PS5 finally adding support for variable refresh rate this week

Sony is finally bringing Variable Refresh Rate support to the PlayStation 5. Sony announced the feature months ahead of the PS5’s release, but it was nowhere to be found at launch. In March, following months of silence, Sony confirmed VRR support for PS5 would be available “in the coming months.” And now, at long last, the feature is here.

Sony brings VRR support to PS5

Sony Interactive Entertainment executive Hideaki Nishino revealed in a blog post on Monday that VRR support will begin rolling out to PS5 consoles globally this week. He also explained how the feature works and how PS5 owners will benefit:

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. This enhances visual performance for PS5 games by minimizing or eliminating visual artifacts, such as frame pacing issues and screen tearing. Gameplay in many PS5 titles feels smoother as scenes render seamlessly, graphics look crisper, and input lag is reduced.

Many future PS5 games will have VRR support at launch, but developers can also apply VRR support to their PS5 games retroactively through game patches. Here’s a list of games that will receive patches enabling VRR support in the coming weeks:

• 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

The developers of these games will share updates as VRR support rolls out.

How to use the new feature

Sony will push out a PS5 console update in the coming days to enable VRR. Once you install the update, VRR will automatically be enabled for supported games if your console is hooked up to an HDMI 2.1 VRR-compatible TV or PC monitor. If you want to turn it off, you can find the toggle in the “Screen and Video” section in Settings.

In that settings menu, there is also an option to apply VRR to unsupported games. Sony says that this “may improve video quality for some games.” It might also cause unexpected visual effects, in which case you might want to turn it back off.