PS5 VRR Stuttering Is A Real Issue, You Aren’t Imagining It

Summary: The PS5 is reportedly having a VRR stuttering issue, and it’s popping up in more than a few games. The stuttering doesn’t show up immediately, but once it does, it continues to happen occasionally. It’s also not limited to just the original PS5 model.

The PS5 brought several improvements to the PlayStation platform, including VRR (variable refresh rate) support, but you may have noticed recently that VRR has been having stuttering issues. If you’ve experienced this problem with your console, it turns out you weren’t imagining things. The problem appears to be very real and has been happening to more than a few people.

Now it’s worth mentioning that this problem may not be surfacing for everyone. It’s also possible that your console could be experiencing these stuttering issues and you just haven’t noticed. But they are happening. The downside is that it seems there’s no explanation yet for the cause of the issue. Additionally, Sony doesn’t seem to have acknowledged the issue either.

PS5 VRR stuttering doesn’t happen in every game, or show up right away

According to Digital Foundry, which did some testing on this issue, the stuttering pops in certain games. Not necessarily every single game, though. Digital Foundry showcases that the stuttering shows up in games like Hogwarts Legacy, Elden Ring, The Last of Us Part 2, and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. One of the key factors seems to be whether or not the game supports 120Hz VRR. If it doesn’t, then the stuttering may not surface in that particular game.

The stuttering also doesn’t happen right away. It reportedly takes about 20 minutes for it to begin happening. Once it does pop up, it happens every 8 seconds or so. That doesn’t necessarily mean gameplay is ruined, but that might depend on how sensitive you are to these things, or how much it bothers you. This issue could be a little more impactful in games that are more fast-paced. Such as first-person shooters like Call of Duty.

Though I’m not sure it would take much away from the experience in a game that has slower-paced gameplay and mechanics. All of this really could come down to preference as well.

The issue can happen on the PS5 Pro

According to Digital Foundry’s testing this issue can also pop up on the PS5 Pro. So it isn’t just the original PS5 users who have to look out for this. While Sony hasn’t acknowledged the issue or pushed out a fix for it, there is a sort of workaround. You can simply turn off variable refresh rate in the system settings. This isn’t ideal, but it might be the only option for now. It’s not clear if Sony can fix this with a software update, either. But I wouldn’t rule out the possibility.