Sorry for asking about tech tips here, but...

[faaiiL]

I ask here, because I can't find any VR related tech videos or benchmarks. Its always AAA games or esports titles.

So basically I'm running a Ryzen 7 3800X at the moment (i had a 3900X at one point which I gave away) and a RTX 3070 and intend to stay on AM4 for another few years. So with the upcoming AMD gpu announcements and new Ryzen 7000 series cpus I've been thinking about upgrading since my most played game, Beat Saber keeps stuttering/lagging quite regularly during gameplay.
I often had moments where I'd play well (for my skill level) and lost my score due to a sudden lag spike. This is why I'd like to upgrade. As a sidenote, I do use recording software while playing.

So here is what I had in mind. I'd like to either get a 5800X3D or a 5900X. Which would be better for Beat Saber and why?

The 5800X3D looks promising in other titles compared to same gen or even 7000 series ryzen cpus and I'm intrigued by the good 1% low results (which I believe are prob very important in VR) or would I benefit more from a 12-core CPU like the 5900X that can also be overclocked?

Also I'd like to take advantage of the upcoming gpu announcement and maybe replace my 3070 for some gpu from team red like an RX 6900 XT. I don't use DLSS or ray tracing and think it would be a great upgrade for me, but I do not know if it works well on Beat Saber or other VR titles. If you have experience, please let me know.

Also if you made it this far, thanks for reading and thanks again for your kind replies :)
- ONE MISS WONDER

[0Dd1]

5800X3D or a 5900X shouldn't really matter, your 3800X should be good enough already actually. Or a new 7000 gen Ryzen, wouldn't matter at all imo. Roll a dice. I'd go with the newest platform, you never know why, but some new feature might become an advantage eventually.

The HTC Vive Pro does only 90Hz, so that's not a lot. Even 144Hz is just enough imo, 90Hz is really ugly and slow, especially in fast games like Beat Saber. So better invest in a hmd upgrade and get the Index.

AMD graphics cards aren't that great for VR I've heard, more stutter and worse compatibility.

[faaiiL]

I have the index and its broken :c its not about fps, but i want better frame timings so i don't have as much lag spikes and stutters. Similar reason why I would consider the 5800x3d because its gonna improve 1% lows, but I'll look into new 7000 series cpus as well, haven't really checked out the new features on there.

[WorldofShadows]

Hey, a bit late to the party but maybe this can help you.

I'm running a similar setup. Ryzen 3900X and a 3080TI, running Beat Saber mostly with LIV (For Full Body Tracking) and OBS streaming/recording with no lag spikes on the Vive Pro 2 at 4000x4000 set in SteamVR.
Had the Vive Pro 1 before that and even there everything was smooth, the 90Hz is more than enough.

Beat Saber is a low perf game, so it shouldn't even consider lagging on your actual setup at all.
Are all drivers up to date? Windows 10 or 11? Beat Saber modded? What graphics options are enabled in Beat Saber?

One thing you can try is locking Beat Saber so specific (physical) cores of your CPU.
The game is dumb as hell and uses core 0 mostly and can't really profit from more than 4 cores. I locked it to he later cores 6,7,8,9 and that helped back in the day a lot.
You can do that after game start in the taskmanager manually, use scripts to let that happen automatically or use programs like Process Lasso to automate that for all running processes.
I use the latter for over a year bc i'm lazy and that works quite well.

And one last thing, something really dumb, but it happens to my everytime: When you record/stream, do you leave the preview window on and is your Beat Saber selected as foreground app? That sounds silly, but it has an impact as well.

[faaiiL]

Thanks for your reply. Drivers are all up to date, using Nvidia Experience and Mainboard software + windows latest updates available. I also clean installed all drivers recently too. Since I've been upgrading GPUs lately. 3070 -> 3080 -> RX 6900 XT -> 3090 Ti. To remove old GPU drivers I've used DDU. Still on the same Ryzen 7 3800X, however I'll upgrade to Ryzen 7 5800X3D soon (waiting for Black Friday Deals).

I'll try to lock beat saber to some cores as you suggested, it may improve or even solve the stutters.

Lastly, no SteamVR preview is not open during my gameplay, however Beat Saber might not always be my selected foreground app. I will also try to remember to keep that in mind.

[Steel]

I'm going to assume this isn't a flex thread but that system is capable of running Beat Saber literally ten times over. I have a 3060 ti and a weaker CPU and I experience smooth gameplay at a crazy high resolution (1.5x on the oculus app).

Now the game DOES stutter from time to time, but that's because of how the game is coded, or maybe mods I have installed, it's not a lack of performance.

I can tell you that AMD cards are not great for VR if you use a Quest 2, as their current cards have TERRIBLE hardware encoders, and the Quest relies on encoding to get a video feed to the headset. Do not get an AMD card if you have a Quest. Also as a sidenote, there's no reason not to use DLSS, it's free performance AND an increase in visual quality and stability. There is no such thing as "I don't use DLSS", there's no reason not to as it's 100% benefits, the same goes for FSR 2 if the game has it and you're on AMD. Literally free performance and image quality, these are the best AA methods out currently on top of the upsampling.

But yeah, beat saber stutters sometimes just happen regardless of PC specs. Your system is overkill for this game already. To minimize lag spikes all you can do is turn off background programs (especially stuff that uses GPU hardware acceleration), set beat saber to high priority in the task manager, and just hope for the best.
Also for Quest 2 it helps to use oculus mode on Steam as well as disabling spacewarp in the oculus debug tool!

[WorldofShadows]

Hey, this isn't for flexing, at least i don't think so. Beat Saber was and is really wonky.

But you made me remember something important. around 1½ years ago there were massive problems with Nvidia drivers and VR in general.
While most of them are fixed there is still a problem with monitoring or OC-Tools, like Speedfan, MSI Afterburner and so on. Those should be closed for testing.
And another really big performance killer i had back in the day was the RGB Stuff. Things like Asus AURA, MSI Mystic Light and what they are all called.
The problem with them is the massive polling on the usb controller that can interfere with VR.

@ONE MISS WONDER | Shario
Do you have anything of that running and can try to close / disable them?

[faaiiL]

Ye, I had massive problems over half a year ago on my Valve Index, making the game completely unplayable. It works fine nowadays except for the occasional stutters... I mean I play other games too, but I was expecting my GPU to be good enough even on 3070, but I thought maybe my CPU or ram could've improved the experience at the time of posting. I hadn't considered that my problems could have stemmed from my strongly modded beat saber client and as I also mentioned I'm recording my gameplay, so yeah not ideal. Anyways any tips on how to improve game stability is appreciated. Especially WorldOfShadows your tips have been very useful I think.

[Steel]

Yeah recording can cause stutters too.
But generally it's what I said, if on Quest then enable oculus mode in the Beat Saber launch options, disable spacewarp in the Oculus Debug Tool, and close background programs.

Mods that are likely to cause stutter are generally interface mods. I know Counters+ used to have stuttering but they fixed it.

[faaiiL]

Hmm, i have tons of interface mods enabled. I will try to reduce the amount of information displayed and see if stutters become fewer. Thanks