Apple's Vision Pro is so impressive Meta's overclocking its headsets to keep up

(Image credit: Future / iMore)

Apple's Vision Pro headset is the talk of the town right now and in reality, it already was long before the June 5 announcement. It won't release until early 2024, but Vision Pro is already starting to have an impact on the AR/VR headset market.

Shortly before Apple announced its own headset Meta rushed out the announcement of its own next-gen offering, dubbed Meta Quest 3. The headset will go on sale in September, but those who own the older Quest 2 or Quest Pro won't have to wait that long to get something new — they're getting overclocked GPU and CPUs right now.

The move will mean that Meta's existing headsets will offer improved performance compared to their previous state. Whether or not they'll be able to offer anything close to what Apple's M2 and R1 chip can muster in Vision Pro is another matter.

A free performance upgrade

Meta announced the availability of these new upgrades via a blog post, promising some big numbers from its v55 software update.

"With v55, we're updating the Quest 2 and Pro GPU and CPU," Meta said. "Both headsets should see an up-to 26% CPU performance increase, while you can expect an up-to 19% GPU speed increase for Quest 2 and 11% GPU speed increase for Quest Pro."

As for what that will mean for users, Meta also shared a proof of concept video in which The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners can be seen running at an improved resolution thanks to Meta's speed boost.

Meta's new software update should be rolling out to Quest 2 and Quest Pro owners right now, so if that's you we'd suggest hitting that software update button.

For everyone else, especially those waiting for Vision Pro to launch, why not check out our collection of the best Apple Prime Day Deals and start saving those pennies up?

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.