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5 Great Tips to Make your Steam VR Games Run Better

Multiple ways to improve performance for your favorite games

6 min. read

Updated onOctober 4, 2023

updated onOctober 4, 2023

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Key notes

Steam VR is an app from theSteam gaming platformthat allows you to play virtual reality games from your computer on various headsets like the Oculus Rift.

As high-tech as virtual reality platforms may be, games in this space do run into someperformance issues. This guide will show you different ways to ensure your game run smoothly on Steam VR.

What Steam games can you play in VR?

Before you download any of these games, you shouldcheck if your PCcan handle them. The Oculus Rift, for example, requires certain system requirements to run.

Steam has apage on its websitelisting every single one of its virtual reality titles on its platform. Not every game is made equally assome are betterthan others. Below are a few highlights:

How do I get better performance at Steam VR?

There are some solutions you can do pretty quickly, while the ones detailed below require a bit more extra work:

1. Underclock your GPU

Underclocking your GPU will reduce the amount of work it has to do to render Steam VR on your headset allowing them to run better. There areother ways to underclockwhich we recommend learning about.

You can try undervolting, but that comes with a greater performance cost. Undervolting is best used to reduce internal temperatures.

2. Change the computer refresh rate

3. Disable GeForce Experience Overlay

4. Update GPU drivers

5. Defragment your disk drive

There are multiple ways to clean up your disk drive, so check out Windows Report’s guide onother hard drive cleaning methods.

Why is Steam VR so laggy?

There are multiple reasons why Steam VR (orany game from the platform, for that matter) would lag. It’s possible your browser cache is full, and you’ll need to clear it out.

Or perhaps the game’s settings are too high for your computer. As a result of being unable to handle the workload, Steam VR subsequently runs terribly.

If this is the reason, we recommend lowering the graphical settings, like the resolution, on whatever title you’re playing via Steam VR.

How to add Steam VR to Oculus Library?

In order to connect Steam VR to your Oculus headset, you have to go into your Oculus account’s settings. From there, you allow third-party apps to connect to your Oculus library and install Steam VR immediately. Be aware there have been reports ofSteam VR not working rightwith the Oculus Quest.

To fix this problem, it’s recommended that you first update Steam to see if that works. If not, add an exception to it on Windows Firewall.

Feel free to comment below if you have questions about other Steam games or apps. Also, leave comments about guides you’d like to see information on other gaming software.

5 Great Tips to Make your Steam VR Games Run Better#

What Steam games can you play in VR?#

How do I get better performance at Steam VR?#

1. Underclock your GPU#

2. Change the computer refresh rate#

3. Disable GeForce Experience Overlay#

4. Update GPU drivers#

5. Defragment your disk drive#

Why is Steam VR so laggy?#

How to add Steam VR to Oculus Library?#