Variable refresh rates

Videogame aficionado John Archer explains why the industry has embraced VRR technology, and why TV manufacturers have struggled to keep the pace

- John Archer

After falling behind the AV tech curve with the original PS4 and Xbox One consoles, the latest games machines and PC graphics cards are back in the business of pushing TVs to their technical limits. None more so than when it comes to a critical gaming feature called variable refresh rates.

Games have actually varied the number of frames per second they output at any given moment, as a way of managing graphics loads, for years. However, TVs traditionally run at locked frame rates of 50/60Hz, or with some premium models, 100/120Hz.

So when they find themselves faced with incoming signals constantly varying refresh rates, pictures succumb to tearing lines running across the screen, and a choppy feeling to the gaming experience.

Enter the latest generation (2.1) of HDMI, which makes it possible for TVs with sufficiently powerful processors and data management capabilities to adjust playback in line with changes in the refresh rate coming from a game source. Bye bye to screen tearing, hello to more responsive and cleaner gaming.

In fact, variable refresh rate (VRR) management is seen as so important to the games industry that two of the its biggest names, AMD and Nvidia, have developed their own proprietary VRR technologies.