Oculus Quest 2 gets a cheeky 90Hz refresh rate update, finally rivaling competitors

(Image credit: Facebook / Oculus)

Finally, what we've all been waiting for: 90Hz refresh rate support for the Oculus Quest 2. Despite the raging success of the Oculus Quest 2 launch, with pre-order sales reaching five times more than that of the original Quest, the Quest 2 only launched with a sub-par refresh rate of 72Hz—the same as the original Oculus Quest VR headset.

Now, as promised, Oculus has rolled out a new update to enable 90Hz refresh rates, which (according to Tech Radar) may even help to reduce motion sickness.

If you'd like to learn more about reducing motion sickness in VR, check out this handy guide.

Previously, it had only been possible to play games at 90Hz on the Quest 2 with some questionable ADB command workarounds, which were serving up "mixed results." Official experimental options were also available from the Oculus menu to enable the higher refresh rate, but unfortunately it was only possible to affect certain spaces within the system.

The v23 update for the Oculus Quest 2 is going to see you through intense gaming sessions on the likes of Valve's Half-Life: Alyx, or the badass, super fast-paced Superhot with a much smoother visual experience than that of its predecessor.

Black Friday deals

Black Friday 2020 deals: the place to go for the all the best Black Friday bargains.

And improved refresh rate support isn't all Oculus has in store for us. It's also bringing in "latency reduction" tech to prevent nauseating lag, and the system UI will also see "improved image resolution," across the board.

While competing VR headset like the HP Reverb G2 and Valve Index have come supporting refresh rates of up to 90Hz and 144Hz, respectively, the Oculus had been lagging behind. Still, the promise of 90Hz refresh, which had been one of the main reasons to bag an Oculus Quest 2 over the original Quest in the first place, has finally become a reality—not just a virtual one.

Currently there are only a small selection of third party games that support the higher 90Hz refresh rate, but don't panic, more will be on the way soon. The future of VR is looking very refreshing, indeed.

Screw sports, Katie would rather watch Intel, AMD and Nvidia go at it. Having been obsessed with computers and graphics for three long decades, she took Game Art and Design up to Masters level at uni, and has been demystifying tech and science—rather sarcastically—for three years since. She can be found admiring AI advancements, scrambling for scintillating Raspberry Pi projects, preaching cybersecurity awareness, sighing over semiconductors, and gawping at the latest GPU upgrades. She's been heading the PCG Steam Deck content hike, while waiting patiently for her chance to upload her consciousness into the cloud.