Sony has been pushing hard to offer the best quality experience in recent months for console gamers. With the upcoming release of the PlayStation Plus and PSN revamp, there’s a lot of focus on the Japanese company. But not content to just offer new services, their flagship PS5 console is getting constant updates.
Variable Refresh Rate is something PC gamers have dealt with for some time. The feature is designed to alter the delivery of rendered images on the fly, accounting for the refresh rate of the monitor. This will allow the console to offer smoother playback and a crisper image on a wider array of displays by using the graphics hardware of the system. Seeing it come to consoles means that Sony is putting a ton of effort into delivery the best-possible gaming experience.
“On HDMI 2.1 VRR-compatible TVs and PC monitors, VRR dynamically syncs the refresh rate of the display to the PS5 console’s graphical output,” Sony’s Hideaki Nishino said in a blog post. “This enhances visual performance for PS5 games by minimizing or eliminating visual artifacts, such as frame pacing issues and screen tearing.”
Nishino warns that “results may vary depending on the TV you’re using, the game you’re playing, and the visual mode you’ve selected for a particular game (if it supports multiple modes).” So if you have a lower refresh rate TV, the effect likely won’t see much benefit in your case.
Current PS5 Variable Refresh Rate Titles
Below you will find the list of PS5 exclusives and ports which have VRR support.
- Astro’s Playroom
- Call of Duty: Vanguard
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
- Deathloop
- Destiny 2
- Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition
- DIRT 5
- Godfall
- Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered
- Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
- Resident Evil Village
- Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
- Tribes of Midgard
More games are likely to be added as time goes on, with more patches promised by different devs.
The feature won’t be on default until you update your console to the latest PS5 firmware, so do that first. Once that’s done you can turn the setting on or off at your leisure. The setting can be found in the console System Settings, under Screen and Video. Go to that section and then toggle VRR via the relevant option. Setting it to Automatic will offer the most consistent experience. There is an option to have it active in unsupported titles, although that could cause display issues, so be careful with it. You will then see the shift happen in-game to allow the console to deliver a more consistent high-resolution experience.
