Findings suggest that Quest 3’s GPU will likely be at least twice as powerful as those in Quest 2 and Pico 4.
Meta & Qualcomm recently announced “a multi-year broad strategic agreement” to build the next generation of Snapdragon XR chipsets, with both companies’ product and engineering teams working together. Last week, apparent schematics of Quest 3 have been leaked to YouTuber Sadly It’s Bradley (Brad Lynch), revealing key features including pancake lenses and a depth sensor. Lynch also claimed that a source had told him that the headset will use the yet-to-be-announced Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chipset.
Current standalone headsets — including Quest 2, Pico 4, Vive Focus 3, and Lynx R1 — use the current XR2, which was recently retroactively dubbed Gen 1 by Qualcomm. XR2 Gen 1 is a variant of the Snapdragon 865 smartphone chip that first shipped in early 2020. But Qualcomm has since followed up the 865 line with two new generations, 888 and 8 Gen 1 — the company changed the naming scheme with the release of the Latest Model. Given Qualcomm’s typical schedule, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 should be announced on the Snapdragon top ship next month and next year.
| Chipset family | Process | GPU model | TFLOPS | Used in |
| Snapdragon 835 | 10nm | Adreno 540 | 0.6 | Quest / Vive Focus |
| Snapdragon 845 | 10nm | Adreno 630 | 0.7 | Pico Neo 2 |
| Snapdragon 855 | 7nm | Adreno 640 | 0.9 | |
| Snapdragon 865 (XR2 Gen 1) | 7nm | Adreno 650 | 1.2 | Quest 2 / Vive Focus 3 / Pico Neo 3 / Pico 4 / Lynx R1 |
| Snapdragon 888 | 5nm | Adreno 660 | 1.7 | |
| Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 | 4nm | Adreno 730 | 2.2 | |
| Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (XR2 Gen 2) | 4nm | Adreno 740 | ??? | Assignment 3? |
Qualcomm’s line of GPUs used in its chipsets is called Adreno. The original Oculus Quest used the Adreno 540, with performance of 0.6 teraflops. Quest 2 shipped with a three generations newer chipset with the Adreno 650, which delivers twice the performance at 1.2 teraflops.
The more powerful GPU is used to drive Quest 2’s higher resolution and refresh rate, as well as improve the graphical fidelity of VR games. Many major Quest Store titles are now released only for Quest 2 because the original just isn’t powerful enough.
A finding from data miner Samulia suggests that Meta plans to make another similar performance leap with Quest 3.
30-37921-2 / CCA ASSY, SXR2230P PROJECT HALLIDAY, DAUGHTERCARD BENCH 1X SKT DDR PART OF DTP QTY 1 NOS
FOC INTEGRATED CIRCUIT CP90-35514-91 / SXR2230P 000-Y1, PSP1828, 2X 4KX4K MR, 4 2 GOLD, 4XLP5, A740, 10XMONO, HTP, 3
The model number of the XR2 Gen 1 is: SXR2130P. But Samulia found recent import logs referring to a new chip with model number SXR2230P codenamed “Project Halliday” – a likely reference to the fictitious creator of the OASIS metaverse platform in Ready Player One. The change in model number from 1 to 2 indicates that this is the XR2 Gen 2 that is said to be in Quest 3.
Some logs contain the text ‘2x 4Kx4K‘ and ’10xMONO’, suggesting the chip can power headsets with dual 4K displays and up to 10 cameras. But if noticed by SadleyItsBradleythe text also mentions ‘A740’ – almost certainly referring to the Adreno 740 GPU expected to launch in Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.
The existing Adreno 730 already offers performance of 2.2 teraflops, about 80% more than Quest 2’s Adreno 650. If the Adreno 740 offers even a modest performance jump, Quest 3’s GPU will be at least twice as powerful as Quest 2’s. This would allow for more true-to-life graphics on higher-resolution screens — and maybe even brand new games that just wouldn’t be possible on Quest 2.
To be clear, these import logs are indicative of early test chips being sent to headset makers, not mass production.
We’ve reached out to Qualcomm and Meta for any comment or context they may want to add.