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Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 ready for standalone VR headsets

The company has released a headset reference design based around its latest chip for phones and standalone headsets to enable all your realities.

Lori Grunin Senior Editor / Advice
I've been reviewing hardware and software, devising testing methodology and handed out buying advice for what seems like forever; I'm currently absorbed by computers and gaming hardware, but previously spent many years concentrating on cameras. I've also volunteered with a cat rescue for over 15 years doing adoptions, designing marketing materials, managing volunteers and, of course, photographing cats.
Expertise Photography, PCs and laptops, gaming and gaming accessories
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Lori Grunin
Sean Hollister/CNET

The Snapdragon 845 processor that ubiquitous mobile chip manufacturer Qualcomm announced back in December 2017 generated a bit of buzz with supervised performance tests on phones earlier this month. 

Following that path, the chip manufacturer now has a reference design for standalone headsets for VR, AR and MR that are capable of better performance and higher resolutions than before, as well as which incorporate on-headset sensors for wireless operation with 6DoF (six degrees of freedom).

A reference design means it's now in the hands of development partners like Oculus and HTC ; that means recently announced products like the Oculus Go and the HTC Vive Pro are a step closer to an untethered reality. 

The chip's Adreno 630 graphic subsystem incorporates a new rendering technology that speeds it up by prioritizing the sharpness of whatever you're directly looking at and deprioritizing the parts of the scene in your peripheral vision.