A new issue affecting Variable Refresh Rate on Sony’s PlayStation 5 and PS5 Pro has reportedly been discovered, at least in specific titles. According to Digital Foundry, enabling VRR and an unlocked frame rate for these games results in intermittent stuttering.
Occurring every eight seconds or so, it seemingly affects titles like Hogwarts Legacy, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Elden Ring, and more. Titles like God of War Ragnarok, Gran Turismo 7, Immortals of Aveum, and Dragon’s Dogma 2 were unaffected, at least in the 20 to 30 minutes of testing performed.
Digital Foundry tested these games across multiple TV sets and found the same issue. It also discovered that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 doesn’t stutter on Xbox Series X. When switching to a different input, it’s eliminated for some time, though it’s not a permanent fix.
Some comments on the video noted that it may be a rounding error by the consoles. NTSC runs at 119.88Hz, but the consoles could be considering them as running at 120Hz, with that discrepancy causing the stutter. It’s also possibly due to a bug with Sony’s software library that only some developers utilize, leaving other titles unaffected.
Sony hasn’t provided any information on the issue, but stay tuned for more details on potential fixes.