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 hit 60 or 120 frames? That’s exactly why VRR was created, variable refresh rate that eliminates stutter and tearing. The technology is already present 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, that information was quickly removed from the website, and on May 16, the company apologized: “Nintendo Switch 2 supports VRR only in handheld mode.”
The Verge: dock supports VRR — and it does so at 4K at 120 Hz
The editors of The Verge did not give up. The journalists connected several other handhelds to the official dock of the Switch 2 — including the Steam Deck, Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS, and ROG Ally X with Bazzite system. And what turned out? VRR works, and perfectly, at 4K and 120 Hz with HDR.
A professional tool called VRRTest was used for the tests — confirming that the image remains smooth with changing frame rates (e.g., between 48 and 60 fps or at 90 fps). The Nintendo console? It completely skips this feature in TV mode.
So where does the problem lie?
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 gaming experience. And yet, the company from Kyoto has not opted to enable this option on the big screen.
Some suggest that Nintendo is simply not satisfied with how VRR performs 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 provided no explanation as to why VRR has been "cut off" in docked mode, even though the dock can handle it. Even competing devices can take advantage of this feature through the official Nintendo dock.
Is it a glitch? An oversight? A conscious decision?
Time will tell — but this is yet another technical mystery surrounding the release of the Switch 2. Earlier, there was confusion with the blocked USB-C port and incompatibility with popular cameras.
And VRR? It's there. It works. Except that not with what it was created for.
