The final pre-launch specs for the Switch 2 have been revealed, and one ongoing mystery has been answered–the Switch 2 will not support variable refresh rate in docked mode, at least not at launch.
Digital Foundry has released a final look at the Switch 2’s tech specs, including more details on the console’s custom Nvidia processor, and the resources developers will be able to use when making software for the Switch 2. The tech breakdown also confirmed that the Switch 2 will only support VRR in handheld mode, and not while docked.
The question of VRR has been a bit of a mystery for the Switch 2–the console was initially announced as having VRR support in docked mode, as long as it was being used with a VRR-compatible display. The references to VRR were later removed from the Nintendo website, as spotted by Digital Foundry, leaving it unclear whether the console would support VRR.
Variable refresh rate is a standard that was introduced with HDMI 2.1, allowing devices to match the refresh rate of supported displays to prevent stuttering or tearing issues with fluctuating frame rates. VRR has been supported on Xbox for a while now, while PS5 added VRR support over a year after it was released.
Seeing as the Switch 2 was initially announced with docked VRR support, it seems likely that the console will see the feature added at some point–but it won’t be present when the Switch 2 launches on June 5.
