Switch 2 won’t support Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) on TVs after all, despite Nintendo previously suggesting it would.
The Mario maker today set the record straight in a comment to Nintendo Life, acknowledging that VRR would only be available when playing Switch 2 in handheld mode.
An earlier, now-removed statement on Nintendo’s website had not made that distinction, and suggested VRR while docked would also be possible.
“Nintendo Switch 2 supports VRR in handheld mode only. The incorrect information was initially published on the Nintendo Switch 2 website, and we apologise for the error,” Nintendo said today.
When Nintendo Life probed further on the possibility that Switch 2 VRR support while docked would be added in a future system update, Nintendo said it had “nothing to announce” at the moment.
Today marks the first time Nintendo has acknowledged this officially, just days after Digital Foundry reported the lack of docked VRR support in its comprehensive Switch 2 final tech specs report just days ago.
“Something that is important to clarify is that as far as Switch 2 developers are concerned, VRR is indeed a function of the internal display only and that there is no support at all right now for VRR over HDMI,” Digital Foundry boss Richard Leadbetter wrote.
“The best theory we have for this is that the dock’s DisplayPort to HDMI converter doesn’t support standard HDMI VRR, but whatever is the cause, we would hope to see Nintendo provide some sort of solution in due course.”
Nintendo is likely to become the “primary partner for third-party game publishers” over the next console generation, a leading analyst firm forecasted yesterday, as reported by Eurogamer, with Switch 2 expected to sell 100m in five years.