Katarzyna Petru
Nintendo claims that the Switch 2 supports VRR only in handheld mode. Meanwhile, the editorial team at The Verge has just proven that the dock... definitely supports this feature — just not with the console itself.
Do you want your games to be as smooth as possible, even if they don't consistently hold 60 or 120 frames? That's exactly why VRR was developed, which stands for variable refresh rate, eliminating stutter and tearing. The technology is already in many TVs, laptops, and handhelds — and officially, the Switch 2 has it as well.
Nintendo even promoted for a while that the console would support VRR in TV mode. However, this information was quickly removed from the website, and on May 16, the company apologised: “The Nintendo Switch 2 supports VRR only in handheld mode.”
The Verge: dock supports VRR — and at 4K with 120 Hz
The team at The Verge didn't give up, though. The journalists connected several other handhelds to the official dock for the Switch 2 — including Steam Deck, Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS, and ROG Ally X with Bazzite system. And what did they find out? VRR works, and perfectly, at 4K and 120 Hz with HDR.
For the tests, a professional tool called VRRTest was used — confirming that the image maintains smoothness with changing frame rates (e.g., between 48 and 60 fps or at 90 fps). The Nintendo console? It completely bypasses this feature in TV mode.
So where is the problem?
Since the dock supports VRR, and the Switch 2 console supports it in handheld mode… why hasn’t Nintendo enabled this option in TV mode?
In many games — from Cyberpunk 2077 to Hitman — drops below 60 fps are noticeable. VRR would smooth them out and improve the quality of gameplay. And yet, the company from Kyoto hasn’t opted to launch this option on the big screen.
Some suggest that Nintendo simply isn’t satisfied with how VRR works on the big screen yet. And there may be some truth to this — Digital Foundry reported issues with VRR even in handheld mode: from juddering in No Man’s Sky to stuttering in 40 fps mode in Cyberpunk.
On the other hand — the same Digital Foundry admits that VRR works correctly in Nintendo’s official demo Welcome Tour. So the feature exists. And it works. It’s just… Nintendo isn’t giving us access to it.
Nintendo is silent, technology waits
The Verge editorial team asked Nintendo for a comment. To no avail. The company did not provide any explanation as to why VRR has been "cut off" in docked mode, even though the dock can handle it. Even competing devices can access this feature through Nintendo's official dock.
Time will tell — but this is another technical puzzle accompanying the release of the Switch 2. There was already confusion earlier with the blocked USB-C port and incompatibility with popular cameras.
And VRR? It's there. It works. The only issue is that not with what it was designed for.
