PS5’s VRR Firmware Update Incoming Later This Week

comingsoon.net:

Sony stated that Variable Refresh Rate would be coming to the PlayStation 5 quite soon after its March update, but it had nothing outside of it being “on the horizon.” And while a specific day hasn’t been nailed down, Sony has followed through and revealed that VRR is coming to PS5 sometime later this week.

In PlayStation Blog post dedicated to the feature, Senior Vice President of Platform Experience Hideaki Nishino ran through what VRR is, as well as the games that will support it. VRR is a feature that makes games look and feel smoother as long as users have a HDMI 2.1 display that supports it. As noted in this extensive Digital Foundry video, it can cut down on screen tearing, improper frame pacing, and input lag. A batch of 14 PS5 games will also be receiving updates in the near future so they can more fully take advantage of this feature. These games are:

VRR will automatically be turned on if the user’s monitor can accommodate it. However, it can also be switched off for whatever reason in the system’s settings. And even though those games are being updated to support VRR, it can also improve games that aren’t being patched. And that can also be turned off if users run into “unexpected visual effects.”

While this is new for PlayStation owners, Xbox users have had this feature for a long time. Not only do the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S have VRR, but the Xbox One S and Xbox One X have VRR through FreeSync.