Variable Refresh Rate coming to PlayStation this week

Sony has announced that a new feature will be coming to the PlayStation 5 this week. The long-awaited addition of variable refresh rate (VRR) is coming in a few days, and a handful of games will support the feature in the coming weeks.
In a blog post today, Hideaki Nishino, Senior Vice President of Platform Experience at PlayStation, introduced VRR and outlined the basics of how it works. “On HDMI 2.1 VRR compatible TVs and PC monitors, VRR dynamically synchronizes the display refresh rate with the graphics output of the PS5 console. This improves the visual performance of PS5 games by minimizing or eliminating visual artifacts, such as frame rate issues and screen tearing,” writes Nishino. “It makes games run smoother overall and can even reduce input latency.”
As stated in the quote above, you will need a monitor that supports VRR and an HDMI 2.1 port to use it in any way. Many gaming monitors and TVs that use AMD’s Freesync technology (their brand term for VRR) will be compatible with this new feature, so make sure yours does before you enable Variable Refresh Rate on PlayStation. 5.
Several PlayStation 5 games will use VRR very soon, and the PlayStation blog post provided a list of games we should expect to roll out VRR support to in the coming weeks.
The variable refresh rate is a big deal, especially for games that can’t maintain a consistent frame rate. It really helps smooth out any hitches and jitters you may experience in those inconsistent games and even has the effect of making the frame rate feel higher than it is. I’m very interested in seeing it used in games that experience a performance hit due to too high a resolution or taxing resources by having ray traced lights or shadows enabled. VRR is already implemented on Xbox Series X and S and is making a big difference there, so I’m excited to see it working with games like Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and Godfall, two games whose frame rates suffer in high fidelity modes.
Which games would you like to see receive VRR support on PS5? Let us know in the comments below!