All PC gamers among you, or even more serious Xbox owners (who have had this for years), will be familiar with technology called Variable Refresh Rate or VRR, a feature that allows the “a dynamic screen refresh rate that can vary continuously and seamlessly on the fly”. This feature comes to PS5 consoles later this week.
This is much more important than it sounds if you cherish visual fidelity (and consistency) in your games. By synchronizing your console and monitor to the same refresh rate, there is less likelihood of delays or decreases in quality between the two, which means that things like screen tearing can be cut down or even eliminated
While Sony’s announcement consisted of words onlyIf you want a video explanation of how it works, with some examples, here’s something Nvidia has made for their own G-Sync technology:
Now to the technical details. First, this update comes as part of a broader PS5 update later this week, but will only work on TVs and monitors that are HDMI 2.1 VRR compatible, so first check if your monitor supports it. Second, this will not just turn a magic switch; games must be patched individually to make use of VRR, and so the timing (and ultimate availability) of this support is up to individual studios and publishers.
Sony released a list earlier today showing the games that will receive patches in the “coming weeks”
- Astro’s Legerum
- Call of Duty: Vanguard
- Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
- Fate 2
- Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition
- SMUT 5
- Gudfald
- Marvel’s Spider-Man remastered
- Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
- Resident Evil Village
- Little Tina’s Wonderland
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
- Middle-earth tribes
Games you play are not on the list? Or is it, and you wonder when exactly the support is coming? Sony says “These are just a few of the PS5 titles that receive VRR support and we would like to thank their talented development teams. Please keep an eye on their channels for updates as you will have the best experience with VRR when their game patches are live. “