What Is Variable Refresh Rate and Why Is It Important for Gaming?
In 2020, we’ll see a big leap in video games thanks to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, and TV makers are rolling out new technologies for the occasion. Both TCL and Vizio announced this week that some of their new TVs will support variable refresh rates on PCs and game consoles, which will help games run smoother on your TV. ( LG also added it to some of its high-quality OLED TVs last year.)
Variable refresh rate is a well-known feature among PC gamers as it is a fairly common feature on modern gaming monitors. Since this is new to console players or anyone more interested in TVs, let’s talk a little about what variable refresh rates can do for you.
A PC or game console sends new information to the screen tens to hundreds of times per second. Every time this happens, your machine tells the screen exactly what to show – the position of each person, place, and object – and the screen “draws” it. This still image is called a frame, and the number of times your computer sends images to the screen is called the “frame rate.” TV buffs may be familiar with some of these if you’ve studied motion smoothing .
The variable refresh rate allows the display to match its refresh rate for however many frames it is receiving at any given time. And that’s important for games because, unlike movies and television, video games create each frame of animation on the fly.
Depending on what is happening in the game (or what is not happening), the frame rate of the game can vary greatly: sometimes these fluctuations can cause visual problems such as “screen tearing” when multiple frames of animation appear at the same time; input delay; or issues where your frame rate is actually much higher than your monitor’s maximum refresh rate, or how quickly it displays new frames every second.
Here’s a technical demo that shows the difference between running a game on a PC with and without variable refresh rate technology, also known as “adaptive sync”.
To prevent these issues, console versions of games such as Xbox One, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch run at a constant frame rate, often 30 or 60 frames per second. (Not every game delivers on this promise, both the game itself and the machine.) If these consoles support the adaptive sync found on these TVs, the consoles will be able to run games without these restrictions. Depending on the game, this can lead to smoother and more beautiful animations. For others, it may not mean anything.
There are two competing adaptive sync technologies on the PC, but no TV manufacturer uses either of them. I expect the technology to work widely, and Microsoft has confirmed that the upcoming Xbox Series X will support adaptive sync broadly. Sony hasn’t confirmed that the PlayStation 5 will support variable refresh rates, but given some of the claims it has made about cutting load times, it seems like a natural combination.
On modern machines, Xbox One S and X are compatible with FreeSync displays, a type of PC-based adaptive sync. PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch do not support Adaptive Sync in any way.
While I wouldn’t rush to spend the big bucks on a new TV with adaptive sync, I wouldn’t neglect this feature if you’re going to buy something new over the next year or so – at least if you want the most smooth gameplay that you can get on a future console that supports this technology. You are probably better off buying it first and then getting the best TV you can get, rather than the other way around.