Fortunately the answer to that is finally yes, after nearly a year and a half. This means if you have a TV or gaming monitor that offers FreeSync or G-Sync, your PS5 will deliver variable refresh rate when connected to them. What does VRR mean? Well, we have articles explaining that, and if you’re looking for VRR on PS5 you probably already know, but in general, variable refresh rate stops screen tearing and improves frame pacing. Games that have unstable frame rates get an assist from the PS5 and display to smooth performance, and screen tearing is reduced if not outright eliminated. Screen tearing is when the display and source device can’t sync frame rates, resulting in an image that updates too fast or too slow and therefore “tears”.
The improved frame pacing is the star of the show, especially for people interested in competitive multiplayer. For example, if you get 60 frames per second but 40 of those are crammed into the first half second and the second half only puts out 20 frames, there’s a problem. It may not be noticeable to everyone, but it’s there. Frame pacing means consistency, and VRR helps maintain that consistency.
While Sony said VRR would be added in late April 2022 as an update, it was not an actual system software update, so don’t go looking for one. We don’t know how this was delivered to consoles, but the feature simply appeared, for us on April 27. While Xbox consoles have supported VRR since late 2017, it seems Sony has taken a different approach, perhaps more realistically because in 2017 there were no TVs with VRR. In any case the feature is here now. However, if it doesn’t show up for you, you may need to shut down your PS5 and restart.
VERY IMPORTANT:
Your display needs to be in game mode for the PS5 to detect VRR. Without that, the feature will likely not appear. For example, if you have the MOBIUZ EX2710U or EX3210U, you should set the monitor to the Gaming picture mode. There may be cases where VRR will appear nonetheless, but from our experience, a game mode is required to enable it.
To check on your PS5’s VRR, go to Settings, then Screen and Video. You will see VRR right in the middle. The toggle only offers two options, off and automatic.
Obviously, you want it on automatic. This means VRR will work whenever possible, and most likely all the time as is the case with Xbox consoles.
Enable “Apply to Unsupported Games”. Again, unlike Xbox’s overall approach to VRR, Sony have dedicated patches for select games that make the most of VRR rather than rely on preset function. Those are the supported games, everything else is “unsupported”. That doesn’t mean VRR won’t work in “unsupported” games, rather that they don’t have a specific VRR patch or update. Once enabled, VRR works with every game to some extent.
Just like Xbox consoles, PS5 in all likelihood uses Adaptive Sync as originally designated by VESA and then adopted by HDMI. We don’t know the frame rate range yet, but imagine it’s something like 40Hz-120Hz. The VRR used on PS5 should therefore be the same as the one brought in by Xbox One X back in November 2017, which is still used now on Xbox Series consoles. This version of VRR is compatible with FreeSync and G-Sync due to their shared Adaptive Sync heritage.
It’s also the same VRR that was introduced for HDMI 2.1 alongside auto low latency mode and eARC.
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Yes, as the official release from Sony says VRR and HDMI 2.1 are required together.
The new VRR update is only meant to work on HDMI 2.1, although there are reports of HDMI 2.0 displays where the new feature does work.
Gaming monitors in 2022, like the EX2710U or EX3210U, come with dual HDMI 2.1 full bandwidth 48Gbps ports, and the PS5 was designed with HDMI 2.1 in mind.
We therefore recommend using HDMI 2.1 if VRR on PS5 is important to you and you don’t want to be disappointed.
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Sony finally delivered VRR to PS5 and we’re happy. We now await 1440p support to make the system even better with a wide array of BenQ gaming monitors!
