I've been around since the Dial-Up time and i must say...this comparative review of multiple products is the best one i ever seen, simply structured, easy to understand and without any crap hidden behind. Thanks for a nice presentation.
I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you. I find it silly that there was no explanation for Meta using Fiber Optic cable. Which is exactly why the cable is so much more expensive. Fiber optic is truly scary how much power, data, speed it can hold. I feel like this is a review for the shopper whos just looking for a quick fix to save 30 bucks. Weight? Length? Bendy vibes? The cable is fiber optic because in 6 months the level of vr games will multiply by 50. Think long run, do your research. Saving a buck or two wont prevent you from being upset your new vr game is glitchy 8 months from now. Lastly with comparison why do you not give in depth side by side footage of each cable and their gameplay? Cheers.
I just built my first ever PC a couple of days ago and I was hoping to do VR games on it but i never knew if it would be good enough. I just checked the free steam performance test and turn out I have better than needed specs lmao.
I dont really trust that test, it says mine needs a better graphics card and 12gig of ram but my pc is built from my brothers old parts and he played half life alyx so im sure I can run everything but that.
You pretty much nailed it on the head there. To run the best VR games out there you will need a good spec PC. You can however get away with running less demanding games on lower spec PCs.
@@zombieblaster5754 the regular half life games can run on a shitty laptop. Adding virtual reality cranks the requirements up by 100. Ur def probably gonna need the parts steam said youll need
I went through 3 different USB A to USB C cables when I got my Quest 2 a few months back. An Amazon Basics 16ft, The Syntech 16ft and the Kiwi 16ft. With the Amazon and Syntech cables I was always loosing connection after about 10-15min of playtime and would just get sent back to the quest home screen. I have now been using the Kiwi 16 ft for about 5 months now, and I have never lost connection even once. So far Kiwi has been my go to brand for Quest accessories #notsponsored
Glad to hear your longer term use of these cables as I'm sure it's going to be very helpful to people reading these comments and watching the video. Thanks for sharing. 😊
I’ve been using the syntech for a couple of months and at first it worked perfect, but now I have to restart my pc three times before any session. Even then it will just disconnect. Not even playing high intensity games.
I highly reccomend the Kuject Charging Link cable Normal Link Kiwi cable for me usually quest lasts about 4 hours while plugged in. But since i bought the Kuject one i can go for aobut 6 hours whilst having the quest at arouf 60%-70% battery since it has a smart chip where u plug in your Quest 2 charger into
They’re very well made. I love kiwi design for accessories seeing as they use really good materials and are very well thought out and not as expensive as meta accessories
if you want to have "infinite" playtime with a cable and you have decent wifi i would recommend using the link cable as a charger and plug it to the wall using a fast charger, i use the kiwi design and then also use virtual desktop and i stay on vr for basically as long as i want
Great idea, although if you’re going wireless then I’d rather go with a battery headstrap. Of course that won’t last all day… but then neither will I! 😀
I was looking for the best thank you for making this because, i was about to spend 79 dollars but, now i know which one to buy and a way more cheaper one, so thank you
I would highly recommend the kuject design cable. It has a socket in the side of the cable so you can plug it into a high power brick rather than useing your PCs ports that normally don't supply much power. It's light, durable, has the compatibility of it being usb A 3.0 with it still being that same price tag of the kiwi design cable
Sound review! I just bought a Quest 2 for a family member as a gift and I'm not sure if they will want to use it while connected to the PC so spending 23 quid on the Kiwi cable will hurt me less than if I was to see a 100 quid official cable gathering dust.
thank you for making this video! I want a Meta Quest 2 for my birthday so bad, and since i obviously have more space on my pc, i wanted to seek for an alternative for the official Link Cable. Like you mentioned, it is official, but the price is crazy expensive! Thanks to you, i'll be able to purchase a link cable that is 2/4 of the price of the official one. I literally showed the price of the official link cable and srsly, we were both kinda shocked because, its a link cable... i know it has to transfer good quality signal and everything but if there is a company that can do that at a way cheaper price then im going for that instead.
Loosing power while in use is simply inexcusable. additionally fiber optic isn't just for bandwidth its also latency. Also the build quality of the official cable is really good and the cable is very flexible, couldn't help notice you skipped over that bit. Did you even have the official cable at the time of the review?
Yeah, the warnings don't make any difference to my game play either. I do turn the graphics settings down slightly from max though. Awesome game though!
Please do an updated cable guide for the Quest 3! Many users are reporting problems with maintaining a charge while playing. Some of the powered USB cables are also insufficient.
I have one of the newer syntech cables, 5 meter length. It's USB C on both ends, it also comes with a C to A adapter. My rig has a C port on its face, which I should be using, but I have a few 3.0 ports on the back which I use to hide cables from view.
I bought a Quest 2 so I could play the game Stray. I was disappointed that it wasn't on the Quest store so I could buy it. Now I know I can finally play it on my VR headset. Thank you. I really need this cable.
@@MyTechGearGaming Do you think Kiwi's other cables would be around the same quality? The one you had in your video seems to be unavaible now but they have an alternative.
Kiwi do seem to have changed their amazon store up with a newer cable. It largely looks the same except it's white. I've updated the links in the video to reflect this. Thanks for the heads up. You can check out the cable now via this link amzn.to/4bgGo2H
I've bought cables by both Syntech and Kiwi, but the only cable I haven't had a problem with is the Oculus cable. They're about $30 to $40 on Ebay. Any video card from the last 7 should have a usb-c port. It's worth it.
THANK YOU! Been trying to find the right cable for me and this video was the best on this topic i've seen! thanks again! I'll be trying it out tonight! PS i went with kiwi! ;)
Syntech cable made my headset constantly connect/disconnect. It would pop up in Device Manager as a driver error, however, using the USB-C charging cable that came with it reads it no problem. Ordering a Kiwi, lets hope that works better
I really appreciate this review. I've been searching for a good link cable (that doesn't cost $80) and Amazon's listings these days are such a minefield of cheap garbage, and it's impossible to know what you'll end up with, even based on Amazon reviews which are probably just botted anyway.
I just bought a no name brand cable with two inputs one type c one usb 3.1 Type c is connected to the official quest charging adapter for power and 3.1 is connected to pc for data. It's 5m long and gets 2.4gbps speed on the test. Keeps the headset charged while playing even the most demanding game. When the battery stars to go below %10 I unplug and re plug the adapter and that resets the charging speed to 18w
I bought adhesive backed cable clips for like $10 so I could use any cable and not have it tugging on the port; and also to have the cable go off my desk to make it drag less on the ground as I move around. Very cheap and highly recommended.
I got the Kiwi cable. It's good quality overall from a IT-Professional perspective although my Mainboard does wonky things and sometimes my Quest 2 won't charge and the Oculus App reports bad bandwidth. Issue is, that is with all USB 3.1 Gen2 / USB 3.1 Gen1 ports :( Since I recently upgraded my hardware (Processor, Mainboard) I will opt to get a USB-C to USB-C cable. Higher bandwidth, higher wattage. Overall better choice IMO.
Can’t say for all as I’ve only owned the one but using the Syntech cable I run into “an error with your cable” “trouble connecting to your headset” “unknown problem” constantly, I used a cheap replacement cable and had no issues.
This was so straightforward and easy to understand - thank you! I've watched several videos on this topic, and this is the first one where I've felt like I've got a decent understanding of the material, and a concrete plan of how to move forward. That is such a relief (and now I can move on to researching headsets and battery packs! 😆)
@1:57 Theoretical limit on 3.1 is 10gbps on two lanes. However, the Quests XR2's USB host controller can only handle 2.5gbps. Its hardcapped at that, no matter what cable you use you will never get more than that. It also makes Meta's optical capable completely pointless, as sixteen feet of cable wouldn't induce enough line noise to degrade those transfer rates. As for your PC end of things, the most important spec is your VRAM. Rendering anything at 4k VR will easily push upwards of 20gb's of video memory, unless its exceptionally well optimized for PCVR (which most games are not)
Meta cable lasts for as long as the user wants, the others give about 1 hour more than stand alone if running at 120 fps, they work but don't give long play times, the bobo VR and two batteries give better play time than the none meta cables without reacharging them, But it was an honest review and straight forward to follow.
I assume they're talking about this one amzn.to/3cGjiJW I haven't tried it myself but looks OK on paper. I would just be careful of using the USB-A adapter as that would make the connection plug to your PC quite long and could place a strain on the both the USB-C cable and USB port on your PC, depending on how you have it set up.
Hmm I get why the Meta cable scored so low, but power delivery is a huge matter for many users to the point that it's hard to compare it to the other cables. Yes it's expensive, not the best build quality, the heaviest, and practically only just as fast as the others, but it's the only one that won't ever make you worry about battery life, and I imagine that for many of us that part is just not negotiable ☹
Kiwi also has a C to C cable rather than the C to A if you want the power delivery and have a C port on your PC (or add a USB C PCI card). You can get a USB C PCI card+the Kiwi C to C cable for cheaper than the official cable alone.
Isn't the amps cap when you are playing while charging? I remember read that it doesn't matter if you are using USB c to USB c since de quest 2 is limited to 1.5 amps when charging while playing to keep the thermals low
Excellent video. This is clearly going to help people choose a link cable. But I need to ask a precise question: does anyone know if the KIWI Design link cable supports RTX 4070 GPUs?
I got the kiwi cable, and the first time I used it. It worked fine, but now that I have my first game, it’s saying that I need a USB Three or above cable, despite the Kiwi cable being USB three.
I've done a few videos on setting up PC VR for the Quest, both wired and wireless guides. I do mention PC Specs needed in those videos. I've got links to spec sheets in those videos too. It's not just the cpu but other specs need to be at a certain level too.
I've had 2 oculus link cables broke both in the same way the adhesive is absolutely terrible i had one under warranty and it broke withing I'd say 3 months of use same with the other one
Been seeing everywhere that Kiwi is the best option. My 3RD CABLE just gave out after only 3-4 months of use, hoping Kiwi can at least last me a year or 2.
Can you please explain specifically what you mean?? I’ve been troubleshooting Link issues for over a year on 3 headsets and several cables (kiwi being one of them) and I CANNOT find out what keeps causing Link crashes/freezing after a few months of flawless play…
2 of my previous Kiwi cables broke after a couple months of use, so I decided to buy the newer version of the cable because this video said it was the best one, 5 days later it broke.
Syntech does make a cable with a USB C charging port so you can put a USB C chord into that port then the other end into your PC then you can play and charge at the same time
I did a review of a similar cable when I compared different cable types which you can check out here WHICH CABLE IS BEST FOR META QUEST 2 PCVR GAMING? | USB-A vs USB-C ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nSQ5l15zyPU.html
Hi Mate, thanks for all the help this is exactly what i was after. If i use a USB A to USB C adapter on the KIWI cable will that increase the charging rate of the cable? and will the connector affect data transfer speeds? ie: is a connector going to enhance or diminish my cables positive attributes?
You can't make the cable better but you can make it worse. So just be careful that you get a good adapter. Kiwi do also do a usb c to usb c cable if you wanted one. It's just a bit more expensive as it's an optical cable.
As for quest 3, the fact that the meta cable can keep it charged should ad a lot more points, quest 3 is a power hungry heaset and if you are not using the oficcial quest cable or another usb c cable compatible with power delivery, it will die in just a couple of ours
Thank you for making a well constructed and informative review, I am new to VR and want to play one with some funny mods, but Meta's is way too high to even bother with.
I got the Oculus/Meta Link cable and I have to say that the fact that the Oculus/Meta Link can keep my Oculus/Meta Quest somewhere at 100% power doing use is a big deal breaker for me that why I bought it to begin with, The Oculus/Meta Link Cable is a fiberoptic cable which will give you fast charging and faster data transfer.
fibre optic cables do give better performance than USB-A cables, but that comes at a cost, and not everyone needs that. There are better 3rd party fibre optic cables out there too. I covered all this in another video here ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nSQ5l15zyPU.html
Doesn't really matter when you can get a link cable and a powered USB hub for less than half the price. Then you not only get power, but also have slots to plug in a number of other devices too.
But thx for the interesting info about this cabels! I would like to see a renewed vid =) but there is a new beast named NÖRDIC vr link usb c-c and would like to see how they compare with everyone have c to c ports😊
I purchased the 5 meter Kiwi cable not too long ago, and after multiple Blade and sorcery sessions its become twisted and tangled all over. I dont play with a ceiling mount, and I thought a ceiling mount would do more damage than letting it run on the floor, but I was mistaken. Now I cant play pcvr without the cable tangling and getting caught on my feet.
One factor not considered here is longevity. The official cable being optical fiber means it'll be less likely to degrade from repeated bending of the cable, so it in theory should last considerably longer. Higher price but replace less often. That is the theory, whether in practice it works out that way I don't know, because no one has really done the test to see how various cables maintain quality over a year or two.
Years ago when I bought the first Oculus everything played just fine on my GTX960. But that was when everything was Windows 7 So I will test same pc with my GTX960 with windows 10 and I suspect it just might not work but no hurt trying.
Sounds like a great idea for a video! 😊 honestly though, most cable reviews still hold true the same for the quest 3 that they did for the quest 2. The only issue you’ll come across is that usb-a cables won’t keep your head set as charged as they did on the quest 3. I’d recommend usb-c cable if you can do it.
Nice video! Very helpful, I would say. Thank you! =) But not very useful for people like me. I have an Oculus Rift S. It would be very interesting to know what one of the best cables for the *Rift S* is. I'm searching for one. I already had two cables from Oculus / Meta and they were pretty bad. I'm glad I didn't pay anything for them.
I have to ask, for about how long would you say that you are able to play for before it ultimately dies? I’m rlly considering buying the Kiwi, please reply if you get the chance to, cheers!
Well, i actually just went on Amazon and searched for a USB c to c cable that was capable transporting a 4k video Signal or more. The most important bit about these cables is the shielding and signal integrity. I specifically searched for such a cable, because most of the time it means, that all pins of the USBC connector are actually connected und the shielding is enough to prevent any data loss. I actually just grabbed the cheapest one and now I've got a braided, fairly light USBC cable with more bandwidth than my pico 4 could ever need. And the best part is: It was even cheaper than the cables in the video.
You can't just compare apples to pears. Ie copper to optical. Not having your headset charging / keeping charge is a massive deal breaker if you are PCVR. If you are gaming for quit a few hours in a sim rig such as FS2022 then you will get annoyed with no charging.
This is awesome and all but i want to know how much longer im going to get to play with each cable... like an actual gameplay too so i can see the visual differences
it may have come out after this video but Kiwi does have a usb-c to usb-c option for their cables allowing for that faster charging speed as you mention with the official cable. (which, P.S., my official link cable broke way too easily and I regret not finding this video before making the dumb purchase of it)
I did do a later video that also compared some different cable options which you might find useful. You can check it out here… WHICH CABLE IS BEST FOR META QUEST 2 PCVR GAMING? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nSQ5l15zyPU.html
I bought the oculus link cable before i saw this vid and it was decent, fast but the build quality was pretty mid. I accidentally broke mine and I bought the kiwi one cuz aint no way i spending 80 bucks again so thx for helping me.
I’m glad it helped. I did also cover some usb c cable recommendations in a later video I did here if that helps too. WHICH CABLE IS BETTER FOR META QUEST 2 PCVR GAMING? | USB-A vs USB-C ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nSQ5l15zyPU.html
In my experience, the Syntech cable is awful. It frequently disconnects from the PC, despite it never coming unplugged. I used it for a few months and started having the problem after less than a week of use. I got the Anker USB charging cable as an alternative, and I haven't had the issue with it.
Really nice review, just idont see the points system is fair , cause as you said not everyone is the same, for me i wanted to purchase a cable so i can play as long as i want, so from the points i should buy the highest cable but since meta's cable is the only one where you can play as long as you want i will buy it Overall really thankful for your review as i didnt need to watch any other videos
Everyone’s needs are different so never easy to create one review that covers everyone’s needs. Glad the video helped you make the right choice for you though. Happy Questing! 😊
