said to compute up to three times faster than the last chip generation.


The Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 has been the chip standard for Android-based standalone headsets since 2020: The SoC powers Meta Quest 2 (2020), Vive Focus 3 (2021), and Pico 4 (2022). The Meta Quest Pro, which will be launched in October, also relies on an XR 2 Gen 1, but in a slightly modified form.

The Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 was announced at the end of 2019 and has not been refreshed since. Since it is a derivative of the Snapdragon 865 smartphone SoC that was optimized for XR applications, the chip is now obsolete. The Snapdragon was used in premium smartphones in 2020.

There have been rumors for quite some time that a new generation of the XR2 is waiting in the wings: the Snapdragon XR 2 Gen 2, which will be used in Meta Quest 3 according to VR analyst Brad Lynch.

Lynch gathered the first clues about the chip, which is being developed under the codename Project Halliday, in September. In a new Youtube video, Lynch gathers new rumors about the XR 2 Gen 2. His sources come from the XR industry.

Lynch reports that the new chip will once again be the XR derivative of a smartphone SoC, namely the still unannounced Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, a high-end chip that is supposed to fire premium smartphones of 2023.

Qualcomm is expected to announce the new SoC as well as its XR derivative at the Snapdragon Summit, which will take place from November 15 to 17, 2022. The Snapdragon XR 2 Gen 1 was unveiled in the same way.

Lynch lists the specifications of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in his video and refers to other leakers from Android circles, namely Twitter user UniverseIce. According to Lynch, the most important upgrades compared to the Snapdragon 865 from 2019 are the following:

The new SoC is manufactured in a 4 nm instead of a 7 nm process, which results in higher energy efficiency, among other things.
It uses an Adreno 740 GPU instead of an Adreno 650. According to Lynch’s sources, the new GPU brings a 2.5 to a 3-fold performance increase.
The new SoC supports faster RAM.
The Neural Processing Unit (NPU) is greatly improved.

Source: mixednews.com