You need your video games to play the smoothest they presumably can — however generally, display know-how will get in the way in which. That’s why among the newest TVs and handhelds function variable refresh fee (VRR) screens that may compensate when your graphics can’t ship a constant 60 or 120 frames per second.
The Nintendo Swap 2 has a VRR display — and initially, Nintendo marketed that the Swap 2 would additionally work together with your VRR-capable TV. However Nintendo quickly scrubbed mentions of docked VRR from its web site, and on Might sixteenth, it apologized. “Nintendo Swap 2 helps VRR in handheld mode solely,” the corporate told Nintendo Life, apologizing for “the wrong data.”
However I’ve simply confirmed that the official Nintendo Swap 2 dock does help VRR — by plugging the Steam Deck into it.
In reality, we discovered a number of rival handhelds can output 4K at 120Hz with each HDR and VRR should you plug them into the Nintendo Swap 2 dock. I noticed the identical with the Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS, and an Asus ROG Ally X with Bazzite, every outputting to my Samsung S90C TV. We acquired the thought from Reddit, where u/DynaMach and others have reported VRR working this manner.
It’s not notably sensible to play a PC handheld through Nintendo’s dock, since you’ll want a female-to-male USB-C extension cable and also you’ll want to repeatedly maintain it in opposition to Nintendo’s spring-loaded platform to maintain it from getting ejected — however I simply so occurred to have a type of cables mendacity round.
And earlier than you ask, sure, I did really check that 4K VRR really works at as much as 120 frames per second — I didn’t simply belief SteamOS’s flag that it was supported. I downloaded the open-source VRRTest tool and messed with numerous settings, simply to test that intermediate framerates between 48fps and 60fps and 90fps all stayed easy on my TV because the framerate fluctuates.
So if the Swap 2 helps VRR, and the dock helps VRR, why does Nintendo not supply VRR show output from the Nintendo Swap 2?
It could be a boon in lots of video games, whether or not we’re speaking about video games like Cyberpunk 2077 that don’t run at 60fps on Swap to start with, and even video games that solely often dip beneath that threshold (say, 55fps) the place that dip at present manifests as a giant stutter in your gameplay.
Personally, I believe it’s potential Nintendo simply doesn’t suppose the Swap 2 is able to put it on the massive display.
Final month, Digital Foundry found “clear problems” even within the Swap 2’s handheld VRR mode, together with judder in Cyberpunk 2077 and No Man’s Sky’s 40fps “efficiency” modes, in addition to Hitman: World of Assassination’s unlocked-but-capped 60fps mode — though Nintendo’s personal Welcome Tour confirmed correct VRR help.
“Clearly the function is in there and dealing, as a result of the Welcome Tour proves it, however the precise implementation in different video games up to now is disappointing,” Digital Foundry’s Wealthy Leadbetter explained on the channel’s podcast.
However should you’re on the lookout for technical the explanation why Nintendo may not move alongside VRR to the official dock, Leadbetter tells me he hasn’t but heard an excellent idea. He does imagine, nevertheless, that Nintendo in all probability made an sincere mistake when it wrote, then apologized for writing, that the Swap 2 would help VRR in TV mode. He doubts that Nintendo axed the function on the final minute.
That is simply the most recent technological weirdness across the Swap 2’s launch, like we noticed when testing the Swap 2’s semi-locked-down USB-C video output and why the best webcams didn’t work.
However as earlier than, Nintendo is staying silent: it didn’t have a remark for our story.