TechGamingGaming ConsolesWhy VRR coming to the PS5 at last is a big deal (and why it has a big problem)It’s another weapon in the battle between resolution and graphical quality – as long as you have a TV that supports itWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
TechGamingGaming ConsolesWhy VRR coming to the PS5 at last is a big deal (and why it has a big problem)It’s another weapon in the battle between resolution and graphical quality – as long as you have a TV that supports itWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
It’s another weapon in the battle between resolution and graphical quality – as long as you have a TV that supports it
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Sonyhas just announced that thePS5 is finally getting VRR (variable refresh rate) support in the coming months– a feature that is literally promoted on thepackaging of the console, but has remained absent so far. (As is 8K support, but we’ll worry about when that’s coming another day…)
I’ve been waiting eagerly for this news, because VRR is an important tool in the battle for getting the best-looking games possible at the best performance, and it means thePS5has been working with one arm tied behind its back, even if you have one of thebest gaming TVs.
This means that whenever the console is ready to send a new frame, the TV is ready to display one – everything is in sync, and so each frame is shown perfectly. But if some huge graphical effect causes the console to drop its frame rate a little, then the console’s fps rate and the TV’s refresh rate go out of sync, and the TV refreshes when the console has only half finished creating a frame, meaning that you get this juddering effect and a split on-screen between two frames.
What VRR does is make the console the boss of the TV’s refresh rate. It tells the TV to only refresh when a new frame is ready, rather than simply refreshing at set intervals, meaning that the two are in sync no matter what happens to the frame rate.
Here’s a video from our VRR explained guide that shows the difference using Nvidia’s version of the tech, G-Sync (the principle is exactly the same, though).
So why does this help in the fight to balance graphical quality and resolution? TakeHorizon Forbidden Westas an example. In that game, you need to choose between a 30fps mode at full 4K resolution, or a 60fps mode with lower native resolution. Because the game has to lock to one of these two frame rates, that dictates how good it can look graphically.
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But perhaps there could be some kind of ‘VRR mode’ in the future, that offers full 4K resolution, but is able to hover the framerate somewhere between these two modes – maybe it varies from 40fps to 50fps, depending on how crazy things are getting on-screen. This would feel much smoother than the 30fps version, but would offer all of its graphical fidelity.
The down side
There is a problem with Sony’s VRR plans, though: there are three ways for TVs to support VRR, and the PS5 only works with one of them.
The PS5 will only work with the HDMI 2.1 VRR format, which means your TV needs to have HDMI 2.1 ports for it to work. These have only been available in fairly high-end TVs, with the price of sets with HDMI 2.1 ports only just starting to come down now. It’s the same story with thebest gaming monitors– HDMI 2.1 support is not very common, and even when it is, it’s in higher-end screens.
What I really wanted to see from the PS5 was AMD FreeSync support, which works with a ton of gaming monitors and cheaper TVs (including almost all of thebest Samsung TVs, even the bargain models). TheXbox Series Xsupports this (yes, Sony is very much playing catch-up with this whole thing, and doing a pretty awkward job of it), and both consoles are based on AMD hardware, so it certainly didn’t seem outside the realm of possibility, but it didn’t happen.
The third way is Nvidia G-Sync, which is also on a ton of monitors, but far fewer TVs – though many of thebest LG TVsdo – but was never really going to happen from the consoles, so that’s no issue.
In any case, the addition of VRR to the PS5 is massively exciting for those who have an HDMI 2.1 TV already, or will be getting one soon. And that will be more and more of us as the newer connectivity keeps trickling down the cheaper models in time to come.
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