Summary
Some recent testing has confirmed the presence of an unusual, persistent stutter in somePlayStation 5and PlayStation 5 Pro games. This odd phenomenon manifests when the consoles' variable refresh rate (VRR) feature is enabled, and has frustratedPS5players who invested in high-end displays for a smoother gameplay experience.
VRR basically syncs the framerate of a game with the display’s refresh rate, which helps eliminate screen tearing and levels out frame fluctuations. For games that tend to run at unstable framerates, VRR can be majorly conducive to smooth gameplay with little to no stuttering. ThePS5 received VRR supportback in April 2022, which was welcomed by many. However, since the launch of the PS5 Pro late last year, a lot of PS5 players have been reporting a strange stutter occurring every eight seconds when VRR is turned on.
To validate the legitimacy of the reports, Digital Foundry extensivelyinvestigated the VRR stuttering issue and confirmed that it is indeed realand widespread across a variety of PS5 andPS5 Pro games. Affected titles includeElden Ring, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Resident Evil 4, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, andThe Last of Us Part 1andPart 2. The stutter appears consistently at eight-second intervals, making it impossible to ignore once noticed.
PS5 and PS5 Pro Users Facing Stutters Every Eight Seconds When VRR is Enabled
However, games likeDragon’s Dogma 2, Immortals of Aveum, God of War Ragnarok, andGran Turismo 7were unaffected in Digital Foundry’s testing, likely indicating that the VRR stutter issue is game-dependent. Since thisproblem exists on the PS5 Proand vanilla PS5, it’s not an isolated hardware flaw and is almost certainly a software issue. Despite the mounting complaints, though, Sony has yet to issue an official statement or provide a timeline for a potential fix. Until then, the only solution for affected PS5 and PS5 Pro users is to disable VRR from the system settings, which may come at the cost of less stable gameplay.
One can only hope that Sony is aware of the VRR stutter issue on the PS5 and PS5 Pro, and is actively working to rectify it. Games likeElden Ring,Resident Evil 4, andThe Last of Usduo are quite popular on PS5, so the number of affected users is likely substantial. Thankfully, Sony has proved to be cognizant of player feedback in the past, like when itdesigned the PS5 Pro’s heatsink to minimize the risk of liquid metal leakages, a concern that was circulating for the base PS5 a few years ago.
