Between all the hustle and bustle that was Eskom’s load shedding schedule this past weekend, we found some time to play on the PS5 – and it wasn’t quite the smooth experience we’ve come to expect. After spending roughly 45 minutes with God of War: Ragnarök we began to notice some serious stuttering every few seconds. Not ideal.
We didn’t think much of it at the time. Being hooked up to LG’s fantastic OLED evo 55CS3 and experiencing no issues with the superb Astro Bot, we believed that we were the problem. Before long, we were plunged into darkness which took further investigation out of our hands. Until we opened Reddit.
VRR may be the problem
Many believed that the issue, which has reportedly plagued some gamers for three months now, was the fault of LG, having recently released a massive webOS update in the same period. This is not the case – as users began to report similar technical difficulties on their Samsung, Sony, and even Hisense TVs. A user by the name of u/Fendera raised the issue on Reddit, where they and others have collectively determined the issue at play – the PS5 and PS5 Pro consoles themselves.
Specifically, the console’s VRR (variable refresh rate) capabilities are causing frame-time pacing spikes in very specific games every eight seconds or so. It’s worth mentioning that the issues are confined to a short list of games (in various performance-enhancing modes), and can take anywhere from 5-30 minutes before they ruin your day.
Unfortunately, the list of affected games is only getting longer. Currently, they are:
- The Last of Us Part 1 & Part 2
- Diablo 4 (PS5 Pro 120Hz mode)
- Hogwarts Legacy (HFR Performance Mode)
- Elden Ring (with the PS5’s unsupported VRR setting enabled, despite running at 60Hz)
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance II (Many reports confirm VRR issues in 120Hz mode)
- Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered (Some reports suggest VRR issues, but unconfirmed)
- Horizon Forbidden West (Some users report problems)
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Interestingly, many users report that God of War: Ragnarök was one of the games seemingly unaffected by the VRR bug, though we can confirm that isn’t the case after this weekend. Another user over on ResetEra’s forums, matching our in-game settings on the base PS5 (‘Favour Performance’ and ‘HFR’ on), experienced similar issues, noting that a fix was possible by turning HFR off in-game to lock it to the intentional 60fps.
Short of disabling VRR entirely on your PS5 (Settings > Screen and Video > VRR > Off), there doesn’t seem to be a fix in the works. Temporary measures include turning the VRR settings off and on again until the lag spikes return. You can achieve a similar effect by power cycling your TV, though again, this is not a permanent fix. Sony needs to cough up an update, and quickly. Before Eskom strikes back, at least.
