Sony Says VRR for the PlayStation 5 Is Still Months Away

The latest Microsoft and Sony game consoles are still hard to find, but there’s still plenty of time to track one down before you have to start planning for the next generation. Sony hasn’t even rolled out all the promised features to its PlayStation 5 hardware. The company says that the promised variable refresh rate (VRR) is still on the way, and gamers can expect it in the coming months. 

For years, we’ve been playing console games at 60 frames per second because that’s what TVs supported. The upshot to VRR on a console is similar to dynamic refresh systems like Nvidia G-Sync on the PC side. VRR allows your game console and TV to talk to each other, synchronizing the refresh rate with the console’s frame rate. The result is clearer motion and a reduction in artifacts and screen tearing. On PCs, this feature is known as G-Sync (Nvidia) and FreeSync (AMD). 

Sony promised VRR support up to 120Hz on the PS5, but it released the console without it. Meanwhile, Microsoft has supported VRR on the Xbox Series X and Series S since they came out over a year ago. Sony didn’t even unlock VRR support on its latest TVs until just a few weeks ago, and you are probably going to need a new(er) TV to get VRR on the PlayStation or Xbox. VRR is one of several technologies that require the latest HDMI 2.1 spec. Many TVs don’t have it, and those that do tend to be at least a few hundred dollars more expensive. 

We don’t know when Sony will release the VRR patch, aside from the timeline being measured in “months.” When the update does arrive, you’ll be able to control the feature in settings (See above). Games are supposed to be adapted to work with VRR, but not all of them are. The console will offer an option to force VRR on even while playing games that don’t support it. Naturally, this could lead to unintended glitches. Sony also notes that the quality of VRR may vary based on the TV. Be advised that once PS5 supports VRR, TV firmware updates may also be required to make the feature work properly. 

To tide people over, Sony released a new patch today with less exciting features like Remote Play dark mode, joining parties via the PlayStation app, and a preview of Sony’s voice command feature. That means you can open games, apps, and settings just by asking the console. Don’t bother asking it when VRR will arrive, though.

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