PS5 will support VRR starting this week

Certain PS5 games will be optimized

Sony is readying variable refresh rate (VRR) support on PS5 this week with a system update, and if you’ve been out here waiting for months for any news on this long-requested feature, the time has come. The company shared a tentative list of notable games in a PlayStation Blog article, though you’ll need a TV or monitor with the right setup — in this case, HDMI 2.1 VRR support — to use this “smoother”-feeling setting.

In short, “VRR dynamically syncs the refresh rate of the display to the PS5 console’s graphical output.” It’s been a long time coming; some players wanted it back at launch.

Once the update rolls out in the “next few days,” look for a VRR option in the PS5’s Screen and Video system settings — including a toggle to apply VRR to “unsupported games.”

Speaking generally about VRR, Sony’s senior VP of platform experience, Hideaki Nishino, says that the feature “enhances visual performance for PS5 games by minimizing or eliminating visual artifacts, such as frame pacing issues and screen tearing. Gameplay in many PS5 titles feels smoother as scenes render seamlessly, graphics look crisper, and input lag is reduced.” If I had a nicer, newer television, I’d be stoked. One day!!!

Developers can patch PS5 games for VRR optimization, and in the future, it’s safe to expect at least some games to “include VRR support at launch,” according to Nishino.

For now, though, here’s the list of VRR-supporting games for the “coming weeks.”

These PS5 games will get VRR patches

• Astro’s Playroom
• Call of Duty: Vanguard
• Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
• Destiny 2
• Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition
• DIRT 5
• Godfall
• Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered
• Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• Resident Evil Village
• Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
• Tribes of Midgard

Insomniac is putting in work with Spider-Man and Ratchet & Clank, which I just love to see.

“Because our titles are already built to have very stable frame rates, the main effect of the VRR system setting will be to slightly increase dynamic image resolution targets,” the studio wrote. “However, if your TV also supports 120 Hz high frame rate input and the 120 Hz Display Mode option is active along with VRR, you will get a variable, uncapped frame rate that can exceed your chosen Graphics Mode’s 30 or 60 fps target by 50% or more (depending on gameplay).”

What about the so-called “unsupported” PS5 games? Basically, with the apply-VRR-to-everything option selected, “this feature may improve video quality for some games” even though they weren’t updated to “support” it. With that caveat in mind, Sony says that “if this results in any unexpected visual effects, you can turn off this option at any time.”

Jordan Devore

Jordan is a founding member of Destructoid and poster of seemingly random pictures. They are anything but random.