Will serious CPU upgrade improve the quality of VR?

Hallo
I have one simple question about CPU upgrade. For now I have i9-9900 / 3080TI / 64GB / Reverb G2. I tweaked OpenXR (foveated rendering) and with pretty good VR settings I can enjoy eye candy visuals with a grid of 12 rendered cars. Occasionally, especially T1 and the first couple of laps I have some FPS issues, but the whole experience is good.
As I came back to iRacing after 3 years of break, with 10 cars generated I have pretty smooth FPS experience, however iRacing is very CPU dependant.
Would CPU upgrade (the whole new PC) to i9-14900 with still the same 3080TI improve anything in AMS2?
Your suggestions will help me, so thank you.

 

In a word, No.
In a longer word, VR is powered by the GPU predominantly so upgrading that is the best option. Whilst you may get some benefit from a better CPU it wont be a massive change like you'd get with a 4080ti for example. Regardless of whether a Sim is CPU dependant, you have to remember you're rendering two images at once which takes a lot from your GPU mainly.

 

So all those YT videos showing massive overall FPS increase, especially between old and new gens of CPU are not worth any trust?

 

I never trust YT videos unless from extremely reliable sources, there's always some snakeoil out there. Not saying they're not correct, but be careful not to fall into any kind of "you'll get 50% increase" trap. Not to mention what they may see as an increase won't be the same on everybody's system, with thousands of different variables.

If your GPU is bottlenecked by your CPU then yes an upgrade to the latter would probably help, but as I said the main boost you'll get is from a GPU upgrade a that's where the HMD draws the most power from.

 

My experience was that it made a significant difference, but that was going to a 5800X3D which is kind of a specific gaming chip. For that the change was dramatic. I'm maxxing out a reverb G2 at 90Fps in AMS2 with everything turned all the way up. This is with a 4090. The CPU is still the bottleneck.

 

The 3080ti isn't powerful enough to max out the G2, a new GPU will give much more benefit than a new CPU. After the new GPU comes then a faster CPU would be good.
It depends on if you plan on doing both, getting the CPU first isn't an issue but if you can only get the CPU there won't be any big gains.
I run a 4090 on a 13600k just fine on my G2. Resolution is 3500x34xx and get slow downs in certain situations because the 4090 isn't fast enough still.

 

Upgrading the CPU would be a sort of 1st step of upgrading the whole rig. I do not think Reverb G2 is future proof enough, I have thought that when I change HMD (BigScreen Beyond?) then I will upgrade the GPU. For now, as iRacing got my attention back again and I love AMS2 I am ready to upgrade the CPU, which means buying the new PC, with new MB, PSU, without new GPU.

I do not need to max out G2. During the fast pace it is negligible. I tweaked foveated resolution to flip the biggest flaw of G2, which is tiny sweet spot into its merit. It works for me.

Quest 3, with far bigger sweet spot, would motivate me to buy the whole new PC with 4090. I want ot stick to proper DP connection, not any USB compressed streaming.

 

With iRacing, my CPU hits 10 ms with 10 visible cars / pitstops (out of more than 20), whereas GPU stays around 5.5ms. I cannot give any AMS measurements, but will check it the next day for sure.

 

iRacing is so track and car dependent. Some tracks i got 4ms other pushed over 10ms as you said. Its up to the developers to bring that sim into the now with its optimization. I honestly parked iRacing because i just couldn't get it to run consistently enough.

 

A little update from my simracing life ;-)
Last Friday my PSU gave up, blowing up the fuses in the block of apartaments. It must have been something huge, since it did blow up the fuses not only in my apartament. It happened for the second time since I bought the PC 5 years ago. The PC is being serviced.

This way I was made to place the order for a new one with i14900 and 4090OC

 

Hell of an upgrade

 

I was very hesitant about such a big upgrade. However, there is a simple rule - buy it nice, or buy it twice.
I think that this PSU failure was a kind of a sign ;-)

 

Better buy a good PSU too

 

That was the first priority. The tech guy, who serviced my PCs for years could not believe it, so I ordered powerful PSU with some big margin.

 

Cool.. I just made a mistake to watch old YT recordings of me and my VR set. Damned, now I really want to go back to VR racing on the PC. I thought a 4070GTX-TI would be sufficient but now reading your lines about the 4090 is still not enough….. I read that the RTX 4090 is around the €2000 atm. And then I still need a new pc and VR set. HP Reverb G2 probably.
I thought I could let it rest and just race in pancake mode but VR is to immersive for not buying.

 

Dont get me wrong, the 4090 can suffice but for me and i know you, we want the most out of our systems. The G2 has great clarity if using native or better resolution. So a 4090 can just get that but still in certain weather and time of day will drop below 90 fps.
If you are happy enough to run below native and lower your settings im sure any time and weather would work.

 

For me it was always important to see shadows, which is very taxing for the GPU. If I go under the bridge or any other overhead construction I need to see the shadows, otherwise it kills the immersion for me.
On the other hand, the appetite grows with what it feeds on.
Will I push 4090 to its max? - I do not feel the need. I will be happy to have medium settings with shadows and 12 AI cars visible. I expect 4090OC running around 50%. There was an idea to buy 4080, however I decided to go full throttle

 

I remember how happy I was when I was able to run 5 AI cars in AC with 3070. With 3080TI I could go up 15 AI in in AC and only 10 in rF2. RRRE with 3/4 AI cars was undriveable. AMS2 with 12 visible cars should work fine, even with full grid.

 

Yeah that is true but that said, I can’t spend €2000 on a GPU alone. So that is a no go for me. I thought they dropped in price by now but they are still very very expensive. I can do with less that is no problem, I had a great time with my Rift v2 and my 1080ti. Could race in Pcars2 with medium settings and shadow on of course. So Everything better than that setup is already great for me.
Bought a PS5 some time ago and had the PSVR2 in mind to play GT7. For €500 a nice alternative of course. Although I merely race against AI and there comes the problem, GT7 and it’s AI are really really worse. I did a couple of races and already felt, the AI and I won’t get friends. It is just no fun. Within a few laps you’re miles ahead on the pack. Even on maximum strength of the AI.

 

My experience with a quest2 moving from ryzen 5600x to 5800x3d showed gains were minimal

replacing my AMD 6800xt with a RTX3080 12gb was a more significant improvement in fps and overall smoothness in VR