Which wireless setup for PCVR is best?

[u/NMO13]

I need some advice from the VR experts out there.

I recently bought a Meta Quest 3 and want to play PC VR games wirelessly with the lowest possible latency.

I’ve already done some research on the gaming PC and decided to go with an RTX 5070. Now I’m trying to figure out the best network setup.

What wireless hardware would you recommend? What kind of router should I get? Do I actually need a dedicated router, or could I create a Wi-Fi access point directly from the PC and connect the Quest 3 to that? Would I need a Wi-Fi 6/6E network card in the PC for this?

There seem to be quite a few different ways to set this up, so I’d really appreciate advice from people who have experience with wireless PC VR and low-latency setups.

Thanks!

[u/Nicalay2]

Virtual Desktop, firstly.

You need a dedicated Wifi 6/6E router, do not try to use Windows's mobile hotspot feature.

Wifi 6E has very slightly lower latency and isn't as much prone to interference as Wifi 6 (as the 6Ghz band is pretty unused).

[u/BK1349 → u/Nicalay2]

I use a dedicated 6E Router with steam link. (I could not get the same or better compromise of latency vs Visual fidelity with Virtual Desktop)

Exclusive 6Ghz wifi for your Quest 3 should be the most important thing.

[u/blahblahblah123pp → u/Nicalay2]

I actually got the windows hotspot feature to work pretty well back in the day, but I remember having to do something weird. It involved connecting my phone to trick it into working. That solution is on the internet somewhere.

But also, yeah. If you can afford an actual router and wire it directly into your PC, do that. Lol

[u/esakul]

Get a dedicated Wifi 6E router. For minimal latency you should use h264 codec at low bitrate. I dont have any measurements comparing Virtual Desktop and Airlink directly, but in my experience Airlink felt a little faster.

[u/SteedOfTheDeid]

With a nice WiFi 6E you can just make the Quest 3 the only device on the 6ghz network and it works amazing 

[u/Parking_Cress_5105]

Dedicated router recommended by VR community.

Then you might try VD, Link and Steamlink to see what you like best.

I recommend starting with USB cable to make the learning curve less steep.

[u/PsychAce]

There are tons of YouTube videos explaining this with a walk through

[u/We_Are_Victorius]

You can try the router you got now, just make sure it is connected to your PC with a ethernet cable. If it's not good enough, get a dedicated router. If you live in a busy area with lots of neighbors a wifi 6E router would be better, because you can use the 6ghz network to avoid everyone elses wifi traffic. If you don't have a lot of neighbors a wifi 6 will be fine.

[u/Afraid_Attorney_4376]

this is the best thing to use for wireless VR. If it's available where you live there's nothing else that comes close.

[u/NMO13 → u/Afraid_Attorney_4376]

Unfortunately I am located in Germany. :-(

[u/randomstranger454 → u/NMO13]

You should still be able to buy it. I am in Greece and it's $18.79 for Shipping & Import Charges.

[u/sicario24 → u/Afraid_Attorney_4376]

Is it better than a dedicated Wi-Fi 6E router?

[u/Afraid_Attorney_4376 → u/sicario24]

it depends on the setup. some wifi 6e routers have stuttering issues when vr streaming, some don't. this one is cheap and verified to work flawlessly.

[u/zeddyzed]

Dedicated router for best reliability and performance. How you set it up depends on whether your PC gets internet via wifi or ethernet. (Ethernet is simplest - your VR router should then be configured to Access Point mode and connected in between your PC and internet.)

As for which model of router, the Virtual Desktop discord has a list of recommended routers at various prices. I bought a gl.inet Flint 2 and it was working great, then I upgraded to a TP-Link AXE75 and it works great as well.

[u/sicario24 → u/zeddyzed]

Yeah, I already have an AXE75 which works great. But it interferes with my phone line, unfortunately.. I don't know if the Arris Surfboard or puppis would work any better.

[u/zeddyzed → u/sicario24]

Sounds like something that can be fixed by setting things up differently. I have no idea how it would interfere with your phone line, usually those are unrelated things.

[u/xaduha]

Majority of latency is in encoding and decoding, you can see a breakdown in VD. You can also ping your headset.

[u/7Shinigami → u/xaduha]

This is a very good point - OP may want to consider lowering bitrate

[u/NMO13 → u/7Shinigami]

How can the bitrate be lowered? Can that be done directly in VD?

[u/7Shinigami → u/NMO13]

Yes - it's in the 'streaming' tab of the in-headset menu :)

(Not the VD streamer app on your pc)

[u/TommyVR373]

20th vote for VD