PS5 Will Get Variable Refresh Rate in Update This Week

After a long wait, Sony announced in a blog post that the PlayStation 5 would gain Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support in patches beginning to roll out this week. The feature will require a TV or PC monitor that uses HDMI 2.1 and is compatible with VRR.

"VRR dynamically syncs the refresh rate of the display to the PS5 console’s graphical output," wrote senior vice president of Platform experience Hideki Nishino. "This enhances visual performance for PS5 games by minimizing or eliminating visual artifacts, such as frame pacing issues and screen tearing."

Some games will be getting patches to optimize for variable refresh rates "in the coming weeks." Those games are:

• Astro’s Playroom
• Call of Duty: Vanguard
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
• 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

However, games do not need to be patched or optimized to use VRR (those games will have the feature enabled automatically).

You will be able to find VRR under Screen and Video > Video Output > VRR, where there will be a toggle to turn on the setting and allow it on games that aren't officially supported. However, Nishino warns that while VRR may improve quality for some games, others could see "unexpected visual effects" and that the "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[.]"

It's really about time that the PlayStation 5 gets VRR. Sony announced it was coming back in March, but the Xbox Series X and Series S have had this option since they launched in 2020. In fact, Microsoft's last-gen Xbox One S and Xbox One X also supported the feature. 

The addition of VRR brings this console generation closer to feature parity with PCs, which have supported a variable refresh rate for a long time — assuming you have the right equipment.