Oculus Link w the Link cable - Stutters and Framedrops in most games

[PaulRa]

Hi everyone,

I've been having constant stutter and framedrop issues save for rare cases since the launch of the Oculus Link feature. The stutters or FPS drops usually happen every several seconds, them back to very high framerates, and then back to the couple-second performance drops or stutters.
Both Oculus Rift software and Oculus Quest software are ver. 14. I am currently using the official Link cable as I bought it in hopes that it would fix the issue, but it still persists. It is plugged into the Virtual Link port on my RTX 2070, although I've tried other ports.
I do have an external GPU setup, though. I thought it was a Thunderbold bandwidth issue, but I've seen too many reports of the same happening to others with conventional setups.
My setup is a Lenovo Yoga 720-15 with a Core i7 7700HQ, 16 GB RAM, an nVME SSD, a GTX 1050 (disabled), and an external Gigabyte Aorus Box w RTX 2070 connected via a 2-lane Thunderbolt port (enabled). The laptop monitor stays disabled. I run an external monitor instead.
Here is what I've already done:
- reinstalled Windows and all the possible drivers
- tried 3 different versions of Oculus Rift software and Oculus Quest since the Link release, both beta and final
- tried all the other USB 3 ports on my PC
- unplugged other devices, like external drives, hubs etc.
- closed all the processes that could impact performance
- have had my CPU slightly downvolted with TB off to completely eliminate throttling
- disabled v-sync and G-sync in Nvidia drivers

It seems that lighter titles from the Oculus Store run slightly better. Something like Echo VR barely sees any stutters or FPS drops. Something like Skyrim VR in Steam or EVE: Valkrie in Oculus Store often has FPS drops even at lower settings.

This issue happens ONLY in VR via Oculus Link. All other demanding non-VR games are totally fine, e.g. DOOM stabely produces 200 FPS on max at 1080p.

If the issue has nothing to do with Oculus, I guess this is now narrowed down to my system being at fault in some way: either the USB controller or Thunderbold bandwidth. I have even decided to eventually sell my whole setup and build a desktop PC instead to solve this issue.

Has anybody had a similar issue and managed to fix it somehow? If selling my setup and building a new PC just to solve this does not work, I think I will be very sad.

Thanks in advance everyone!

[Umpa_PC]

Well link is beta, and as you say it affects people with conventional setups too.  What you could do is try Virtual Desktop, you can play games wireless through that.  If they work better (it wont be perfect) then that would suggest link is not there for you yet.  If its unplayable then that would suggest its your side.

[Rosto79]

For me too.. some stutters, some games more than others. The Walking Dead for example runs quite good.. but when walking and looking at a wall I see some stutter every few seconds. 

In Asgards Wrath a lot of stutter. When I look at the performance statistics with Rivatuner I can see that sometimes the FPS drop from 72 to 36... 

Even aircar seem to have this problem.

Pixels per display Pixel Override = 0
DIstortion curvature = low
Encode resolution width = 2912

Using a CableCreation USB 3.0 active extension and AmazonBasics USB 3.1 cable.. 
Tested with and without exension .. both the same result.

System:
CPU: Ryzen 2600 on ASUS B450-i 
RAM: 16GB 3200Mhz RAM
GPU: RTX 2070

I have a RIft too .. no problems when using the Rift. 

[PaulRa]

Rosto79 said:

For me too.. some stutters, some games more than others. The Walking Dead for example runs quite good.. but when walking and looking at a wall I see some stutter every few seconds. 

In Asgards Wrath a lot of stutter. When I look at the performance statistics with Rivatuner I can see that sometimes the FPS drop from 72 to 36... 

Even aircar seem to have this problem.

Pixels per display Pixel Override = 0
DIstortion curvature = low
Encode resolution width = 2912

Using a CableCreation USB 3.0 active extension and AmazonBasics USB 3.1 cable.. 
Tested with and without exension .. both the same result.

System:
CPU: Ryzen 2600 on ASUS B450-i 
RAM: 16GB 3200Mhz RAM
GPU: RTX 2070

I have a RIft too .. no problems when using the Rift. 

Thanks for confirming re the setup and the Rift. I had also tried the AmazonBasics 3.1 cable with the CableCreation 3.0 active extension before I got the official Link cable, and the results were always the same as with this one, it's just the Oculus one had a more stable connection.
Just to confirm, the same settings in the Oculus Debug Tool are set to Default or 0 for me (not sure if that's actualy default).
I will try to play with those a bit and also attempt to borrow my friend's Oculus Rift CV1 to test this out, and will report back here once done. I really just want to get to the bottom of this. I wonder if the issue is more prevalent for those with regular RTX 2070's.

Umpa_PC said:

Well link is beta, and as you say it affects people with conventional setups too.  What you could do is try Virtual Desktop, you can play games wireless through that.  If they work better (it wont be perfect) then that would suggest link is not there for you yet.  If its unplayable then that would suggest its your side.

Lol I wish I had a direct Ethernet connection instead of the WiFi one with a router being placed 2 floors above. Then Virtual Desktop would've had a chance to work better than it does for me. That reminds me, I've gotta try turning WiFi off completely and see if that does anything, you never know, lol.

[Whuttr]

Back when I had my cv1 (until it broke) I had games running on high for hours with zero problems at all. After it broke, I bought the quest with the official link cable, hoping the $85 was worth it. Now that I tried out link with the exact same games I used to play with the exact same settings, it just sucks now, completely unplayable. Frame drops, crashes, sometimes it randomly kicks me out of link back to the home menu, etc I have to lower my resolution in my games to the point where I can’t even see to get good frames. Note: I have the Gtx 1060, always had. I know it’s in beta, but c’mon, it shouldn’t be that bad. 

Edit: All my drivers are updated, tried using the PTC, and I reinstalled the oculus software multiple times, so you don’t ask lol

[Rosto79]

I have seemed to fix my problem with stuttering by giving real-time prioritiy to the OVRService_x64... Read on reddit that it would work.. and it did to my surprise! TWD is butterly smooth now. The same as on my Rift. 

In ODT, I have set everything on default.
Pixel per Display Pixel Override = 0
Encoding Resolution Width = 0
Distortion Curvature = Default

Seems to set Link to default Oculus settings. Still good enough, better than Rift CV1, quality for me. 

If I set Pixel Overide higer, lets say 1.2 like mentioned in the Oculus Tray Tool for RTX 2070+, for some games it is just a little to much (I have RTX 2070 with Ryzen 2600).. I do have to confirm that with realtime priority on OVRService_x64 though. Cannot try that because coming week I am not home.. (glad I have do have my quest with me for some VR..). 

[PattyGar1965]

After resetting screen resolution all apps are working. 

[PaulRa]

Rosto79 said:

I have seemed to fix my problem with stuttering by giving real-time prioritiy to the OVRService_x64... Read on reddit that it would work.. and it did to my surprise! TWD is butterly smooth now. The same as on my Rift. 

In ODT, I have set everything on default.
Pixel per Display Pixel Override = 0
Encoding Resolution Width = 0
Distortion Curvature = Default

Seems to set Link to default Oculus settings. Still good enough, better than Rift CV1, quality for me. 

If I set Pixel Overide higer, lets say 1.2 like mentioned in the Oculus Tray Tool for RTX 2070+, for some games it is just a little to much (I have RTX 2070 with Ryzen 2600).. I do have to confirm that with realtime priority on OVRService_x64 though. Cannot try that because coming week I am not home.. (glad I have do have my quest with me for some VR..). 

Thanks, I did that and I think it became a lot better in something like Space Junkies from Oculus Store installed on an internal SSD: I haven't noticed a single performance drop. Could help a lot of people.
However, I still get stutters and low FPS in the Oculus Home. I changed priority of that one to High and it did not really help, so I could just try Realtime. I set both Oculus Server 64 and OVRService to Realtime. Still trying to figure it out, as I believe I still had frame drops in Vader Immortal.
That said, I have very little to no performance headroom even in something like Run of Mydan despite the perceived smoothness, and that's despite the fact that i have a decent setup. 

[iosman987]

I have the same problem with left controller battery draining very fast. Did not happen for the first few months but now I have to remove the left battery after using. Thanks

[Rosto79]

PaulRa said:

Rosto79 said:

I have seemed to fix my problem with stuttering by giving real-time prioritiy to the OVRService_x64... Read on reddit that it would work.. and it did to my surprise! TWD is butterly smooth now. The same as on my Rift. 

In ODT, I have set everything on default.
Pixel per Display Pixel Override = 0
Encoding Resolution Width = 0
Distortion Curvature = Default

Seems to set Link to default Oculus settings. Still good enough, better than Rift CV1, quality for me. 

If I set Pixel Overide higer, lets say 1.2 like mentioned in the Oculus Tray Tool for RTX 2070+, for some games it is just a little to much (I have RTX 2070 with Ryzen 2600).. I do have to confirm that with realtime priority on OVRService_x64 though. Cannot try that because coming week I am not home.. (glad I have do have my quest with me for some VR..). 

Thanks, I did that and I think it became a lot better in something like Space Junkies from Oculus Store installed on an internal SSD: I haven't noticed a single performance drop. Could help a lot of people.
However, I still get stutters and low FPS in the Oculus Home. I changed priority of that one to High and it did not really help, so I could just try Realtime. I set both Oculus Server 64 and OVRService to Realtime. Still trying to figure it out, as I believe I still had frame drops in Vader Immortal.
That said, I have very little to no performance headroom even in something like Run of Mydan despite the perceived smoothness, and that's despite the fact that i have a decent setup. 

Oculus home also has worse performance than with the Rift for me. It’s doable though. As long as the games run well.